Archive for August, 2010

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Restaurant insurance – outside catering

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

With every type of business insurance, you should always ensure that all of your business activities are adequately covered by your policy. This may seem fairly obvious, but certain insurers can use the small print in the policy wording to deny liability for a claim because they were not aware that you were doing a certain type of work.

Insurers do of course allow there to be a certain amount of leeway, for example they accept that in a public house there will possible be live music, the odd band or maybe other entertainment. What they will need to know is if you have, for example, a disco every Friday night, where people pay to get in and you are open til 3 am on Saturday.

As far as restaurant insurance is concerned, they accept that you may have private functions and possible undertake him deliveries. But, if you undertake outside catering, this is something that insurers should be advised of, and your policy documents should note this.

Outside catering presents increased risks for the business, on both the liabilities and the damage to property front. Depending on the amount of time that you undertake for this activity they may wish to apply certain terms and conditions or alternatively charge a higher premium.

If you hire in waiting and serving staff, this increases the employers liability insurance risk. You have staff that you may not be used to working with, may not be fully trained and they are working in a strange and possible busy environment. As far as the property risks are concerned, you have the increased chance of damage being caused for your equipment, maybe portable heating equipment and furniture.

Most insurers are reasonable about this and will simply endorse the policy to note this without charge or amending the policy. Others however (usually the ones that quote the cheapest premiums at the outset) will try an recoup some of their money by charging you for the changes to the policy. If the charges seem unreasonable, then challenge them and see whether they can be removed or reduced.

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Commercial property insurance – temporary unoccupany

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

If you have a commercial building insurance policy in force, the premium and cover will be based on a number of factors. One of these is the type of occupancy. As you can imagine, a building that is occupied as a fish and chip shop or woodworker is going to present a higher risk of fire loss than an office.

Insurers will either charge a higher premium, to reflect the increased risk, or apply terms (such as having all dirt and grease removed from takeaway ducting every month).

When a tenant leaves a property there is usually going to be a gap between when one business is trading and the next one starts. This can either be whilst you are awaiting new tenants or whilst there is a shop re-fit undertaken. You could be faced with months and months when the building is empty, given the tough economic times. There are estimates that 15% of the existing Woolworths store premises are still empty, nearly two years after the companies demise.

Your policy wording, as with all business insurance, will have certain terms, conditions and excesses. One of the conditions will relate to what happens to the cover when a building is empty for 30 days or more. Usually, if aa building is empty, un-tenanted or vacant for more than a month, there are fairly onerous cover restrictions.

You will find that your glass, storm, burst pipes or theft cover is excluded. The reason is that insurers, from experience, suffer more losses on unoccupied properties than they do tenanted ones.

You need to check your policy wording to see what terms apply if your building is going to be empty for any length of time.

Posted in business insurance, commercial property insurance, commercial property insurance quote, commercial property owners insurance | Comments Off

Restaurant insurance – getting the best cover

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

After having been through a tough recession, you would think that most businesses will be charging less for their services and products. However, you may be surprised to find your business insurance renewal premium is going up in 2010.

Insurers are facing an increasing number of claims from all types of cause and with personal injury claims, the settlement costs are increasing way in excess of inflation.

What this means in reality, is that they are realising that the prices they charge for your cover, depending on the type of trade, are not at an economic level. One of the products that have traditionally been under priced is restaurant insurance. Because there are so many restaurants in the UK, there has always been a new insurer that thinks they can move into this market, pick up lots of business and make money.

But, to move into this competitive market the one key selling point has always been price. Whilst insurers have always said that the product is more important than the price, they know full well that no-one is going to pay more than 5 or 6 % to get better cover.

So if you are looking for an alternative, because your premium has gone up, be very careful to ensure that you are getting like for like, if not better, cover. It is very important that you do not suddenly find that the premium saving of 10% you made is completely wiped out because you have a loss that is not covered.

The best way to ensure that you not only get a competitive price but decent cover, is to speak to a business insurance broker. A broker will search the market on your behalf and in many cases can get better deals than you could by going direct. You also have the benefit of one contact point, in respect of premium payment, cover changes and importantly, when you have a claim and want it settled as soon as possible.

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Business insurance – transfer mandates

Friday, August 27th, 2010

If you have a business insurance renewal that is due, and you are doing the sensible thing and looking around for alternative quotes, you may find there are a few different options available to you.

If you are paying over a few thousand pounds a year, it may be that an alternative broker cannot get a reduced price on your existing insurers renewal. Or, more importantly they cannot get you better cover.

However, the broker may offer you a better price option, by continuing to keep the policy going with your existing commercial insurance company, but with you changing the broker you deal with.

Most brokers earn a commission from the premium you pay. For example, if you premium is £3,000 plus 5% insurance premium tax, the broker will earn around 20% of the £3,000. As with all types of financial service, getting new customers is five times more expensive than keeping an existing one. So, the new broker can afford to reduce their commission a bit, to get you as a new customer.

In these situations, they will ask you to complete a “transfer mandate”. This is a letter, which you must complete on your own letterhead, prior to the expiry of your existing policy. It effectively says that you are happy for Broker B to deal with your insurances, compared to Broker A who used to do this.

You do need to check that you get exactly the same terms and conditions and importantly payment method. There is no point in moving from one broker that allows interest free instalments to another one that charges 5%. It can be a good way to save yourself 5 or 10% of your annual insurance costs.

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Salon insurance – hairdressers treatment indemnity cover

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Under nearly all types of business insurance policy, you will get a variety of covers usually included in a “package” policy. A package is simply a single document that includes different types of cover, whether this is for liabilities, property, stock, buildings, money or something else.

One of the main types of liability is public, your responsibility as a business or an individual to members of the public that you may cause injury, illness, disease or damage to.

Under most salon insurance policies, whether for hairdressers, barbers or beauticians, you will usually have cover for the treatment risk. A standard public liability policy wording will usually have, in the depths of the wording, an exclusion relating to the treatment, and the associated risks, of customers.

Under a salon policy, this cover is brought back in, by means of a specific endorsement. This will be heading something along the lines of hairdressers treatment indemnity or treatment extension. The limit of indemnity is normally lower than that provided under the public liability insurance.

You should make sure of two things. Firstly, that you have a suitable amount of cover. If a hairdresser burns someones scalp and they then choose to go to a no win, no fee solicitor, with the solicitors fees and costs for pain and suffering, you could quite easily be looking at the thick end of £50,000.

Secondly, makes sure that your insurer is fully aware of all types of treatment that you undertake. Hairdressing and beauty is fine, but as soon as you start to get involved with invasive treatments, such as vein removal or injections, such as Botox, make sure that your insurance company is providing you the cover for every type of treatment you may undertake.

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Cheap restaurant insurance

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

2010 will go down in history as one of the toughest economic years the UK has ever seen. Every single part of the business community is suffering financial blow after financial blow, and for restaurateurs, the latest one is when their restaurant insurance renewal bill arrives.

You may find that you have been happily paying £500 or £600 for a few years and then this year, the premium has started to jump. Not in small single digit amounts, but increases of 10, 20 and even 30% are being seen across the market. The reason for the substantial increases is because most commercial insurance companies that provide this cover are increasing their minimum premiums.

Most minimum premiums for restaurants, pubs and takeaways used to be around the £500 mark. Some insurers have now increased their minimums to £1,000 plus insurance premium tax, which gives a whopping £1,050 per year.

The good news, apart from the fact that we are now starting to see the green shoots (very small) of recovery is that there are other insurers who are not being quite so over-zealous with their increases.

Whilst all insurers are trying to charge what they call the “market price”, which is simply the correct price for the risk, some are more realistic than others. You can, if you look around enough, get yourself a decent price without reducing any cover.

The secret, if it is one, is to speak to an independent business insurance broker. Go on the net, stick in the search terms most suited to your cover, and find a few companies that represent, or have agencies with, more than one underwriter. If they just work for one single company then all they can do is offer you one price. If they can go to many different insurers, then you will get the choice that you need.

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Public liability insurance £10,000,000 limit of indemnity

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

In the UK, most business insurance policies will include public liability at a limit of indemnity of £2,000,000.

Depending on your trade, you may be able to get cover with a reduced limit of £1m, but the norm is to get cover for £2m. You may find though, that if you are working (providing services to) for, or providing products to, another company or public sector body, that they insist on you having an increased level of cover. Usually, you will find this out as you have to complete a form which provides details of your insurance cover.

The increase is usually from £2m straight up to £5m. Nearly all UK insurers will provide this cover, at an increased premium. It is becoming more and more prevalent nowadays for companies to insist on you having an increased level up to £10,000,000. You may well wonder whether you can possible cause damage or injury that will cost this much, but this is irrelevant. The contract will state you need this cover and unless you can prove you have it, the contract will not proceed.

Although the potential of a loss of this magnitude is very, very low, insurers cannot always take the chance that they could be faced with this potential loss. Therefore, most public liability insurance policies from a single insurer will be limited to £5m. So what can you do if you need the £10m?

What happens in these cases is that your insurance broker will approach another insurer to get what is called an “excess of loss” layer. In simple terms, insurer a gives you cover for the first five and then insurer b provides the additional five, which adds up to the ten that you require.

As the potential for insurer b to have a loss is vastly reduced, because there has to be a loss of over £5,000,000 for them to suffer, then the prices for this excess layer are fairly low. As long as you are not doing anything very high risk or working in a high risk environment (ie nuclear power plants) then the annual premium should only be around £550.

Posted in business insurance, excess of loss, public liability insurance | Comments Off

Fraud – you won't get away with it

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

A good story from Talk Talk http://tinyurl.com/399zpbr about another off sick fraud. Of course the costs of taking this case to court, by Newham Council, will not be recovered but it is the PR that counts. How many other people involved in similar fraud (using taxpayers cash) will twice about continuing? Hopefully some of them and this in turn will make the money spent taking this case to court worthwhile.

We are receiving feedback from most commercial insurance companies that fraud is on the increase. What frustrates us is that insurance fraud is seen as accepted. But, this is slowly (and boy do insurers move slow) changing. Insurers are suffering financial pains and are starting to tighten their belts a bit. Part of this is reviewing the amounts claimed.

Don’t be surprised if your next business insurance claim is scrutinised heavily. The insurers are just doing this to protect the innocent policyholders so please don’t begrudge them.

Posted in commercial insurance | No Comments »

Fraud – you won’t get away with it

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

A good story from Talk Talk http://tinyurl.com/399zpbr about another off sick fraud. Of course the costs of taking this case to court, by Newham Council, will not be recovered but it is the PR that counts. How many other people involved in similar fraud (using taxpayers cash) will twice about continuing? Hopefully some of them and this in turn will make the money spent taking this case to court worthwhile.

We are receiving feedback from most commercial insurance companies that fraud is on the increase. What frustrates us is that insurance fraud is seen as accepted. But, this is slowly (and boy do insurers move slow) changing. Insurers are suffering financial pains and are starting to tighten their belts a bit. Part of this is reviewing the amounts claimed.

Don’t be surprised if your next business insurance claim is scrutinised heavily. The insurers are just doing this to protect the innocent policyholders so please don’t begrudge them.

Posted in commercial insurance | No Comments »

One stop shop insurance

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

In 2010 everyone wants this quicker, better and cheaper and for retailers, this includes their shop insurance. You may have seen in the press over the past few years talk of premiums increasing as insurers struggle to cope with the recession.

The problem with this is that most of them continue to operate a dual pricing process. They are looking to gain single digit percentage increases on most renewals, but for new business they are prepared to pull out all the stops.

If you currently have any form of business insurance, when your renewal offer comes through from your existing broker or insurer (if you deal direct), you will find, in the majority of cases, that there are increases being applied. Times have been tough, and continue to be, for nearly every single type of business. With the planned central and local government cuts, which we have all been expecting, things are not likely to get any easier as UK plc tries to pay down it’s debt mountain.

So, what do you do if you are a retailer who has had no claims and you suddenly find your £600 policy is now up at £700 or £800? The answer is simple, get yourself a different quote. You need to speak to an independent business insurance broker who offers a one stop service. You don’t need to go to a comparison site, which then passes you through to an intermediary which then provides you with a quote. Go to one company that can offer everything, in particular a personal, quick and efficient service in the event of a loss.

Brokers are there to serve you, their relationship is with you the customer and they are legally bound to offer you the best product at the best price, that they have available. Therefore, unless you speak to an independent who can trawl the market for you, you are only going to get one quote. Brokers have a number of providers for most types of products, so they can try two, three or four insurers to offer you the best deal.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, shop insurance | Comments Off

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