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Archive for October, 2010

Business insurance quotes – how many?

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

When you are looking for business insurance quotes, either for the first time or at renewal, the question you will ask yourself is, how many quotes should I get?

The answer depends on a number of factors, the main one being, exactly how much time do you have to spare? You have a couple of options when looking. You can either choose to go direct to an insurer, an appointed representative broker that only provides quotes from one insurer. Or, you can go direct to an independent business insurance broker who will search the market for you. When we put it like that, it seems obvious that you should always search out the broker.

And of course this is true. Direct insurers spend an absolute fortune on advertising, their aim being to make you think that you only need to make one visit, to them, to get the best price and the best cover. However, in reality, this is not really giving you the best view of the market at any one time.

What you need to do, is whoever you speak to, ask them whether they are independent and have the ability to source quotes from more than one insurer or underwriter. If the answer is one, then your choice is limited. A broker may say that they have the option, for example, with restaurant insurance, to go to half a dozen different companies. This helps you because although you are going to only one company, you are effectively getting the best choice from a number of companies.

Brokers will not charge you for looking, they will take time to get from you, your demands and needs, as far as insurance is concerned. They will then use this information to trawl the market. Depending on what you do, this does not necessarily mean that it is going to be a lengthy task. Speak to most brokers at 9am and by lunchtime, you could have a quote emailed through to you. This is longer than it usually takes, if you need something quick, most brokers can get the quote, email it, go on cover and then send you the policy documents all within half an hour.

You can if you wish, go to more than one broker. Don’t always accept that what broker A can provide you is the best, but think carefully about the very cheap quote, usually they are only cheap for one reason and that is because there are gaps in the cover.

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Pub insurance – loss of licence cover

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Most pub insurance policies nowadays are packaged products, made up of the main types of cover you will, or may, need. Some of these are included as standard, and removing them from the policy has no effect on the premium payable.

One of these additional covers is loss of licence, but what exactly does this mean? Any establishment that sells alcohol effectively needs to authorised, or allowed, to do this. The local authority for where the business is based, will have a licensing committee, whose role it is to allow, or approve, a premises to be able to sell “intoxicating liquor”. It is not the premises that receives the licence, but an individual associated with the business.

So, there are two things that the committee takes into account. The suitability of the person and the suitability of the premises (ie where is it, what hours do they open, has the premises had trouble in the past etc).

In reality, it is a rubber stamping exercise and most licences are annually renewable. But, if the premises does not get it’s licence renewed, then the business will, usually, suffer a loss in profits. Without the licence, they cannot serve alcohol and this will usually mean less customers, or potential closure.

Business insurance policies will have loss of licence cover, usually for £50,000, £100,000 or £250,000. If the premises becomes un-licensed, a potential claim could be made.

But, and it really is a big but, this has to be something that is outwith the control of the person who has the licence. If you have had rowdy behaviour and police have requested remedial action, which has not been taken, this is within your control and your claim is not valid.

It is really important that you always read the policy wording. For loss of licence, this will only be a couple of pages, but you should make yourself aware of the exclusions that apply.

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Shop insurance – pavement seating.

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

Although we do not share the same weather as our continental cousins, in the UK many, many food establishments now have some form of external, or pavement seating. Even though it may only be a few seats, this does represent something that should be notified to your shop insurance company.

Any retail business that has a valid policy in force, will have a combination of covers. One of these will be public liability. This is essentially your responsibility, as a business, for injury, illness, disease and/or damage to third party persons or property.

For example if someone is walking along the pavement and they trip over a chair, table, A frame or some other item of furniture, there is a chance that you could face a claim. Whilst it may not seem obvious, you need to check on two things.

Firstly, you need to speak to the local authority (if it is on a pavement or similar) or the shopping centre owners, if applicable, and to ask what is the minimum limit of indemnity they need you to have in place. Many local authorities are now insisting on a limit of £5,000,000, up from the usual £2,000,000.

Secondly, you need to ensure that your business insurance policy notes that you are covered for external seating. Any additional risk factor presented by your business should be notified to them. They may not necessarily charge any extra, but at the end of the day you are better to let them know in the event that any claim is covered.

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Commercial building insurance – the importance of maintaining your property.

Monday, October 4th, 2010

Anyone who owns, and has in force commercial property insurance, needs to ensure that at least once a year they sit down and read through their insurance policy and schedule.

The schedule is the document that gives the specifics about your building, ie sum insured, address, construction and location. The policy wording is the generic insurance policy that your insurers use for the particular type of cover you have. You coudl read through all of the commercial insurance policies in existence and they will all contain one particular clause, condition or warranty. This is, that you must adeautely maintain your building and undertake all repairs that are necessary.

If you do not maintain the building, and for example, the roof leaks, you could potentially find yourself without a claim being settled. Insurers are becoming more and more ruthless. This is not to say that they are turning down claims without cause, but they are trying to prevent the honest policyholders who have policies in force to protect the unforseeen circumstances, having to pay for those who expect insurance to pay out on every single claim they may make.

If necessary, you need to get a roofing contractor in on a regular basis to check that your flat, tiled or pitched roof is in good condition. If the insurers can prove that the roof was in poor condition, and therefore the loss was not really unforeseen, then you could be financially out of pocket.

Posted in commercial building insurance, commercial insurance, commercial property insurance, commercial property owners insurance | Comments Off

Commercial insurance quotes – too much choice?

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Given the past few years that we have had to endure in UK plc, every business has had to cut costs to the bone as survival has been a real issue for many. One area of expenditure that everyone has been led to believe can be cut is when you are looking for commercial insurance quotes. Switch on the TV, use the Internet or read the paper and you are bombarded with messages saying that XYZ company can save you money.

So, you quite rightly decide that you will spend a bit of spare time looking for some alternatives. If you have been in business for a number of years, you may remember (not with the fondest of memories) the lengthy process you went through to get a quote. The quickest you could get would be by faxing information backwards and forwards, but most of the time it was personal visits and documents sent in the post. Fast froward to 2010, and if you take a dip into the net, you will be bombarded with so much choice, your head will spin.

So, in all seriousness, what can you do to make this process easier, quicker and less confusing. The answer to this quandary is to speak to a business insurance broker. Don’ t choose the first company you come to on the net, they have spent a lot of money to get to that position, but it does not necessarily mean that they are the best. Find one on the list that is an independent broker. This means that they have more than one company they can approach to get you a quote and are not tied down to particular insurers.

Ask them, over the phone, whether they will approach more than one company. If they do, this can be the answer to your problem of too much choice. Let someone else do the choosing for you! You still are the decision maker at the end of the day, but at least you have saved a lot of time.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, commercial insurance quote, commercial insurance quotes | No Comments »

Professional indemnity insurance – in isolation.

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

When business insurance companies talk about covers “in isolation” all this actually means is that there is a different, or separate, policy for this particular type of cover.

If you think about any policy, such as for a car, it is really a collection of different types of cover, under one policy. You will get windscreen, third party liability, asset damage (ie to your own car), personal effects (in the car) and possibly legal expenses.

Insurers will have policies for all types of trade based on a similar principle, they will have one overall policy, but within it there are different types of cover. However, in certain cases, for more specialist cover it is usually better, cover and cost wise, to get a separate policy.

One of these covers is professional indemnity insurance. This has always been a more specialist area and there are very few insurers that offer this cover as part of a package. You may have a form of package from a broker, but when you look into the deepest, darkest depths of the policy wording you will see that the PI insurance is provided by a different insurer.

But how do you know this is giving you the best deal? Quite simply, you don’t. Any broker is not legally obliged to offer you the cheapest products, the sensible reason being, that the cheapest product is very rarely the best.

For professional indemnity, you really do need to speak to a specialist to see what the market, at that particular time, has to offer you.

Posted in business insurance, professional indemnity insurance, professional indemnity insurance quote | Comments Off

Small business insurance – expected costs?

Friday, October 1st, 2010

If you look across the corporate history landscape, you will see hundreds of huge companies, many of which are household brands. A significant percentage of these started life as single outlet retailers or businesses from home. Through perseverance they have all grown and grown.

If you are thinking of starting the “next big thing” in business, you will need to consider getting yourself a small business insurance policy. Why do we say small? For the reasons noted above, at the end of the day, the tighter the ship you start with, the more likely you are to survive your first few years trading.

So, by definition it is likely that your business will be small. There is no industry standard definition of what is small, or medium or large. The commercial insurance companies in the UK have recognised though that there needs to a different approach to the different sizes of business.

Most of them therefore, have different policies for the smaller venture. You can either get a certain small business specific policy, or if you are trading from home, a business from home policy.

The two things you need to consider are firstly that you need cover and secondly, that to get this you speak to a specialist broker, such as Businessinsure. We will help guide you through the maze of what cover you need and how to get the best price.

Posted in commercial insurance, small business insurance, small business insurance quote | Comments Off