December « 2010 « BusinessInsure Blog

Archive for December, 2010

Office insurance

Friday, December 31st, 2010

If you are searching around for an office insurance quote, you have two simple choices. Do you go for a packaged product, specifically designed for your particular industry or trade, or for a more general product.

The answer is that you should always look for the packaged product. Over many, many years most of the UK based insurers have developed and designed many different products, for different trades from pubs to hotels. One of the packaged ones they have is for offices.

But what exactly do we mean by packaged? All this is, is the usual types of cover you would need for an office. A business insurance company will know that you may need cover for contents, computers, business interruption, legal expenses and of course, liabilities. What they do is design policies that have all these different covers available in sections. You can pick and choose certain sections, such as buildings, but most of the others are included within the standard package price.

A more general policy is one where you, in conjunction with your broker, have to pick and choose every single section, or type of cover. Now, we are not saying that a broker may miss some of these sections. But different insurers have different types of cover they provide. For example, commercial legal expenses is a specialist type of cover. So, you need to make sure that you have a policy that includes this. The chances of a claim are very very low. But, if you do have a claim it is likely to be large, in financial terms.

As with every type of policy, you get what you pay for. What your pay for is financial protection in the event of an unforeseen loss. What you do not want it is that financial protection not to be there if you haven’t managed to buy the right product in the first place.

Speak to a broker, do not risk buying the product direct yourself as you have no come back if you are missing certain sections of cover.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, office insurance, office insurance quote | No Comments »

Getting a business insurance quote and help as well.

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

If you are looking on the internet, it is easy to find hundreds, if not thousands, of sites that allow you to get a business insurance quote. If you use the analogy when purchasing a new car, think of this. Imagine a street with two large car dealers. Both of them have 25 different models of car available. Dealer 1 has one person working the forecourt. You turn up looking for a new car and all they will do is hand you over the keys and let you look at the car and if you ask, you can view the manual as well.

If you aks them about the car you are interested in, their answer is, sorry you must decide yourself. Dealer 2 though, has exactly the same cars and manuals. But, if you ask them for help, they will happily explain everything you need to know about the car from servicing costs, how to adjust the seats to how efficient the car is.

The obvious question is, if the cars are the same price, which dealer would you go to? Dealer 2 of course. Because there is human intervention where they offer to help you decide.

Now turn this back to your insurance. Do you go to a website that just offers to compare business insurance, with no help or advice. Of course you don’t, what you want is a bit of guidance about what is the most suitable product for you. At the end of day, in three months time when your property burns to the ground, you want to have the right cover in place. This is where you need to speak to a business insurance broker. The prices you will get are roughly the same, in fact a broker will usually get you a better price because they physically search the market for you.

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

Boxing Day – is the big thaw here?

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

We are seeing the weather reporters saying that, at last for many, the snow and frost that has been around for weeks and weeks is going to start to thaw. If this is happening then please make sure that you check to see if you have any burst pipes. One of the major causes of losses to business insurance policies is from water damage. A single burst pipe, even if just a partial burst, can cause havoc over a two or three day period.

If you do have a loss when your broker is closed, please check you policy wording to see if there is any emergency claims contact numbers to discuss what steps you should really take.

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Merry Christmas

Saturday, December 25th, 2010

There are no blog posts from businessinsure over the Christmas break. We are back in on the 29th December and will be raring to go. If you need a quote for any type of business or commercial insurance, please call us on 08456 024 589 and leave a message or send an email and we will contact you as soon as possible.

Here is hoping and wishing that everyone has a great day.

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

Entrepreneurial UK in full flow.

Friday, December 24th, 2010

It is Christmas Eve, half past ten in the morning and we are still getting new business insurance enquiries. If you look at some of the press, particularly the left leaning ones, UK plc is in a sorry state. But, those of us in the know, who have jobs that let us see what is happening day in day out, can see that the UK is slowly, very slowly, hauling itself back on an even keel.

We cannot possible lay all the blame on the previous Labour government for the economic stagnation and recession of the past few years. They are responsible for most of it though, if they had only realised that it is the private sector that always has and always will fund the public sector. Yes, we need a public sector to run the country, but you cannot survive without generating work and jobs.

This is slowly happening and we are seeing more and more new business start ups. We have arranged two hairdressers insurance policies, a handful or porperty owners and a few commercial combined covers. UK plc has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, it is just that at times the government has suppressed it’s ability to shine. As we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the big thaw the UK needs, we can see that the private sector is slowly starting to rise to the challenge.

Posted in business insurance, hairdressers insurance | Comments Off

Why you should use a business insurance broker

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Over the last few years we have been inundated by adverts telling us to “cut out the middle man” and go direct. In certain circumstances, there is a benefit to going direct, but you have to know exactly what you want. This tends to only work if you are buying a physical product. When you are looking at financial services, such as insuring your assets and liabilities, a business insurance broker is that person you need to speak to.

But why, what does a broker do for you that you cannot do yourself? The first you need to know is that a broker does not charge you for advising you on the cover you need, nor for actually going out and getting the quotes for you. So whether you think they are adding a benefit or not, there is not cost to you in finding out.

We liken it to looking for a needle in a haystack, on your behalf. You can, if you spend long enough looking around get yourself a quote. But there is no need for you to do this as a broker will look around on your behalf. There are hundreds of different insurers, with only a handful happy to deal with different types of cover, say restaurant insurance, direct.

It is difficult therefore even to find an insurer that does not operate solely through a broker. So why do insurers choose to accept business only through brokerages? The reason is that very, very few insurers actually provide all types of cover. Some will look for pubs and shops and others will look for hotels and oil rigs. A broker knows exactly what a particular insurer wants to underwrite. You approach them with your individual business requirements and before the phone call has even finished they have a pretty good idea of which insurer they will approach.

Posted in business insurance, restaurant insurance | Comments Off

Public liability – pollution cover

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

As we move onwards from 2010, the world, including the UK is more careful about what damage we are doing to the environment. As a business, you need to check exactly what public liability insurance cover you have in place for pollution.

You may not feel that this affects you, but the potential for a large claim is too high for you to risk. So the question is, what cover do you get for pollution?

Pollution does not simply apply to water, you can pollute land and property and still be responsible for this. After many years of dealing with various types of business and commercial insurance, it used to be industrial (chemical) plants and farms that had the largest (cost wise) pollution claims. Nowadays though, even a restaurant can face the potential for polluting waterways.

A claim would fall under your public liability, this is where you can be held liable for any injury, illness, disease or damage to third party persons or property. For a pollution claim to be valid, it has to be something that you do not expect to happen. All types of insurance, in the main, are there to protect you from the financial consequences of something which you didn’t reasonably expect, to happen. It has to be a sudden and unforeseen circumstance’s. If you have a cooker that is leaking oil externally or an effluent pipe that does the same over a period of time, this will not be covered. If you have a sudden burst pipe, say when a vehicle reverses into an external pipe, then this would be covered.

As we always say, you shoul wherever possible take the time to review your insurances, usually by directly speaking to a business insurance broker. Do not rely on an online quote system that does not provide advice. We all know that a picture paints a thousand words, but speaking to someone about a policy rather than wading through this yourself will save you thousands and thousands of seconds!

Posted in commercial insurance | Comments Off

Mobile phones – getting cover under your office insurance policy

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Go around any high street, particularly in the run up to Christmas, and you will see some amazing deals for mobile phones. Not only do you not have to pay for the phone, you can get anything from a games console to a laptop thrown in. Now, we all know that nothing in life is free. So, in the long term you are paying for these “free” products through your monthly direct debit. But, if you are looking to cover these, did you know that you can include them, cheaply, under a standard office insurance policy?

The free product you receive, whether this is a basic phone or an all singing all dancing smart phone, can cost around £500 to replace. Unless you take out the additional, expensive, option of separate cover, you may find yourself seriously out of pocket if your phone is lost, stolen or damaged.

So, what exactly should you do to add this to you business insurance policy? The first thing to do is to contact your provider and ask them what the replacement cost is for the phone you have. Then, ask them if you have to purchase from them. It may be that they will offer a replacement SIM card and you can then buy a new phone directly.

Usually though, you will find that you have to get the phones directly from the provider for the period of your contract agreement. Usually this is in excess of 12 months. Having worked in the industry for a number of years, portable equipment has a severe problem with going missing, being broken or being stolen.

Most businesses will have more than one phone. When you add up the replacement cost of a handful of phones, this can be many thousands of pounds. You then need to decide whether you need cover anywhere in the UK, EU or Worldwide. The further afield you take the equipment, understandably the more expensive it is to insure.

If you have an office or business insurance policy in force at the moment, phone up your broker to find out exactly what sort of cost saving you could make on this expenditure.

Posted in business insurance, office insurance | Comments Off

Business insurance – quarter renewal days.

Monday, December 20th, 2010

Many years ago, business insurance companies looked for the best way of dealing with renewals, at the lowest administration costs. Around the 1970’s they started to concentrate on certain portions of their business falling due for renewal on the same day.

Therefore, whenever you took out an insurance policy, it would run until one of these “set” renewal dates. Your policy would run for usually a period in excess of 12 months, the first time you took this out. This usually applied to business that was arranged as part of a scheme. If you had a farm, motor trade or other industrial category policy, then you would normally deal through a commercial insurance broker that had a particular scheme set up with an insurer. This was to give you better prices and cover.

The renewal dates that they worked to, where called quarter days. Basically, this was the first day of each new financial quarter, 1st Jan, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October.

This meant that both the insurer and the broker could concentrate their resources on these 4 main days and not have to deal with renewals for the other 361. This practice has fallen by the side in recent years and only certain industries, such as farming have a lot of their renewals due on 1st January. The main reason for this remaining with farming, is because this is when the farmers have a bit more cash available. They have been through a whole farming cycle and sold all of their summer crops.

Nowadays, if you are looking for a quote for a policy due on the 1st January 2011, you may struggle to find a broker that is open. Businessinsure are one of those, we are only closing for the official Bank Holidays. If you are desperately looking for cover, give us a call or an email and see what we can do for you.

Posted in business insurance broker, commercial combined insurance, commercial insurance, commercial insurance quote, commercial insurance quotes | Comments Off

Slips, trips, falls and injury in a company car park.

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

We have blogged before about this very topical subject. It is worth mentioning again though, how responsible you can be held.

It is minus a few degrees outside my house and we have a few inches of snow again last night. If I decide to leave the snow, it obviously causes problems for anyone leaving or entering the house. So, I decide to remove the snow and as a result this makes parts of the path to my front door slippery. If the post lady comes along and slips on one of these patches of ice, can I be held responsible?

The same question applies to a business for any visitors, whether expected or not. If your business has a car park, for which you are legally responsible, then you can be held liable in three different scenarios.

You will only be legally responsible if you own the building and any land, or you have a full insuring and repairing lease.

The three different scenarios are:-

1) Injury to your employees, coming to and from work.

2) Injury to expected and un-expected visitors.

3) Damage to third party property, ie someones car.

We cannot stress enough, that for you to be held liable under property owners, or public liability insurance, that you need to be proven negligent. If the snow fell two minutes ago and a visitor slipped, then you cannot possible be negligent. The third party will have to prove that you were fully aware of how dangerous the car park was and that you simple did nothing about this. You have to be expected to clean snow (to allow access) within a reasonable timescale.

This does not mean that you have to have someone stationed in the car park clearing every flake as it lands.

Going back to my house, I can only be held liable if it can be proven that I have deliberately made the path slippery, for example by pouring on cold water with the intention of it freezing. It is a hazard of the job that a delivery person may slip, it is not always the homeowners fault.

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