Most businesses involved in the supply of goods from a commercial premises will usually be provided with a wholesalers insurance policy. Depending on what type of trade you are involved in, there is usually a policy that has had slight tweaks to make it suitable for you. The tweaks are in the form of not only rating (the premium charged) but also the terms, conditions, cover extensions, warranties and excesses.
For example, if you have a salon insurance policy, then you will be looking for a cover extension to protect you in case a patron claims you have injured them. If someone has slipped on some water on the floor, this falls under standard public liability. But, injury (eg through using a hair treatment) needs a specific extension.
As far as wholesalers are concerned, one of the biggest risks to the business is a break in or theft, with stock being stolen. Now, this will affect every business, but a wholesale business without easy access to stock, is like the proverbial chocolate fireguard.
So, you buy a policy to protect you against your stock being stolen. You will find that depending on three main factors, location, theft attractiveness of stock and amount of stock, the insurers will define certain minimum levels of security.
These minimum levels are a condition of the policy. I know this is re-iteration, but, if you do not comply with the security, then as you have not complied with a condition, cover is not in force.
This can be as simple as not having a key operated window lock or in more complex cases, not having an intruder alarm that is monitored to BT Redcare GSM standard. Now we come to roller shutter doors. Not being a thief myself, I would have thought that a roller shutter door is pretty difficult to get into. I used to work in a bakers for my Saturday job, many many moons ago. We had a heavy duty roller shutter door, manually controlled, with a chain from the inside, which was imply secured in place. Nowadays though, this would not be sufficient for most business insurance policies. What they are looking for, is the roller shutter doors to be secured either by two heavy duty padlocks or a metal, welded, lockable box housing the electric controls.
Why is this? Because, the thieves of today will turn up with crow bar (a big one) to lift the bottom of the door. With enough pressure, you can very quickly lift the middle of the door, roll under and Bob’s your uncle, your in.
The amount of insurers surveys we see, where they come back with requirements to make roller shutter doors mores secure, is growing. Theft rates have increased in the pas few years. Please check what security you need to have, to make sure your policy is one that does not pay out for non-compliance.