Every commercial building insurance policy is designed to pay out on events that were not expected. It may seem simple, but this is really the crux of a policy. You are swapping some money, every year, in return for someone elese agreeing to shoulder the risk when damage is caused.

You cannot, in most cases, insure for things that you could reasonably expect to happen. I could not go to Lloyds of London and ask to buy a policy that pays out on me reaching my (next) 43rd birthday. Whilst there is unfortunately a very, very small chance that it will not happen, the overwhelming chance is that it will occur. So, no-one is going to want to lose money by paying out (more than the premium) on an event that is more than likely to happen.

The same can be said of commercial building and business insurance. You cannot buy a policy for an event that you know will occur. If you have a claim against your building policy for storm damage, then this must occur because of the storm.

If you have guttering or tiling on your roof that is in poor condition and obviously needs some repairs and maintenance, then you really cannot expect a policy to pay out for damage. If you had maintained the building better, then a storm would only cause damage if it was quite severe. However, if you have a gutter that has been hanging off for years and then a light gust of wind blows it onto your neighbours greenhouse, should your insurers pay out?

How does your commercial building insurance change, when you have only part of the premises unoccupied? As we begin to exit the terrible recession that 2009 represented, many commercial landlords are starting to, at last, see occupancy rates on the increase.

Many properties are either are retail or commercial on the ground floor with some residential above. Most of the properties with flats have seen occupancy fairly steady. Of course, landlords have had to reduce, or keep their rents unchanged.

But, many are now still trying to get their commercial portions let and it may be that you have a few commercial units, some of which are empty and some are occupied. You will, if you have business insurance, have this arranged on a property owners policy. This will cover the bricks and mortar, fixed glass, loss of rental income and property owners liability.

It depends on who are your underwriters for the cover, but in the main most policies will restrict the cover for the unoccupied portions of the property whilst empty. It is not only the restrictions you need to look out for, but also the terms and conditions that apply.

For example, after 30, 45 or 60 days, most policies will restrict the cover to fire, lightning, explosion, aircraft and property owners liability. This is normal for most insurers. But, certain ones will have un-occupancy conditions, which may or may not include any of the following:-

1) The need to turn off all services and drain down water systems (even if you do not have cover for burst pipes).

2) Letter boxes to be sealed up.

3) Weekly visits to be made, with a log recorded of each and every visit.

4) Ground floor windows to be boarded up.

Most of these conditions, apart from the letter box one, are fairly strict and wil cost you time and money. Other insurers are more flexible, depending on how long they are likely to empty for.