If you are looking to buy a building for £200,000 and are putting down 20%, then the bank or finance house will be lending, give or take £160,000. They want insurance in place not just for this amount, but for the full rebuilding cost.

Given how badly the banks have behaved over the past ten years, they are now even more particular about making sure that any asset you purchase, that they are lending money for, is insured correctly.

Usually, purchases take place on a Friday. It has always been the traditional day to move house, purely because of it’s proximity to the weekend. This is the day when we find the most policies are sold, usually at the last minute. If it is a business purchase, then it is not always clear what insurance cover the bank needs, they are not renowned for letting you know early. We normally get calls from customers early on a Friday saying not only do they need cover, but they need to prove it is in force and have the banks financial interest noted.

In reality, how easy is it to get unoccupied building insurance, in an instant? To tell the truth, it has never been easier. BIB had a call last night, after 5pm from an existing customer who had just found out they were to exchange and complete on the same day. To do this, they had to ensure the bank had in their possession policy documents, as noted above, before a penny would be transferred.

The good thing is, that with the internet we were able to get a quote, £850 for an empty residential house at a sum insured of £450,000, go on cover and email the whole policy document in pdf format, within 15 minutes. The fall out of course is that they have to pay for it, but their business account manager will have this document sitting in their in box for 9am. Think back 10 years and this would not have been possible.

If you are stuck and need cover quick, call us and we’ll do our level best to help you. As an independent business insurance broker, we have access to many different markets to get you the best price possible.

But, for your common or garden package policy for contents, stock, glass etc, what is a reasonable excess? The reason we are talking about this is that there are many insurers that are not only increasing their premiums, but also their excesses as well. Where we would have seen an excess of £250 some renewals are coming through with £500 excesses which are way too excessive. When we get these, we look around for alternatives and so should you.

A sensible and reasonable excess would be £200 to £250 for property damage, ie contents, stock and commercial building insurance. Glass claims should have a lower excess in the region of £100-£250.

When you get your renewal, you need to look very carefully as we are finding some insurers, not all, are releasing renewals with additional excesses noted in the “small print” and certain brokers are not advising clients of this.

If you have had an excessive increase to your excess, please call us to discuss and we will see what we can do to help you.

We tend to find that the prices charged are not that competitive compared to an open market quote. I am sure that there are reasons for this, but still struggle to see why it is more expensive to insure in this way. If a brewery goes to one insurer with an estate of 100’s or dozens of pubs, then you would be able to get a good deal.

We can, however, in most cases get better prices for individual pubs than they get on their block policy. Someone, somewhere along the line is earning out of this and it is the publican that has to pay.

But, you can, if you have a sensible landlord, agree to get your own policy but have their financial interest noted. You just get a standard pub insurance policy and add the buildings to it. The insurers, of your policy, then note the beneficial owner of the building is XYZ Limited. This means that if there is a loss, then the insurers know that the payment does not necessarily go to the publican (you) as you do not have a financial interest in the building. This way the landlord is protected because their asset is insured and hopefully you have a much more competitive premium to pay.

The only concern for the landlord is that you may cancel the policy and not tell them. Then if there is a claim, they do not get paid. But, their interest can be noted and they can be told of any default immediately and they will be given notice, say 14 days, to either pay the shortfall in premium or to arrange their own cover.

As ever, speak to a business insurance broker, that is independent, and they can sort this out for you.

If the insurers know, from experience, that they can make money from a particular type of risk (say, fish and chip shops) then they will do three things. Firstly, they will design specific products to suit the industry. Secondly, they will market these products and thirdly, they will price accordingly.

I have done a few different marketing exams in the past as part of my professional qualifications. You can tell that they are not written by people in the real world, because they say that targeting niche areas is the key. This is absolute tosh. In 2011, there is very little marketing that anyone can do, that cannot be immediately replicated by A N Other.

This is where commercial property insurance comes into play. You cannot get yourself a niche product, because everyone wants a piece of the action. All insurers want commercial property business, because, over the years it makes them money. There is enough of it about that they can get in some significant premiums to cover the losses. As a result, they price to get the business, which means cheap.

Over the past few years though, they have been going beyond the profitability line. We have seen two harsh winters, this means lots of burst pipes, collapsed gutters and other cold induced damage to property. So they are not making as much as they thought, and are losing out. How do they rectify this? By increasing prices. If you find that you have a commercial or business property insurance renewal that has gone up a bit too much, give us a call to see what we can do for you.

Cold snap seems such a lightweight phrase, given we are now sitting at -15 in Scotland and most of the UK is likely to spend the next day or so at sub zero temperatures. But, whatever we call it, is dangerous out there. As buildings start to heat up, this causes the snow to melt on roofs (only slightly) and as the water follows it’s gravitational force downwards, icicles are forming everywhere.

But what do you do if an icicle falls, without damaging your building, and damages someone’s property (ie a car) or worse still, hits someone? Falling icicles, if they cause damage, will be covered under your property owners liability insurance.

As the owner of a property, you can be held liable for things falling off of roofs and the structure. In the main, this will relate to business insurance policies. But, your  policy in respect of your house will also cover this, although it is more likely for people and property to be injured by high street type buildings.

The golden rule, is that if anyone alleges anything against you, you must inform either your broker or insurer as soon as possible. Take the persons deatils and if necessary, offer and administer first aid (if you have a competent person to do this) or alternatively offer to call an ambulance. Always make sure though that you get a claim raised against your policy as early as possible.

An insurance policy is not designed to replace a normal maintenance contract. You cannot expect to have a building that is not inspected regularly and then have a claim paid against, for example, water leaking through a poorly maintained roof.

You need to consider the policy wording and see whether you have to undertake certain types of maintenance at agreed intervals. One of the main ones is in respect of flat felt roofs. These types of roofs only have a certain lifespan. Even withe advancements since the 1970’s in materials, the more modern flat roofs still get damaged over time.

Many policies will state that you have to have the roof inspected every 6 or 12 months. In addition to this any repairs need to be undertaken immediately and,by an approved repairer. It is no good to say that you inspected the roof yourself. You will need to prove that it was a proper builder or roofer and be able to show receipts that you have paid them to do the work.

Some policies will also have a gutters and drainpipes clause (believe it or not) which again proves that these are cleaned and any debris removed, on a regular basis. This, you can usually do yourself, if you wished. If you had a loss and the adjuster can prove that it was due to build up of leaf mould over many years, then you could potentially be faced with a claim repudiation.

As ever, speak to your business insurance broker and get them to interpret the policy wording for you and ask them to confirm this in writing to you.

One of the standard exclusions is for frost damage. Last winter we saw unprecedented levels of storm and burst pipes claims. As far as frost is concerned, the actual damage caused by the frost, ie to brick work, is excluded. Whereas, the consequent damage, ie water seeping in, is covered.

The reason that frost is excluded is because it is a maintenance issue. A normal wind and watertoght building, in good condition, should not allow water to sepp into brick work and then for this to freeze, expand and cause damage.

It (frost damage) really only occurs under commercial building insurance polices. Certain insurers will allow restricted cover, maybe with a limited payment of a few thousand pounds. The reason that frost is excluded, is because your policy is not a maintenance contract. A building should not be allowed to get into such a condition that water can seep into the brick/cement work. If that is the case, then the building should be re-pointed or the bricks replaced or coated with a waterproof membrane (in the summer months!)

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?

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.

No-one will forget the Met Office announcing with great fanfare that 2009 was going to be a “barbecue summer”, only to state 5 months later that this was only a 60% prediction, which of course was wrong.

As a result of this, the business insurance companies, that insure buildings and properties, have seen a marked dip in claims for subsidence over the past four or five years.

We have had cracking weather in 2010 so far, a few blips of course, but the “phew what a scorcher” headlines have been justified. Whilst we have had a good summer, we have also had a very dry winter. A lot of snow of course, but this has not soaked through to the soil under our houses and businesses.

We are starting to see an increase in claims under business building insurance for cracks in the actual structure. The causes of subsidence are many, the main ones being a simple draining of soil, which results in shrinkage which cracks the structure and tree roots, in search of moisture, drying out surrounding soil.

With the advent of websites that “offer” to compare business insurance, as they are price driven, there is an increase in quotes being provided at a very basic level. What this means is that people are getting quotes without subsidence, because it can be 10 or 20% cheaper.

This will start to be a problem as people start to have claims and then realise that there is no cover in place. The first thing you should do is speak to a business insurance broker and get them to review all of your insurance requirements, one of them being the cover you have. Secondly, if you do not have subsidence, heave or landslip (the 3 main covers) either get this added to your policy or take out a new one with this, vital, cover.