This is a warning to anyone that has purchased or is looking to purchase an empty building insurance policy, to look very closely at the terms and conditions. Of course, any insurance policy taken out deserves some dedicated reading time, but certain policies need a bit more scrutiny.
When we are talking empty, we mean for more than 30 days. Most policies for your home (domestic) will provide some sort of cover for properties unoccupied up to 30, sometimes 45 or 60 days. But, for commercial insurance, it is slightly different. Many people will be buying a policy to protect a building that has been and is likely to remain empty for a number of months.
The two types of cover you get are:-
Basic – Fire, lightning, explosion, aircraft and property owners liability – more commonly called FLEA cover
Wider – The above, plus some restricted storm, theft and malicious damage.
As you would expect, the basic cover is cheaper but will contain the same conditions as the wider cover. We, as a business insurance broker, can look around and get some pretty cheap rates. But, and it is a big but, the cheaper the rate the higher the security requirements. We have one insurer that will provide quotes for almost any type of empty building, but they will insist on all ground floor windows being boarded up and doors having a certain type of lock on.
Now, if you are buying an unoccupied building that is already boarded, all well and good. But, if you need to board up, the cost can be many thousands of pounds. Then when you get the contractors to start work, they will ask you to remove all the boarding so they can get on with what they do.
As a broker, we are more than happy to quote this particular insurer (as well as others with different conditions) but we have to make the customer fully aware of the terms. That is our job and we know we do it well. If you are getting a quote from somewhere else, you really need to check what security they insist on you having in place.