Landlord's cover for business premises
Business
property insurance, also commonly known
as property and building insurance,
protects your building and its contents
against risks like fire, weather, theft
and natural disasters. Any business in
the UK or around the world is a major
investment and the structure itself is
often the most expensive part. A fire or
storm damage can easily shut down
operations for extended periods while
repairs are being made, adding to the
costs of the damage to the structure.
Theft, vandalism and maliciousness are
very common in the business world and
can add up to serious losses and
downtime, and nothing is more damaging
than a deliberate attack from someone
who knows your operations from the
inside. These are just a few of the more
common situations that arise, many more
can spring up at any moment and leave
you in a financial or legal crisis. This
is exactly why you need property and
building coverage, when these situations
happen you will have the finances to
salvage what you can and immediately
begin the process of getting your
business up and running again. With some
careful planning, you may even avoid
business interruptions altogether.
There are two basic types of business
property insurance covering risks known
as perils. There are policies that are
peril specific, commonly known as named
perils, that cover very specific causes
of loss and only those causes. The other
type is called an open peril, or
multiple peril, that covers all loss
over a range of causes, typically
excluding things like terrorism and
earthquakes. The type of coverage you
need depends on the manner of business
your are performing, the particular
geography and even the weather trends
for what area of the UK you are
operating in. Many times both types of
coverage are used in combination to
provide the maximum protection. For
instance, if your operations are in an
area particularly known for severe
flooding, you can supplement your open
peril protection with flood coverage.
Another great example is when items of
much higher value and risk are present,
a separate policy is almost always
required and a specific peril policy is
a perfect solution.
Fire cover can actually be used in both
capacities, included in an open peril
policy as well as additional protection.
Fire cover also has facets of its own
ranging from the actual cash value of
contents inside your structure to the
costs of repairing the structure itself.
Fire protection for business comes in
three main varieties known as
replacement cost, actual cash value and
extended replacement. Replacement cost
is a policy that pays the replacement
costs as if new without consideration
for depreciation or appreciation. Actual
cash value protection only pays the cost
of replacement minus the depreciation
value, and extended replacement will pay
costs over the coverage limit if costs
of services like construction increase.
In most cases, the insurer will only
cover up to twenty percent over the
original pay out, but it is very helpful
when trying to recover from something as
devastating as fire.
When the insurance policy is taken out
the pay outs and terms are established.
This is also the time to go over exactly
what is covered and how like the
building and contents, account
information, inventory, furniture,
machinery and even money. You can often
improve your level of coverage and
reduce costs by taking steps to prevent
loss and damage like installing fire
suppression systems, security systems
and anti-theft devices.
When evaluating you business insurance
needs you should also consider specific
business interruption and what is known
as extra expense insurance. Business
interruption is just as the name
implies, covering things like salaries,
taxes and debts while recovering. The
extra expense coverage is to cover costs
associated with relocation if you need
to operate out of a temporary location
for a time, as well as purchasing new
equipment and merchandise. In the
chaotic times after any damage or loss
to your business you will have enough
problems do deal with, and having
insufficient protection or the wrong
types of protection can turn the
smallest damage or loss into a disaster.
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