UK Newsagents' Insurance

Newsagent shops like all other businesses need insurance for protection against damage, liability and other possibilities.

The types of cover that you can include in newsagent insurance can vary depending on your specific needs and your budget. For example, you can choose to protect your business against legal liability, and also to cover your business premises and the contents therein.

The most common types of cover would include:

• Accident and theft insurance
• Contents and fittings insurance
• Employers Liability insurance
• Product Liability insurance
• Public Liability insurance
• Cash insurance
• Stock insurance
• Newsagent building insurance
• Business interruption insurance
• Tradesman insurance

Stock and contents insurance

With this type of cover, you can protect the contents found inside your business including stock. The amount of cover will differ depending on the policy. For example, you can purchase insurance to cover contents up to £750,000. Contents insurance generally covers everything including fittings, fixtures and stock. Stock cover is limited to protecting one’s stock for the amount insured. Generally it is a good idea to obtain insurance to cover all one’s contents, if such a policy is within your budget range.

For shops that also have cash on premises, some policies will also provide cover for such cash. Make sure that your policy specifically covers and does not exclude specific contents found within your premises.

Also, look to make sure you are aware of any other exclusions. For example, most policies will cover loss or damage due to accidents such as fire, flood or theft, or loss due to theft. But some policies may exclude damage or loss due to certain causes. In some cases, they may not cover damage in which the policy holder committed some negligent action.

Employers Liability Insurance

In the United Kingdom, employers are required to have a minimum employer’s liability (EL) insurance if they have any employees at their business. EL insurance covers employers for damages and legal fees associated with employees who are injured, made ill, or killed as a result of a fault by the employer. Under the law, employees have the right to seek action even in cases when a business closes or goes bankrupt. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) enforces the laws on employer’s liability insurance, and they can impose fines of up to £2,500 for each day that you fail to have EL cover. Each employer must have at least £5M of employer liability cover, which usually is not a problem since most policies provide at least £10M cover.

Public Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance covers the newsagent from damages linked to members of the public who are injured on one’s business property. Such insurance is especially important for businesses that have regular customers or deliveries on their premises. Public liability insurance also covers damage to third party property at your business location. Most cover of this type will include both medical and legal costs that could arise from public liability claims.

Product Liability Insurance

Newsagents may need product liability insurance to protect themselves against claims that result due to damage caused by their products. For example, if a newsagent business should sell food or other products on their premises, and someone becomes ill from such products, this type of cover would provide protection from related legal claims.

Buildings Insurance

If you own your business building, then you will probably want to purchase buildings insurance. With this type of cover, you can protect your entire building including walls, gates and fences. Such cover usually also includes fixtures and fittings, and pays the costs of removing debris and hiring professional consultants. Of course, one should try to obtain cover adequate to handle the expenses one would incur in case of a total loss of the building, for example, in a fire.

Employee Dishonesty Insurance

With this type of insurance, you are covered against claims caused by the fraudulent actions of employees. For example, if an employee or group of employees such steal cash, equipment or any other property of the employer. Employee dishonesty cover will usually include cases of forgery, theft, fund transfer, credit card fraud, computer fraud, and money order fraud. Since crime by employees at the workplace is on the rise, many business owners are obtaining this type of cover.

Business Interruption Insurance

If your business should be interrupted, you could suffer a serious cash flow problem. Business interruption insurance is designed to provide you with money to help you get your business up and running again in case of such an eventuality. Such cover can include stoppages or interruptions due to natural disaster, vandalism, illness, construction activity and hardware failures.

Income Protection Insurance

With this type of cover, you are protected if suddenly your income from your business should dry up due to your own illness or accidental injury. The insurance provides you with an income for a specified period while you are recovering from your condition.

Tradesman Insurance

Covers equipment, tools and other items used by professionals in their trade. With this type of cover, the items are protected against damage, theft or loss regardless of whether this happens at the business location or off-site.

Finding the right insurance policy

Many companies offer newsagent insurance, so it pays to shop around and compare policies. Always make sure to read the fine print so that you know exactly what is covered and for how much. Also carefully read the part that deals with exclusions in the policy. If you have any questions, make sure the insurance agent provides clear answers. If the agent is hesitant or unable to provide you with sufficient and clear information, then you should take your business elsewhere.

Another good idea is to check around to see what polices are popular with others who are also in the newsagent business.

Fortunately, the internet makes it easy to shop around for insurance options, and there are many web sites that will allow you to directly compare policies offered by different companies.

Remember that every insurance policy is different. ALWAYS read the policy carefully to make sure that it has the right cover for you!

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