Commercial Buildings Insurance

Insuring your home is normally an easy thing to do, with little or no complication for the average person. Insuring a building used for commercial purposes is very different, as it could be used for one or more of many different uses, whereas a home is rarely used for anything other than living in.

From an insurance perspective, this makes insuring a building used for business, a more specialised prospect which is less likely to fit a one size fits all approach. This has it's advantages, as it means the insurance market for commercial buildings is very wide, so there is room for companies to specialise in one particular area. For instance, one insurer may know the risk associated with a family of trades more intimately than another. This knowledge gives an insurance company the power to accurately estimate and assess a risk, leading to better prices and better cover for a client.

That's all very well but what about the owner's point of view? Having a wide market has it's advantages, but it also means there's so many more products to sort through, and as there's no easy comparison websites to refer to, it can be quite long winded finding a good price, but then there's the cover to think of.

So exactly what is available to the commercial landlord?

The basics that can be expected on any business property insurance are:

Buildings - damage or re-instatement
Loss of Rent - usually 20% of the sum insured value
Property Owner's Liability - normally a minimum of £2,000,000 though occasionally higher.

The majority of insurers also offer some form of legal and emergency help as well, although these need to be studied carefully as Legal Cover is a bit of a misnomer for some of these products. They can range from a call centre that will provide advice over the phone to comprehensive legal expenses products designed to cover legal fees incurred at times when you need to enforce your legal rights as the property owner, which is a bit different from chatting to a girl at a call centre, however nice she may be. With this in mind it should be noted that "legal cover" can be two completely different things on two different insurer's policies.

And then there's the emergency cover, which should be looked at in exactly the same way. They may be just offering a helpline that can arrange for workmen to attend your property as soon as possible, but then you could always use the yellow pages for that, or they may have a service that actually contributes to the cost of emergency repairs and callout charges. Obviously, the second "service" usually won't be included free of charge.

Various other options are sometimes available too, such as:

Employers' liability
Loss of keys & replacement locks
Glass replacement
Terrorism

Circumstances will dictate whether these options are worth having. As an example, glass cover for modern office blocks. As they tend to have significantly more glass in them than older commercial buildings, this would be worth more in this case.Where and what type of property will decide which options are the best value, or worth having at all. In the case of a building being maintained directly by a landlord themselves, employer's liability might not be worth taking.

So how do I go about finding a policy that's right for me?

Buildings used for business come in so many different guises, that can be used for many different things. If you don't have the experience to get a good insurance quote for your commercial building then you can always call an expert. A decent insurance agent would fit the bill as they can find what you're looking for quickly and will be able to cut through all the wordings and advise you about the differences between policies and which suit your needs best of all. Many of them have their own discounted schemes with major insurers so doing it this way can save money as well, and should you ever have difficulties with a claim, they can be invaluable.