What is business building insurance?
Business building insurance, also known as commercial property insurance, helps keep the bricks and water of your business safe. From shops and restaurants, to offices, warehouses or factories. If your business has a physical premises it is worth getting cover.
Business building insurance works just like building insurance for your home insurance. It means if there is unexpected damage to the structure of any buildings your business owns, you wont have to shell out for expensive repairs yourself.
Do I need insurance for my commercial properties?
Business building insurance isn’t a legal requirement but if you own a commercial property, then yes. You should definitely consider taking the cover out.
It doesn’t matter what type of commercial property you own, there is always a risk of damage to the building. For example, your warehouse could be hit by fire, your shop could be flooded by a burst pipe. This kind of damage wont just put your firm out of business for weeks or months it can be very expensive to repair.
If you have a mortgage on a business premises, many lenders will insist you are fully insured in order to deal with it.
Do I need buildings insurance if I am a tenant?
Building insurance is responsibility of the person that owns the property so you may not need it as a tenant but you may be required to make payment. It is always a good idea to check that the landlord has insurance in place if you rent a property and to consider your own business contents insurance.
Do you have an unoccupied property? Are you refurbishing it and want insurance? Click here for an instant quote.
How much does commercial property insurance cost?
There is no particular answer to this. The cost of business building insurance is determined by a range of factors. Such as;
Your business.
A bigger business will naturally have more cover. And more at stake if cover isn’t in place. So the bigger your business, the more you are likely to have to pay.
Your property.
Properties with higher rebuild costs are more expensive to insure. If your business is in a high flood or crime risk area, this might raise your premium.
Location.
If you have more than one property, for instance, a chain of shops or an office then you will want to be fully covered for all of them.
Different providers will work out different prices and we will provide these for you. It is always important for us to give you the best possible choice.
Will my landlord insurance cover my commercial property?
Absolutely not! You will need an insurance policy made for commercial buildings. Insurers treat commercial properties differently to residential buildings. An important factor in the premium calculation is the type of business occupying the premises. For instance, an office block occupied by clerical workers may be a very low risk for an insurance company. Whereas a takeaway restaurant with a deep fat fryer could be a very high risk. It all depends on what the occupier does, and at what time of the day and week. There are some categories which may be a surprisingly high risk to insurers. Trades such as DIY stores, electrical goods stores, furniture and carpet shops and dry cleaners/launderettes.
What type of cover will I have?
You will have insurance covering the building as standard. This will also include property owner’s liability insurance. That will cover guests or employees attending your premises that hurt themselves due to a building fault. The level of cover can vary between £2M to £10M.
Want an instant quote? Click here for details.
Can I have loss of rent covered?
Yes, we can cover you for loss of rent and again this relates to the type of business. The longer the cover i.e. whether 12 or 36 months then the cheaper the cover can be.
Does it cover my employees working on site?
Yes, it can. This may be subject to an additional premium. It depends on what they are doing at the property.
Are legal costs included?
You will find that most insurance companies have some form of legal costs cover for commercial property policies. It is important to check the perils covered and the level of cover provided.
Do I need commercial property insurance?
If you own a building from which a business operates and whether it is your own company or someone else’s then it is deemed to be business premises. Commonly known as commercial premises. You will need to protect the bricks and mortar of the building that keeps your income safe.
What else would it cover?
There are various types of commercial property insurance, buildings insurance and contents insurance. These are put into two different areas.
Building Insurance will normally cover the rebuild and repair of your building dependent on how it is damaged. This could be by fire, explosion, storm etc.
You will need to make sure also that you are protected on the following:-
- Burst pipes
- Flood
- Fire
- Riots
- Storms
- Subsidence
- Theft
It is so important that you ensure that you have the right type of cover. We often find that we have landlords who have the cover in respect of their property. But then take out various items which reduces the cost but leaves them exposed. It is all well and good saving £200 to £300 but what happens if you have taken a cover out that you need in future that costs you hundreds of thousands of pounds. You need to be very careful when considering this.
Contents insurance – what will it cover?
This will cover you for what is inside the building. Such as equipment stock etc. If it is not your business then the contents insurance will be your tenant’s responsibility. But, you need to make sure that the lease doesn’t provide for you to have to do this. It is so important that you have the right type of cover. Depending on what type of building it is you may have fixtures and fittings that don’t belong to the building but aren’t stock either. If you choose buildings insurance you can opt to protect these to. Commercial property insurance and contents can be very complicated and we are more than happy to walk you through this whole process.
Do I need buildings insurance if I don’t have a mortgage?
If you own the building outright then you aren’t legally required to have building insurance. But if it burnt down and you didn’t have insurance how would you rebuild it? What happens if somebody walks past and something falls off you could also be liable? It is so important that you consider all the legalities.
What about if my building gets damaged and we can no longer work there?
If this is the case then you may need an extension to your cover. This is often called business interruption insurance. This would cover you if the damage to your building means that you cant do business there. You can add this extra to your buildings or contents insurance.
Understand that every business is different and there are so many different types of cover that you can choose. You may need small business insurance or you may be a larger company that needs something different. We will make sure that we ask about your business and explain the different types of cover. Did you know that according to the Association of British Insurers the insurance industry pays out approximately £13M every day to homes and businesses that have suffered a loss. So make sure you don’t lose out.
What else would I need in terms of cover?
You can add other types of business cover to your commercial property such as:
Public liability
This covers you for injury, illness or death to third parties caused at work.
Employer’s liability insurance
This covers you for injury, illness and death to employees.
Business interruption
Which we have outlined above.
Why use iInsure365?
We have over the years been able to have a huge amount of relationships with Insurance Companies and can provide you with the best cover.
We have the following:-
- Excellent premiums
- Over 20 years industry experience
- Qualified specialists not call centre automation
- Unique schemes
- Monthly instalments available if required
- Exclusive policies from top insurers
- Schemes for both residential and commercial properties
Here are some examples of commercial buildings we insure.
Example 1
- Commercial guest house with bar & restaurant
- Grade 2 listed building
- Loss of Rent included
- Rebuild cost of £760,000
- iInsure365 premium – £968.30
Example 2
- Property with mixed uses
- Fast food shop
- Vacant office
- 2 residential flats
- Loss of Rent included
- 100% flat roof
- £500,000 rebuild cost
- iInsure365 premium – £1,460.00
You should ensure that you have the correct insurance to cover your specific circumstances. If you have got any questions then don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and ask a member of our experienced team to help you. We are extremely flexible with our approach and can offer a basic building insurance policy that covers the basic perils or alternatively you can have a policy that covers all liability risks, goods in transit, professional indemnity, product liability and much much more.
We work with a huge number of the UK’s leading commercial insurance companies such as Aviva, AXA, Ageas and Zurich to mention only a few. You could be rest assured that in the event of a claim you will have a strong brand behind you that cares about their reputation.
It is important to protect your business ensuring that you have the right level of cover for commercial landlord insurance. Underinsurance can have severe consequences in the event of a claim. If you are found to be underinsured in the event of a claim. The insurer will calculate the percentage of underinsurance and reduce any claim by payments by that amount. Don’t be frightened of asking us what you need. We can help you and guide you in the right direction.
Protecting your property from underinsurance.
Guidance on property rebuild costs and valuations.
You are no doubt aware there are over 800 billion pounds worth of commercial property that is currently underinsured.
As a property it is critical to ensure your assets included in buildings, contents and rental are adequately insured. Taking building insurance as an example, your sum insured should reflect the cost of totally rebuilding your property and this will include not just materials but professional fees as well such as architects and surveyors.
Why is it important to get the sums right?
The main reason for getting your sums insured right is because the possibility of underinsurance. Most insurance policies will have an underinsurance clause known as “average”. What this means is if you make a claim and your sums insured are too low, the amount you are paid can be proportionately reduced.
An example of a claim impacted by “average” due to underinsurance.
A minimum size property which is brick built and a pitched roof has a rebuilding sum of £450,000. A storm hits and the ground floor is flooded causing £80,000 worth of damage.
The claim investigation assess that the true rebuild cost of the property was £600,000. This figure was based on the cost including the rebuild, demolition, pathways, professional, garden fencing and statutory services.
The property was underinsured by 25%!
The “average” clause proportionately reduces the claim payment inline with the percentage on the underinsurance. The claim was £80,000 so the payment would be reduced by 25% to £60,000. The difference is met by you so it is so important to get this right.
Why might you be underinsured?
This could be all sorts of circumstances such as the impact on covid lockdown causing slow material production. Delays of UK imports since Brexit. Considerable increases in costs.
Review your sum insured!
It is good practise to review your sum insured with insurance at least annually when your insurance policy falls for renewal. You should also ensure you are aware of external factors that could impact the cost outside of your renewal.
Summary
We can cover a wide range of commercial properties. This can range from purpose-built office blocks to mobile home sites to retail shops and restaurants. There are very few scenarios that cannot be covered. But, each commercial policy needs an individual rating. We need to ensure that we have the whole of your property covered with the right commercial insurance for your building. We can even cover unoccupied commercial property. Which can be difficult to find a provider for.
