Discounts On Commercial Insurance Coverage
The way to get cheap business insurance is to know exactly what you are insuring. Most business owners are given an across the board business insurance policy that may have coverage for things you do not need. Depending on the type of business you run, if you also insure company vehicles, buildings, equipment, etc. there may be overlaps in your coverage that you are unaware of.
Know your policy and ask questions. If you are unsure about a certain coverage on your policy be sure to ask. Getting quotes from various companies will give you a better understanding of how much you could be saving on your current policy. Getting a new quote every 6 months can mean the difference in huge savings for your business.
Keep safety for your workers, equipment and buildings at an all time high. Your policy is determined on the amount of risk your business has. If possible, have all employees as well as yourself attend an approved safety seminar for your type of business. Organize an internal safety seminar if one is not available in your area.
Install the proper amount of security cameras, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers in your building or business premises. Secured items pose less of a risk to theft, vandalism and fire. Not only are they a great peace of mind for you as a business owner, it’s also a great way to get cheap business insurance.
When your business changes, update your insurance. No need to pay to insure items you no longer use in the course of your business.
Commercial Landlord Insurance – Contents Cover
If you own, and rent or lease out, a property to a third party then you will need to have a residential or commercial property owners / commercial business insurance policy. Residential, is of course for houses and flats and is also known as buy to let insurance. Commercial is where you lease a business premises to a third party. Where there is a cross over, for example a shop with flats above, then this will always go under a commercial property policy.
It is not difficult to work out, in the main, what is covered. The building, or the structure, is what you need to have cover for. It is the actual bricks and mortar, roofs, windows, floors and internal fittings. Think of the buildings cover as everything that you would not necessarily take with you when you move house or premises. You may have a fitted laminate floor, this would fall under buildings. But what happens to curtains, carpets and flooring (including carpet tiles and moveable laminate)? Where should this be covered?
This will fall firmly and squarely under the contents insurance. Even if you have a carpet, which you would of course not take with you when you moved, this falls under contents because, if you wanted to, you could pick it up and take it with you.
This really only applies in the main to residential let properties. If you have a block of flats insurance policy, then you will need to give special consideration as to whether you have suitable cover for contents in communal areas. Speak to your business insurance broker about getting this included.
For single let residential properties, over 80% are let unfurnished. But, what a letting agent calls unfurnished and what a commercial insurance company call unfurnished are two entirely separate things. If you have carpets, curtains or any fitted white goods (ie fridges, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines or tumble dryers) then you need to have contents insurance.
Contents cover can be slightly more expensive than the buildings because it is more susceptible to damage and/or theft. But, without the cover you could be left financially out of pocket. The major source of claims to let properties is water damage. This is from burst pipes or storms. If water leaks in, it will always go to the lowest point and this usually involves damage to the flooring. You can, in very few cases, use a de-humidifier to remove any water from a carpet but this is notoriously difficult to do. You may think that it is clean and dry, but this is only the top. If water has seeped through the carpet then it will start to rot unless it is dried thoroughly. This in tune can start to rot any wooden floorboards, or worse still ruin any chipboard as this acts like a sponge.
If you have a landlord’s insurance policy, please take the time to review it to see if you have suitable buildings and contents cover. You will always need to insure for the full replacement cost. What this means is that you cannot just have 1,000 of cover, if it would cost 5,000 to re-carpet the house. As always, you are better arranging any type of non-domestic cover with a business insurance broker and they can help you source the right cover.
Cheap Commercial Insurance – Top Tips to Getting a Good Price And Cover
Given the financial problems of the past few years, anyone who is in business are now looking a lot more closely at the premiums they pay for their business insurance.
Traditionally, if a renewal was within 5%, up or down, of the previous year the majority of businesses were more than happy to continue the commercial insurance cover. But, with businesses having to, out of necessity, look at every item of cost, their annual insurance bill is coming under increased scrutiny.
The commercial insurance industry has spent years and years under pricing, charging too little to customers in the hope of making up shortfalls in investment income. This investment income could add 10-15% to an insurers income, which could be used to offer prices less than competitors.
Nowadays though, the investment income is less and the claims costs are increasing. As a result the under-pricing has had to stop. We always see this in motor insurance first. Costs have rocketed for younder drivers, particularly since Quinn Insurance got into financial difficulties and had to stop trading in the UK.
This is now starting to spill over inot the commercial insurance arena. Insurers that were happy to offer an annula premium of £600 for a risk are now saying that the renewal has to £800. Increases of 15-25% are not unheard of; particularly for the “leisure” trades ie pubs, hotels, restaurants and take-aways. This is a problem as these are some of the industries that have been hardest hit because of the recession.
We are seeing insurers becoming tougher and touhger on pricing, even for risks that have been claims free for years. This does not mean that there is not an answer though. If you have found yourself in the un-enviable position of having a significanlty increased renewal, have no fear as help is at hand.
There are a few tips to getting you a better or equivalent deal.
The first one is to set aside some time. Not everyone wants to spend time on their business insurance. It can be confusing, time consuming or even boring to get alternatives. But, set aside at least an hour of your time, on your quietest day of the week.
Secondly, get all of your papers together for the past few years. The more paperwork you have, the more this will help.
Thirdly, speak to an independent business insurance broker. Do not go to a website that does not offer you the chance to discuss your cover. Whilst these sites that compare business insurance may look good, because of the prices, what they do not make clear is that there are sometimes big differences in cover and excesses.
Get a broker that you can speak to, either face to face or over the phone. Go through all of your documentation and, whilst we cannot guarantee it, in 80% of cases they should be able to offer you a better deal (price wise) and better cover.
Minimize The Risk Quotient in Your Business by Adopting Commercial Business Insurance
The unpredictability of human life is something which cannot be gambled with and therefore one should always be prepared for anything which may just occur out of nowhere and cause great stress and problems in our lives. Even our business is similar to our unpredictable human life where you don’t know what will happen the very next second and therefore it would not be wrong to say that any business establishment is accompanied with its downtime which may be abrupt but is certainly there in the present past or future of the company. You may certainly begin the proceedings with an impressive start and lots of profit in your business but it’s no guarantee of a smooth and hassle free future always.
Often the small losses in any business can be covered without incurring any dent on the financial stability of the business. But sometimes when there are unpredictable hefty losses they can certainly cause huge mental stress and trauma for the businessman and therefore to minimize the risk quotient involved in the business it’s advisable to opt for commercial business insurance so that the person is sure that their future will still be bright no matter whatever problem occurs in the present.
The insurance is way of safeguarding your future from all the unpredictable danger by paying a small amount of money every month so that the big picture, which is your life, is secure and you can claim it back whenever you are in need it. Therefore by purchasing any insurance you are actually transferring the risk quotient in your life to that Insurance Company from whom you are purchasing the Insurance for a specified amount. Thereby you can sleep peacefully at night.
We may find writing an insurance check every month as stupid for various insurances like shop insurance, auto insurance, liability insurance, Landlords insurance and property insurance and so on. We may also feel our selves to be fool by investing in these insurances, our hard earned money especially when are lives are moving on so smoothly. But it’s the unpredictability of any accident or any untoward incident which you can never be sure of and therefore instead of living in the constant fear of something unfortunate it’s better to start preparing for any circumstances which might amaze you at any point of time. The insurance is just like our savior which protects us from our helplessness and stress during such situations and therefore reduces the graveness of the incident to a large extent.