Top Tips - if you have your own business premises
Save time and money on your commercial insurance if you operate from your own business premises.Skip now to tips on
Insuring all aspects of what you do
What cover do you need?
What to expect if an insurer wants to survey my premises
Impact on your car insurance
Do you need to take out new commercial insurance?
1. What commercial insurance cover do you need?
Make sure you have all the forms of insurance that you could need.
Check out our listing of commercial insurance products now
2. Check the amounts that are insured
- Property needs to be insured for the full cost of replacing it. Even if the figure selected was realistic once, it needs to be regularly reviewed – ideally automatically by the insurer so that the amount insured keeps pace with inflation - but you still need to start off with an adequate figure, and you need to increase the current figure if you acquire any additional property.
- Public Liability insurance covers your legal liability (except as mentioned below) for injury caused to other people or for damage to other people’s property. The insurance is subject to a monetary limit any one event (e.g. £1,000,000) – so it is important to make sure this limit is high enough to cater for the most serious accident that you can envisage.
- Employers' Liability insurance covers your legal liability to the people who work for you that arise as a result of their employment. The insurance is subject to a monetary limit any one incident. This is generally £10,000,000, but if the most serious incident you can envisage would amount to more than this, you should ask for a higher limit.
- Products Liability insurance covers your legal liability to other people for injuries or disease caused by goods that your business has supplied. The insurance is subject to a monetary limit (e.g. £1,000,000) that applies to both any one incident and to the total of all incidents during any one year of insurance.
More info on how much commercial insurance you need . . .
3. Check any excesses . . .
. . . that your insurance may be subject to. In the event of a claim, are you sure you could afford to pay for the excess?
Alternatively, would you be able to pay for a higher excess? This is worth thinking about because business insurers often allow a discount off the premium in return for a higher excess.
4. Check your commercial insurance policy
In particular, look to see if it's subject to any conditions that you cannot comply with. If you find there is a condition that you are not currently complying with, raise this with your broker or insurer. Otherwise there is a risk that your insurance may be invalidated.
5. What to expect if an insurer wants to survey my business premises
Business insurers often conduct their own surveys of the premises they insure. They assess the risk of a fire, theft, flood, etc. and they may also look into the Health and Safety aspects of your business. You may be asked to carry out certain risk improvements after the survey.
If your business insurer undertook a survey of your premises – and then asked you to make various risk improvements – have you implemented them? If you haven’t, check that your cover is not dependent on you doing this.
6. Impact on your car insurance
If you use your private car for any business purposes – however infrequently you do it – you must inform your car insurer. Your cover can then be changed to include business use. If your insurer is unaware of the position, you run the risk that your car insurance could be invalidated.
7. Do you need to take out new commercial insurance?
If you have mislaid your policy or lost touch with your broker or insurer, we can send you a list of contacts who can help you take out new Business Insurance. Just complete the form in the top right corner of this screen and we'll do the rest.
8. Maintain an audit trail
Keep copies of all your correspondence about insurance, and make notes of any conversations and meetings. This may prove very useful if you need to make a claim, or if a dispute arises about what’s been agreed.
What next . . .
Renewing or amending your commercial insurance - the steps you need to take
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