Commercial property insurance
With very good reason, one of the safeguards most businesses are most anxious to have in place is commercial property insurance. The business premises, after all, serve as the primary window on the market and without an office, shop, workshop, restaurant, or other place of operations, the business will be hard pressed to continue.
The insurance of commercial property works in very much the same way as the buildings insurance with which most owners of residential property will be familiar. In other words, it covers the “standard” perils of fire, flood, storms, explosions, earthquakes and the like. In assessing the risks to commercial property, however, insurers will naturally wish to take into account the particular business carried out from the premises insured.
Such assessment is likely to focus on the “trade processes” conducted from the commercial premises. The particular process engaged in by your business will, of course, determine the degree of risk and the premium that needs to be attached to the commercial property insurance. Offices will invariably attract the lowest premiums, whilst the more hazardous manufacturing processes will naturally enough attract the highest. Also relevant will be the location of the premises, as determined by its postcode, and of course its size and any planning restrictions attached to the redevelopment of the site following the total loss of the building.
If your business premises are rented from a landlord, there may be a temptation simply to expect the landlord to have arranged sufficient insurance cover to protect his property. As a tenant, you might have a reasonable expectation for this to be the case, but it will nevertheless be important to check with the landlord the exact terms of his commercial property insurance to ensure that it fully protects your own business interests. One notable peculiarity of commercial property insurance, for example, is that whilst the landlord may well be responsible for insuring the fabric of the building housing a shop, the shop-front, its windows and window displays are all in most cases all the responsibility of the business tenant.
Whether you own your business premises or rent them from a landlord, therefore, the commercial property insurance that covers the standard risks of fire, flooding, storms, explosions, earthquakes, and so on represents an important financial safeguard protecting the hub and main focal point of your business. Without the viable presence of well-maintained and structurally sound premises, your business is hardly likely to succeed as well as it should be doing.
