Knowledge Centre

YOUR Insurance, based in Guildford town centre offer advice to local businesses to make sure they’re correctly covered. 

Arranging business insurance can be a time-consuming and arduous process; trying to understand insurance jargon can at times be like trying to decipher ancient Korean scripts.  But by not understanding all the jargon and small print you could be putting yourself and your business in serious risk.  

A broker will spend time finding out about you and your business and will be able to find you a suitable policy from a panel of insurers that they have access to. They will ask all the right questions about your business to make sure you have the correct type of cover and that you are covered to the correct amount.

Brokers may also have access to policies which you may not have access to – especially if your business has particular requirements, such as multiple premises, unusual construction, hazardous locations or previous claims history.

The advice a broker can offer you can be invaluable; there are many things you might not consider or know when taking out business insurance – like who is legally liable for agency staff working for you, or whether you need ‘business interruption’ insurance, to cover your business if you were unable to trade for some time. There are always a number of conditions you need to abide by to make sure you’re covered should you need to claim, a broker will be able to explain these to you in plain English so you can be sure you’re correctly covered.

By using a local broker you know they’ll always be on hand should you need to contact them or if you have any unusual circumstances they can make site visits to give you advice about your policy.  By using a local broker it can also take the pain out of making a claim as they can help you deal with the claims process.

What’s the worst that could happen?

You may insure your building for a rebuild value of £300,000 and renew this policy for a number of years without the advice of a broker. The cost of your rebuild could increase dramatically over the years – double even. So you may inadvertently be under-insuring your building by 50%. If your building was to suffer a fire causing £190,000 worth of damage, the insurer could consider your property underinsured by 50% and apply something called ‘the average clause’ to your claim and only pay out 50% of the claim - £95,000. If your building was still partly owned by the bank you would have to pay the costs for the rest of the rebuild. Trying to front costs of £95,000 would certainly bankrupt many businesses – you may even have your house secured against your business so you may lose that too.