How To Choose The Best Insurance Policy For Your Commercial Property
17 February 2020
When it comes to finding the right type of insurance for your commercial property, at the right price, it can feel like an almost impossible task. With many insurance providers charging a premium price when it comes to insuring your commercial property, it can be tempting to insure the bare minimum, but this can cause issues in the long-run.
Here, we aim to give you some insight into what you should consider when looking to take out an insurance policy for your commercial property, and some of the ways you can save money during the process.
What Affects My Commercial Property Insurance Premium?
Age Of Your Property
The age of your property can significantly affect the premium you will pay on your insurance – as older buildings are usually more at risk of damage. For example, ageing electrical wiring can cause significant issues if not rectified, and ageing parts of your property may be experiencing structural issues.
The Sector You Work Within
The sector you work within will have an effect on the cost of your insurance due to the type of equipment or materials that are stored on your premises on a permanent basis. For example, if you work with highly sophisticated specialist machinery, the premium will increase due to the cost of replacing the equipment. If your business is likely to store materials on-site which are seen as dangerous for any reason, you can also expect your premium to increase.
Location Of Your Property
One of the most important bearings on your commercial property premium is likely to be the actual location of your premises. If for any reason your property is seen to be in an area that is at risk, you will end up paying over the odds on your insurance. For example, if your commercial property is in an area that has an especially high crime rate, then your premium will be higher than usual. Another example of an area that may experience higher insurance premiums would be anywhere that is prone to flooding.
To Insure or Not To Insure?
As a business owner, you have probably already taken your fair share of risks to get your company to where it is today, and insuring, or choosing not to insure your commercial property, is just another risk you are going to have to take.
Some risks in business are obviously bigger than others, but when it comes to insurance, it really does have the ability to turn your business completely upside down, and in some cases causes businesses to start from scratch if things go really badly.
We would recommend that you only take out an insurance premium that you can definitely afford, over-insure and you could find your business in money troubles if you have a worse year than you had forecasted for.
This is especially true for fledgeling businesses that are just starting out on their journey; we would suggest only insuring the absolute essentials within your commercial properties. A good way to find out what you should insure is by making a list of key equipment that your business simply couldn’t operate without – this should form the basis of the items you are looking to insure.
Other things to consider, when you are looking to choose the best insurance policy for your commercial property, are:
Hire An Expert
When it comes to finding the right insurance for your commercial property, it can be extremely difficult to know where you should start. Knowing what you should look out for when getting in touch with insurers can be challenging, with so many variables between each insurance policy. That’s where hiring an expert comes in especially useful, as someone such as a broker or your commercial lease solicitor comes armed with a huge amount of experience of dealing with all manner of insurance.
Commercial lease solicitors in Manchester and Lancashire are plentiful, but we would definitely recommend utilising a vastly experienced team where possible. The wealth of knowledge and experience they can bring to the table when looking for the best insurance policy for your commercial property can be invaluable! Having someone on your side that completely understands your business and the sector you operate within is the key to guaranteeing that you get the very best deal from your insurance.
Put Several Risks Under One Policy
Many business owners have fallen into the trap of thinking that it will be cheaper to insure different risks under different policies in the past, but we’re here to set the record straight, this usually isn’t the case. In most cases, insurers will have a number of offerings available, that combine several risks that you are looking for under one premium, which can save you a considerable amount of money compared to taking out several policies with different insurers.
The premium of a policy that covers all of the risks you are looking for will be much cheaper than getting separate policies for all of the risks. Insurers refer to this as ‘bundling of the coverage risks’ and is widely considered the wisest way to get commercial insurance.
Our advice is to try your very best to get several risks covered under one policy, as this will be a significantly cheaper, and easier option, than looking for several insurers to cover you for various risks.
Here at Curtis Law, we are proud to be among some of the most experienced commercial lease solicitors in Lancashire and Manchester, so when you choose to utilise our commercial property solicitors, you can rest assured that you will receive the very best guidance and advice.
If you’re in the process of leasing or purchasing a commercial property and require some legal assistance, be sure to get in touch with the team here at Curtis Law Solicitors. You can either call our friendly team on 01254 297130 to speak to an advisor directly, or you can get in touch online using our simple enquiry form, and we will be in touch as soon as possible.