Property insurance

What counts as the property of your business

Property is everything that keeps your business physically running: buildings and structural fittings, machinery and plant, technical and commercial fixtures and fittings, and goods, stock and raw materials. If a large part of that is lost, production stops. Property insurance is what protects you against losing that substance.

It covers fire, mains water, storm and hail, the extended natural hazards such as flood, heavy rain, landslide and snow load, and burglary and vandalism. Technical risks are covered by machinery and electronics insurance, goods in transit by marine cargo insurance, and the vehicle fleet by motor own damage cover. Which modules you need depends on your location, on how your buildings are built and on your production process.

The insured value decides what you are paid

The most common gap in property policies is not a missing peril but a sum insured that is too low. If the actual value is above the agreed sum, the insurer reduces the settlement proportionally, even for small losses. This underinsurance mostly affects businesses that have grown over the years without adjusting their sums.

Together with you we work out the existing insured value and the cost of replacement after a loss, not the book value from the balance sheet. After that we settle whether you are indemnified on a reinstatement or an indemnity basis, whether a waiver of underinsurance can be agreed and which excess brings the premium down sensibly.

Property damage and loss of income belong together

A fire costs you twice: once for the plant destroyed and once for the turnover lost while it is rebuilt. The second part is often the larger one. Property insurance and business interruption insurance therefore belong tuned to one another, with the same insured perils and an indemnity period that matches realistic delivery times.

When reviewing your existing policies we also look for duplication. In portfolios that have grown over time, individual items are often insured twice and others not at all. Once we have taken stock you will know in black and white what loss potential sits in your business and how much of it is actually covered.