Knowledge Centre
Construction of your Premises Podcast
12th July 2007 Duration: 6m 22s File size: 2.9MBThe podcast covers what is standard construction and what to do if your premises are not standard construction; importance of informing your insurance company of your premises location i.e. if your premises are in an area with a history of flooding or subsidence; plus management of risk.
The MORE TH>N BUSINESS Podcast with Toby Langford
Today – On the Premises. What are your buildings made of? And the most important factor...
Location, location, location Jane Markham – Podcats: Heard that somewhere before? Are you in the town or in the country? What about the rural idyll – my golf shop perhaps? Toby Langford – MORE TH>N BUSINESS: I’m certainly aware of an instance where thieves have gone through a brick wall to get at golf clubs. And of course one of the things that happens when you’re in an isolated location is that you give people time. Jane: There’s a lot to think about when it comes to where, and in what, you carry out your business. So where is the perfect spot? Toby: Of course as a business person your number one thing is going to be – is it the right location for my business? You ideally want to be in a low crime rate area and as far away from rivers with a history of flooding. Jane: Of course you might not be able to tick all the boxes for all sorts of reasons but what about how your premises is constructed? Your insurance company needs to know.... Toby: Insurance underwriters need to get as much information from the customer as they can to help them to determine what sort of risks it is that they are dealing with. If you’ve got a shop they you may have a flat roof and depending on whether that flat roof is made of felt or whether it’s a concrete flat roof – that might make a difference to an insurer’s opinion of the risk. It may be that your flat roof may be over just a small percentage – it might be a small outbuilding – and that probably won’t be a problem, but the insurance company might be interested to know about whether you’ve got some of your stock underneath that roof, because if it leaks that’s going to be a problem. Jane: So anything that’s not standard construction should be taken in to consideration. Toby: When an insurance company talks about standard construction they’re usually talking about brick or stone walls with a roof that’s probably on a timber frame - usually a sloping roof with something like slate or tiles on it. If your premises aren’t made like this it’s very well worth mentioning. If your premises are made entirely of something non combustible like concrete, then let your insurance company know about that as well. Jane: And the risks to your premises aren’t always as obvious as you might think. Surely an inner city building is more vulnerable than a rural one? Toby: One of the classics is when you are looking at retailers like golf professional shops. They will tend to be on a golf course, often in the middle of nowhere. And they tend to be full of stock that thieves are interested in getting hold of. I’m certainly aware of instances where thieves have gone through a brick wall to get at golf clubs. And of course one of the things that happens when you’re in an isolated location like that is that you give people time, unless of course you’ve got an alarm that can bring a police response.
The other thing, when you are thinking about location, is you might be near to a river in which case you might need to think about what happens if that river floods.
And of course some areas have a higher crime rate than other areas. This is particularly important – well it’s important when you are thinking about theft of your stock - but you also need to think about arson as well, because if you’re in an area with a high crime rate then it’s possible there might be youngsters who are, you know, quite happy to (and frankly are quite happy to) go round setting fire to people’s premises.
One of the things that we like to see there is good housekeeping. Think about the waste that you produce. Is it going to be out in your yard? If you have to get it into a wheelie bin make sure the bin is as far away from your building as possible and make sure that it’s locked down. Jane: Some risks are more obvious – back to the roof...let’s go for thatch. Toby: If you were calling an insurance company and you had a thatched roof that’s one of the things that you would want to talk to your insurance company about. And they might be thinking about, say for example – a thatched cottage. In that context you’d probably be talking about landlord insurance - so if you owned a property and you had tenants in it and it happened to be a residential house with a thatched roof then your insurance company is going to probably want to ask you questions about the occupancy. About whether there is actually an [open] fire there.
And if you were talking about shops or offices and particularly if you were talking about shops - an insurance company would then be thinking is it a restaurant? And in that case you’ve got a kitchen – and as soon as you get to a point where you’ve got a thatched roof and you’ve got a ready source of combustion that’s where insurers are going to get a lot more nervous.
What we tend to find with any sort of restaurant – fish and chip shops and the like – that fat can build up over a period of time in the ducting and once you set that on fire you’re in big trouble. As always it comes back to management and it’s all about what routines you have in place to make sure that the ducting is clean at all times. Jane: So are the people who are good a managing their businesses and their risks paying for the people who aren’t so good? Toby: When our surveyors go out and meet with a customer they can report back that there is an excellent management attitude and actually tick that, you know, this is a customer to retain. We always try to keep the better quality customers. It’s fair to assume that if you haven’t got a really good management attitude then you’re going to see claims coming through and if you see claims coming through then you won’t get a ‘no claims’ discount. It’s actually possible to get anything up to 40 per cent off a policy for actually not having any claims over a period of five years.
So, there is a difference in management attitudes and a lot of that, I think, comes from: experience, what sort of training the management have, do they have a health and safety policy and have undertaken risk assessments. We very much take the view that the risk is one part of it but the likelihood of that risk manifesting itself is often about what is the approach of the management. For more about insuring your business premises go to www.morethanbusiness.com
And I hope you’ll join me for the next podcast in this series.
I’m Jane Markham and this is a Podcats production for MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
Today – On the Premises. What are your buildings made of? And the most important factor...
Location, location, location Jane Markham – Podcats: Heard that somewhere before? Are you in the town or in the country? What about the rural idyll – my golf shop perhaps? Toby Langford – MORE TH>N BUSINESS: I’m certainly aware of an instance where thieves have gone through a brick wall to get at golf clubs. And of course one of the things that happens when you’re in an isolated location is that you give people time. Jane: There’s a lot to think about when it comes to where, and in what, you carry out your business. So where is the perfect spot? Toby: Of course as a business person your number one thing is going to be – is it the right location for my business? You ideally want to be in a low crime rate area and as far away from rivers with a history of flooding. Jane: Of course you might not be able to tick all the boxes for all sorts of reasons but what about how your premises is constructed? Your insurance company needs to know.... Toby: Insurance underwriters need to get as much information from the customer as they can to help them to determine what sort of risks it is that they are dealing with. If you’ve got a shop they you may have a flat roof and depending on whether that flat roof is made of felt or whether it’s a concrete flat roof – that might make a difference to an insurer’s opinion of the risk. It may be that your flat roof may be over just a small percentage – it might be a small outbuilding – and that probably won’t be a problem, but the insurance company might be interested to know about whether you’ve got some of your stock underneath that roof, because if it leaks that’s going to be a problem. Jane: So anything that’s not standard construction should be taken in to consideration. Toby: When an insurance company talks about standard construction they’re usually talking about brick or stone walls with a roof that’s probably on a timber frame - usually a sloping roof with something like slate or tiles on it. If your premises aren’t made like this it’s very well worth mentioning. If your premises are made entirely of something non combustible like concrete, then let your insurance company know about that as well. Jane: And the risks to your premises aren’t always as obvious as you might think. Surely an inner city building is more vulnerable than a rural one? Toby: One of the classics is when you are looking at retailers like golf professional shops. They will tend to be on a golf course, often in the middle of nowhere. And they tend to be full of stock that thieves are interested in getting hold of. I’m certainly aware of instances where thieves have gone through a brick wall to get at golf clubs. And of course one of the things that happens when you’re in an isolated location like that is that you give people time, unless of course you’ve got an alarm that can bring a police response.
The other thing, when you are thinking about location, is you might be near to a river in which case you might need to think about what happens if that river floods.
And of course some areas have a higher crime rate than other areas. This is particularly important – well it’s important when you are thinking about theft of your stock - but you also need to think about arson as well, because if you’re in an area with a high crime rate then it’s possible there might be youngsters who are, you know, quite happy to (and frankly are quite happy to) go round setting fire to people’s premises.
One of the things that we like to see there is good housekeeping. Think about the waste that you produce. Is it going to be out in your yard? If you have to get it into a wheelie bin make sure the bin is as far away from your building as possible and make sure that it’s locked down. Jane: Some risks are more obvious – back to the roof...let’s go for thatch. Toby: If you were calling an insurance company and you had a thatched roof that’s one of the things that you would want to talk to your insurance company about. And they might be thinking about, say for example – a thatched cottage. In that context you’d probably be talking about landlord insurance - so if you owned a property and you had tenants in it and it happened to be a residential house with a thatched roof then your insurance company is going to probably want to ask you questions about the occupancy. About whether there is actually an [open] fire there.
And if you were talking about shops or offices and particularly if you were talking about shops - an insurance company would then be thinking is it a restaurant? And in that case you’ve got a kitchen – and as soon as you get to a point where you’ve got a thatched roof and you’ve got a ready source of combustion that’s where insurers are going to get a lot more nervous.
What we tend to find with any sort of restaurant – fish and chip shops and the like – that fat can build up over a period of time in the ducting and once you set that on fire you’re in big trouble. As always it comes back to management and it’s all about what routines you have in place to make sure that the ducting is clean at all times. Jane: So are the people who are good a managing their businesses and their risks paying for the people who aren’t so good? Toby: When our surveyors go out and meet with a customer they can report back that there is an excellent management attitude and actually tick that, you know, this is a customer to retain. We always try to keep the better quality customers. It’s fair to assume that if you haven’t got a really good management attitude then you’re going to see claims coming through and if you see claims coming through then you won’t get a ‘no claims’ discount. It’s actually possible to get anything up to 40 per cent off a policy for actually not having any claims over a period of five years.
So, there is a difference in management attitudes and a lot of that, I think, comes from: experience, what sort of training the management have, do they have a health and safety policy and have undertaken risk assessments. We very much take the view that the risk is one part of it but the likelihood of that risk manifesting itself is often about what is the approach of the management. For more about insuring your business premises go to www.morethanbusiness.com
And I hope you’ll join me for the next podcast in this series.
I’m Jane Markham and this is a Podcats production for MORE TH>N BUSINESS.
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