Looking for Office Insurance?
The office is the central hub of the business. Whether you’re a fledgling start-up or you’re running a large corporate, make sure you’ve got office insurance in place.
If you run most of your business out of a commercial property for example; accountants, legal services, marketing or logistics, then you’ll want to get an office insurance policy quote that’s designed to offer the right level of protection. When searching for the right policy, you might want to think about three key things: people, premises and protecting your outgoings.
No two offices are the same
It’s difficult to say what the right level of cover is as there are so many different types of office. When insurers are calculating your premiums and level of cover, they will be looking at things like:
- The number of staff you employ
- Your turnover
- Where your office is based
- The contents of the office
- Whether you rent or own the building
- Any previous claims you’ve made
Office insurance for the people in your business
When it comes to office insurance, you’ll want to ensure that you’ve got cover in place to protect yourself against any compensation claims as a result of injury or illness. Whether this comes from an employee or a member of the public, such as a client coming to your office for a meeting, a cleaner or even a delivery man, you could face hefty financial repercussions as the claim amount and the legal fees of both parties mount up.
A legal requirement that means you could pay out if a member of staff raises a claim against you after injuring themselves or falling ill at work.
A common type of office insurance protecting against third party claims in the event of injury, illness or even damaged property.
Office insurance for your premises
You don’t need to worry about buildings insurance if you rent your office space – the landlord will take care of it. However, if you own the property then you will need to ensure that you’ve got the means in place to repair or even rebuild on the site in case of damage, flood, fire or break-in.
If you are renting the office space and make amendments to the property such as a new kitchen or meeting room, then as it’s paid for by you, it will need to be added to your insurance.
Contents Insurance
Think about everything in your office. The tables, chairs, computers, equipment, even down to the fridge and microwave in your office – now if it was damaged or stolen, would you have enough to cover the cost of rebuying it all?
Office contents insurance policies can often include terms where things taken out of the office can be covered too. For example, if your sales team have laptops and tablets to help with their job roles, you’ll want to make sure that they are covered for theft and damage if they are in transit or at a client’s office too.
Office insurance for protecting your outgoings
If you are facing a rebuild or repair to your office then it could mean shutting down over a period of time. Which could not only lose business in the short-term but may also have longer term consequences with your clients or customers. Business interruption insurance can help you to cover your outgoings and give you peace of mind. It can help to cover costs such as:
You can often create your own flexible cover for the indemnity period to suit your circumstances although most insurers will have a maximum cap so do check the policy terms before beginning repair work.
Protecting your business with professional indemnity insurance
For some businesses, their intelligence, skill, know-how and advice are their offering. This office insurance can help protect your outgoings if a client was to make a claim against you for incorrect advice or errors that result in them losing business or suffering their own financial losses.
Should you be found negligent or at fault, you could end up facing huge claims to cover your client’s losses, legal fees and any future loss of earnings too.
Office Insurance – Useful FAQs
If your office is spread over a number of buildings, cellars, stockrooms or warehouses then you can often cover them in the same buildings insurance policy – just make sure you let your insurer know.
Often the character of the building is something you want to keep safe for prospective tenants or clients. When purchasing your policy make sure you tell your insurer about all signage and decorative features on the building to ensure you’ve got the right level of financial cover.
If you hot desk at shared office space then it’s likely that you won’t need to take out buildings or contents insurance, but you might still want to consider things like cover for your own possessions, professional indemnity insurance and business interruption insurance.
By law, you should have employers’ liability insurance, so if one of your staff is injured and wants compensation then you’ll need to make an office insurance claim with your insurer to help you cover the cost.