Office Insurance

If you run an office or are soon to be doing so, then you will need to take out Office Insurance. TechRound details everything you need to know right here. You can contact us to get in touch with one of our partners on: [email protected].

We have put together a guide for office insurance which looks into in-depth explanations of the features, exclusions and optional cover to make sure that your office and business is properly protected.

Any office will have three important aspects which any decent insurance policy will keep in mind at all times. These are:

• Your premises and equipment (covered by buildings and contents insurance)
• Your staff and your customers alike (covered by public and employer’s liability insurance).
• Protection of outgoing costs should you have to stop trading for a period of time (covered by business interruption insurance).

You should prioritise getting these all in place and everything else will come down to the specifics of your business, your preferences and your budget.

Do I need Office Insurance?

Office Insurance is an investment and one which is primarily focused on businesses that are run from a commercial property. There are also specialist policies which are designed to account for the risks of your specific industry. The types of cover which have been listed above are all standard and/or are, in fact, legal requirements across all offices.

Having said this, it is appreciated that no two offices are the same and you must work to tailor your policy to meet the needs of your specific risks. Having this all set out will give you peace of mind.

Types of Office Insurance

We are going to be looking at the types of office insurance that are available in more detail.

Employer’s Liability Insurance

The minimum cover required by law is £5 million. Employers’ liability insurance guarantees that you have access to adequate funds, if you need to compensate a member of your team for something like an injury or damage that you may be liable for. You should have this insurance in place to cover freelancer workers and volunteers as well as your employees.

Public Liability Insurance

This kind of insurance is there to protect and your customers alike. As an owner of a business, you will be responsible for making your office as risk free as it can possibly be. However, it is inevitable that accidents happen.

Public Liability Insurance will help to cover loss, damage or injury to a third party on your business premises. For example, if a customer were to slip and hurt themselves when visiting your premises, this cover would pay out if a law suit were to surface as a result.

Office Buildings Insurance

Buildings insurance will only be a necessary requirement if you own the property that you conduct your business from. Otherwise, it will be up to the landlord or property owner to have the building insured as their responsibility. This will usually be covered by their own commercial property insurance policy.

This does not mean that improvements made by you will automatically be insured on your landlord or property owner’s policy, however. If you install a room function room or kitchen or something similar during your time as the tenant, this should be added to and declared on your insurance. As it will be paid for and owned by you, the insurance is going to be your responsibility.

Business Interruption

This covers you in the light of your property becoming ruined, damaged or unworkable with. Your business interruption protection will be able to cover you in continuing to pay your rent, the employees’ wages and other expenses which are associated with your business needs. This will help to keep your business alive, even in the hardest of times, while the problems are being resolved.

There is a period of time called the ‘indemnity period’. This is the period of time which you can claim for business interruption costs.

Office Contents Insurance

Anything which is permanently fixed in your office building will need to be covered with the building itself. As a general rule, anything which is not fixed in place should be listed in your ‘contents insurance’. Examples of fitted things include sinks, windows, light fittings and built-in desks and shelving units. These are all defined as things to be covered by the building insurance.

Stand-alone desks, computers and cabinets are categorised as ‘contents’ and will be covered under an office contents insurance policy.

If you rent the property from a third party, your landlord will have their own policy in covering the contents that belong to them. However, anything which you buy and bring will need to be covered under your own policy.