Always by your side

Always by your side.

I’m sure there’s a song in there somewhere, maybe Barbara Streisand, now I’m really showing my age. The oldies are the goodies anyway.

And some things never change, insurers still want to carry out physical surveys of premises, ask questions and generally have a poke around, to see exactly what the are covering and how “RISKY” it is.

Fire hazards are the main concerns when dealing with large scale commercial warehouses and the like and that’s before we start talking about many millions of pounds worth of stock and equipment, #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.

When we talk about fire hazard, we are generally talking about two things, sources of ignition and combustible materials, wood, cardboard packaging and the like. Keeping these two things apart is fire safety 101. Keep them apart and you are 50% of the way there.

After that we look at measure to reduce the problem if a fire occurs. These can include extinguishers, sprinkler systems and alarms, connected to key holders, monitoring stations, the fire services, police and other emergency responders.

Always there, well what I meant by that cryptic comment, is that we will never leave you alone to meet with insurers, surveyors, or professional risk managers. We will always be there to provide advice and guidance, turn up in advance and brief you about the likely course of those meetings and be there as they happen in real time.

Today I travelled 141 miles 2 ½ Hours) to be with an important client, whilst a fire survey took place. I cemented the relationship with the client and built a new one, with another industry professional and I’d have it no other way. It’s #openhonesttransparent Its what we do, day in and day out.

Have a great week.

40 Years in the making!

Well, it had to change at least once.

All my professional life I’ve said one thing has never changed and that is the rates charged for standard construction buildings insurance and they were, per £1,000 rebuild sum insured:

£1.50 for Residential property

£2.00 for residential let property

£2.50 for purpose-built blocks of flats

£3.00 for shops with residential flats above

£3.00+ for high fire hazards, restaurants, takeaways, chip shops, furniture stores etc….

 

These rates have held firm for the last 40 years, but now that is all changing. Some rates ae going up by as much as 100% dependent on area and construction. So, what’s causing all this:

  • Worldwide property rates woefully low and claims costs are increasing year on year.
  • 5 Major storms since December 2019
  • Insurers Solvency Margins – having to reserve more capital, so claims pot is reduced
  • Cost of International Re-Insurance used to spread risk, rising rapidly
  • Lowest investment rates in history means nothing to offset claims costs
  • Personal Injury claims increasing with ever higher awards, so insurers reserves depleted
  • Covid 19 was the icing on the cake, already estimated at £5 Billion in UK alone

Since then, Brexit has increased labour and material costs, especially in the construction industry, with the cost of steel, concrete and timber the worst, so rebuild costs are also increasing at the same time. The war in Ukraine can only lead to further instability about the supply of raw materials.

So, what can you do about property insurances you hold:

  1. Make sure you get a new rebuild costing, if you’re underinsured any claim will be reduced by this percentage, the responsibility lies with you, not the insurer. Do it now don’t wait until renewal of your insurance.
  2. Don’t wait to the last minute to review your insurances and make sure you get your renewal quote early. In most cases there is no reason why you shouldn’t get it at least 2 weeks before.
  3. Approach alternate broker for terms and ask for formal quotes. This is the best way to get maximum market coverage as brokers may have 20 different insurers to compare.

If you’d like to know more please just get in touch for an #openhonesttransparent review

Call 029 20 470 375 or email info@severnbay.com #becauseaccidentshappen to nice people all the time.