Commercial Insurance
Commercial Insurance
Commercial Insurance Solutions
Protect your business with tailored commercial insurance solutions. No matter your industry, we provide comprehensive coverage designed to safeguard your operations. From offices and shops to factories, construction sites, and leisure facilities, we cater to businesses of all sizes and sectors. Our team ensures fast, efficient, and thorough service, offering policies that meet your unique needs.
What Can Commercial (Business) Insurance Cover?
Business insurance is a versatile solution that protects against various risks associated with running a business. Depending on your requirements, it can include:
Our advisors work with you to identify the specific risks your business faces and tailor a policy that provides comprehensive protection.
- Property Insurance Covers damage or loss to your building and contents, ensuring your business can recover quickly after incidents like fires or theft.
- Liability Insurance Provides protection against third-party injuries or legal claims arising during business operations.
How Does Commercial Insurance Work?
A commercial insurance policy is structured to cover the risks most relevant to your business. Here's how the process typically works:
Our team evaluates your business type, operations, and specific risks, whether you're in B2B or B2C sectors.
Based on your needs, we create a package that includes essential coverages like property or liability insurance, along with any additional protections.
We monitor your policy to ensure it stays relevant as your business evolves, offering adjustments as needed.
By tailoring your policy to your unique requirements, we provide a solution that protects your business without unnecessary extras.
Your Duty of Fair Presentation
Business insurance places a legal duty on the buyer that consumer insurance does not, and it is the most common reason a commercial claim is reduced or refused.
Under the Insurance Act 2015 a commercial policyholder must make a fair presentation of the risk. That means disclosing every material circumstance you know, or ought to know after a reasonable search of your own organisation — and presenting it clearly, not buried in a mass of undifferentiated documents.
The "reasonable search" wording matters. Knowledge held by senior management and by those responsible for arranging the insurance counts, so it is not a defence that the director signing the proposal was personally unaware of something a manager knew.
The remedies are proportionate rather than absolute. A deliberate or reckless breach allows the insurer to avoid the policy entirely and keep the premium. A careless one is treated according to what the insurer would have done with full information: refuse the risk, and the policy can be avoided; charge more, and a claim can be reduced in proportion; impose a term, and the policy is treated as though that term had applied.
In practice, disclose previous claims and losses, prosecutions or enforcement notices, any material change of trade or activity, unusual stock or processes, and work carried out away from your premises. If you are unsure whether something matters, disclose it.
Claims-Made Cover and Run-Off
Most business insurance responds to events occurring during the policy year. Professional indemnity, directors' and officers' cover and some liability extensions do not — they operate on a claims-made basis, and the difference has consequences years later.
A claims-made policy responds to claims notified during the period of insurance, regardless of when the work was done. The policy in force when the complaint arrives is the one that answers, not the policy in force when the advice was given.
Two things follow. Continuous cover matters enormously: a gap of even a few weeks can leave years of past work unprotected. And retroactive date is a term worth checking on every renewal, because it sets how far back the policy will reach.
Run-off cover addresses the same issue at the end. When a business ceases trading, is sold, or a professional retires, claims can still arrive for years afterwards. Run-off keeps a claims-made policy answering after the business has stopped. It is usually bought for a period of several years and is easy to forget precisely when everything else is being wound up.
Notify circumstances that might give rise to a claim as soon as you become aware of them, even before a claim is made. Late notification is a frequent cause of declined professional indemnity claims.
Warranties, Conditions and Subjectivities
Commercial policies impose obligations on you as well as on the insurer, and they are not all equally serious.
A condition precedent to liability must be complied with or the insurer need not pay that claim. Intruder alarm requirements, minimum lock specifications, and rules on how much stock may be left in a vehicle overnight are commonly written this way.
A warranty is a promise about a state of affairs. Since the Insurance Act 2015, breaching one suspends cover rather than terminating the policy, and cover resumes once the breach is remedied — a significant improvement on the previous position, but no help at all if a loss occurs while the breach persists.
A subjectivity is a condition attached to a quotation or a newly incepted policy, requiring something to be done within a stated period — a survey completed, a risk improvement carried out, documentation supplied. Miss the deadline and cover can be withdrawn on a policy you believed was fully in force.
Read these when the schedule arrives rather than at renewal. Most are straightforward to comply with and cost nothing; the expensive part is discovering one after a loss.
When Something Happens
Do three things immediately, and in this order.
Make the situation safe
and take reasonable steps to prevent further loss. Policies require it, and the cost of doing so is generally recoverable.
Notify your insurer or broker straight away
within any stated timescale. Do not wait until you have assembled a full picture. Report theft, malicious damage and loss to the police and obtain a crime reference where required.
Preserve the evidence
Photograph the damage before clearing up, keep damaged items rather than disposing of them, and retain invoices, stock records and accounts.
Do not admit liability or agree to settle anything with a third party. Doing so can prejudice your own cover, and handling the response is the insurer's job under a liability section.
For business interruption, the paperwork is the claim. Management accounts, filed accounts and payroll records are what quantify a loss, and a business that cannot evidence its trading history will struggle to recover what it actually lost.
Why Tailored Commercial Insurance Matters
Every business is unique, and a one-size-fits-all insurance policy often falls short of providing adequate protection. By customising your business insurance, you can avoid unnecessary costs by selecting only the coverage that is relevant to your operations. This approach ensures your business has comprehensive protection tailored specifically to the risks it faces. With a policy designed to suit your needs, you can operate with confidence, knowing your business is safeguarded against unexpected events.
How Much Does Commercial Insurance Cover?
The coverage limits of your commercial insurance depend on several factors, including:
Our team will guide you through understanding your coverage needs, ensuring your policy fits both your business and budget.
At Bradgate FS we aim to make choosing and applying for a mortgage, protection, loan or insurance as stress-free as possible.
We specialise in providing commercial (business) insurance policies that give businesses peace of mind. Whether you need property, liability, or customised coverage, our team ensures you receive a policy that's both comprehensive and cost-effective.
- Business Size Larger businesses may require higher coverage limits to protect their operations.
- Industry Risks Certain industries, like construction or hospitality, may have unique risks requiring specific coverage.
- Chosen Add-Ons Optional protections like business interruption or professional indemnity insurance can increase coverage.
Related
Important information
This is a general insurance policy with no cash-in value at any time. Cover is subject to underwriting and to the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions of the individual policy. If you stop paying premiums, cover will end.
No cost, no obligation
Talk to a Leicester adviser this week
One conversation is usually enough to tell you where you stand. Send the form and an adviser calls you back, normally the same working day.
Book your free consultation
No cost, no obligation. Tell us where you are up to and an adviser will call you back, usually the same working day.