May 17, 2012

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Finding the most appropriate key man insurance

April 30, 2012 By Jason Leave a Comment

Any person involved in business already knows that if you are keen to protect your business assets then insurance is something that can help.

Elements of business company insurance that you may be familiar with may include cover for:

  • inanimate things like your buildings or infrastructure, plant and machinery etc;
  • less tangible elements like debt exposure, providing protection against defaulting debtors.

You might also help minimise costs to your business and improve the morale and possibly even the health of your employees by providing them with health cover.

One element of insurance that you may not be as familiar with is the area of key man insurance.

Within any business there may be one individual or several who are critical to the on-going success of the company.

If they were to fall ill and be unable to work for an extended period of time or in the worst case, pass away, you may find that there could be an immediate and possibly devastating effect on your business.

Taking out insurance for these key individuals may provide you with a financial buffer payable in the event of their death or critical illness, so as to allow yourself the time to fully recover from the effect of their inability to work.

There may be a number of options for this type of cover, depending on the role of the key individual in the company. What may be best for one business may, therefore, not be best for yours – so which one might be the best in your circumstances?

There may be any number of reasons why an individual may be a key component of your company. They may:

  • have important contacts in the business world which would be lost;
  • be instrumental in finding funding and resources for new developments;
  • have detailed knowledge of the very fine detail of how the business works – its systems and process, that may be difficult to replace;
  • be highly regarded in your business sector, which may result in a loss of confidence if they were not around;
  • contribute a significant portion of the company profits through their role in the business.

The main elements of this type of cover that may help to safeguard the success of the company are:

  • keyman insurance – providing cover for the financial impact of having to recruit, train and get your key replacement fully up to speed and integrated into your organisation;
  • loan protection – the loss of a key person may have an impact on your business profits and affect your ability to service existing debts
  • shareholder protection – if the key individual is a shareholder in the company then this could have on-going implications for the financial health and viability of your business.

Finding the most appropriate protection for your business may be crucial for its on-going success.

Filed Under: Business Insurance Tagged With:

Unoccupied property insurance compare: what you need to know

April 12, 2012 By Jason Leave a Comment

Landlords who let out their properties to tenants may want to ensure that they protect their investments by getting the most suitable insurance policies for their needs. However, some landlords do not carry out the unoccupied property insurance compare process properly, and this may leave them at risk of being uninsured when they come to make a claim.

A basic overview of vacant property insurance

If you are wondering why you may want to take out insurance for a property which is unoccupied, you may be interested in finding out a bit more about what this type of insurance is.

Basically, if you own a property which goes unoccupied for over 30 or 45 days (depending on the provider), it is classed as an unoccupied property. If you then need to make a claim on your standard home insurance policy, you may find that it is rejected.

The reason for this is that an unoccupied property may be seen as being at greater risk to theft as well as damage caused by such problems as burst pipes. The logic is that if there is no one in the property to spot the problems, then the risk is increased.

Benefits of this product

Landlords may benefit from this insurance if:

  • they need to carry out extensive work on the property and are unable to let it out for over 30 days as a result;
  • they find it difficult to find tenants for over 30 days and the property stays empty.

But unoccupied property insurance may also be useful for owner occupiers too, rather than just landlords. For example:

  • you may go on an extended holiday for over a month and leave your home unoccupied;
  • you may have to work from a different location for a long period of time;
  • you may carry out renovations on your property and stay with a friend whilst these are going ahead.

Is it included in a standard landlord insurance policy?

Insurance for a vacant property is not covered in a standard landlords insurance policy, nor is it standard in a building and contents insurance policy. Instead, it is a separate policy which you may want to consider if your circumstances dictate.

Unoccupied property insurance: compare cover

If you are keen to find this type of insurance product, whether you are a landlord looking for let property insurance or an owner occupier, you may find it worthwhile to compare the options for unoccupied property insurance.

Filed Under: Landlords Insurance Tagged With:

Taking the time to compare motorcycle insurance quotes

January 24, 2012 By Jason Leave a Comment

You may not be relishing the prospect of taking some time to compare motorcycle insurance quotes.

While this may be understandable, if you concentrate on the fact that this exercise may result in you saving some significant amounts of cash on the cost of your motorbike insurance premium cover, then the task may seem more worthwhile though admittedly not really any more enjoyable!

The first step you may need to consider when thinking about your criteria, when you compare motorcycle insurance quotes, is whether or not you fall into any special category or group of bikers. For example;

  • you may be looking for cheap female bike insurance;
  • should you be just starting out with your first bike and are fairly young then you may need to be looking for those providers who may be able to arrange cover for bikers as young as 16 (a CBT pass certificate may be required);
  • at the opposite end of the age range, bikers over 70 and perhaps up to the age of 75 if they have a very good previous riding history, may similarly benefit  from the services of a specialist provider;
  • if you have some penalty points on your licence then this may influence the way that providers may view you;
  • you may be the owner of a classic bike and need very specific cover;
  • you may own several bikes and are looking for a single policy that can cover all of them.

Motorcycle riders obviously differ significantly one from the other and need correspondingly different types of motorcycle insurance cover.

Using a specialist motorbike insurance provider who can provide quotes tailored to your specific needs may help make your comparison exercise just that little bit easier.

Different policies may have different terms and conditions attached. For example some policies may require:

  • that you keep your bike on your driveway when it is not in use rather than on the public highway;
  • if you have a classic or very high value bike, you may find that you are asked to ensure that your bike is garaged securely when not in use;
  • that you take additional security precautions such as fitting a tracking device;
  • that you reduce your annual mileage to specified levels.

The last thing that you may wish to consider when you compare motorcycle insurance quotes is the price of the policy. Important to your pocket as this may be, it may only make sense to look at it when you know that the policy is providing you with the level of cover that you need.

Filed Under: Motorcycle Insurance Tagged With:

What’s different about holiday home insurance in France?

December 23, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

What makes holiday home insurance in France such a typically different matter to arranging the same cover as at home is, of course, the fact that it operates in a different country, with its own distinct, customs, practices and ways of doing things. How might this affect the insurance you may wish to put in place for your second home across the Channel?

Building insurance

  • safeguarding the actual building itself might be one of your prime concerns about arranging holiday home insurance in France. Events such as fire, flooding, storm damage, impacts and falling objects may have the potential for the complete destruction of the building and your need to rebuild it from the ground up;
  • it may be tempting therefore to follow the same rule of thumb that you used to provide for your building and contents insurance back at home in the UK and place an insurance valuation on the property that covers the possibility of it having to be completely reconstructed;
  • when arranging your holiday home insurance in France, however, you may also need to pay particular attention to specific areas of risk typically ruled out from conventional French policies – especially with respect to such events as flooding and storm damage;

Contents insurance

  • similar differences might apply with respect to the cover for the contents of your holiday home. French insurance policies might exclude certain risks or particular circumstances that you might not usually find in those written for the English market;

Employers liability

  • if you employ someone in France to help clean, cook or do other household chores, or if you employ someone to look after the property when you are not there, you might already have considered the need for employers’ liability protection. This is designed to indemnify you in the event of claims by such employees for damage or loss to their property or from personal injury whilst in your employment;
  • once again, however, the employees’ rights to claim and your obligations as the employer to pay any compensation, might be somewhat different to the rules that apply in the UK;

Buying overseas property cover

  • because of the potential for differences between the insurance you may be accustomed to at home and those that apply to your second home in France, you might consider it important to arrange the cover you need locally;
  • however, there are also companies in the UK which are fully versed in all of those differences. These specialist insurance providers may be able to help you ensure not only that the insurance policy you buy meets French standards but that these are incorporated into a policy document written in plain English;
  • arranging holiday home insurance in France with the aid of such a specialist insurance provider might also bring the advantage of paying the same annual premium in sterling, rather than needing to worry about fluctuating exchange rates.
Filed Under: Home Insurance Tagged With: ,

A simple landlords insurance guide

December 22, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

As with many kinds of cover, a simple landlords insurance guide needs to take into account the wide range of different types of buy to let insurance. Although there may be similarities with standard home building and contents insurance, there are additional features of particular interest to landlords:

Common features

Buildings

  • just as you might find in your own home insurance cover, insurance of the structure and fabric of a buy to let property typically forms a core element;
  • such landlords buildings cover is important for the protection of your major investment in the property to safeguard it against the potentially crippling risks such as fire, flooding, storm damage, impacts and falling debris;
  • as is the case with other forms of property cover, simple landlords insurance is likely to require an up to date and regularly reviewed evaluation of the property to ensure that the total sum insured remains sufficient for the complete reconstruction of the premises in the event of a total loss;
  • it may be worth noting that not all insurers include subsidence in the list of perils covered. Some, however, include this as a standard feature of all their policies. It may be a question of choosing the right insurer, therefore, if subsidence is a risk you suspect;

Contents

  • the other common core element of simple landlords insurance is typically cover for your contents of the let property. Although insurance for your tenants’ property and belongings is a matter for themselves, you may wish to safeguard the contents you, as landlord, continue to own;
  • once again, regularly reviewed and up to date evaluations of your contents may help to ensure that there remains a sufficient level of cover to repair or replace items that become accidentally damaged, are lost or stolen;

Landlords

  • although buildings and contents components might be standard features of many types of property cover, simple landlords insurance may typically offers added safeguards specifically designed to meet your particular needs;
  • with respect to public liability, for instance, your role as landlord may expose you to the risk of claims alleging breaches of your duty of care towards them. Public liability cover under the terms of simple landlords insurance might adequately safeguard you against such claims;
  • whilst a home rendered uninhabitable by one of the serious insured events might leave you with nowhere to live, if your buy to let property is destroyed you stand to lose the rental income, too. Some insurance policies for such properties therefore also include landlord rent insurance which may compensate you (up to certain limits) for such loss of rent;
  • no simple landlords insurance guide is likely to include all of the features of every possible type of cover, however. More detailed investigation of the current packages available is likely to be well worth your while.
Filed Under: Landlords Insurance Tagged With: ,

Unoccupied home insurance considerations

December 22, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

Owning a buy to let property that is empty and not generating rental income, may not be what you had in mind when you decided to become a landlord and while you may do your utmost to prevent this loss of income, there may be times when it is completely outside your control. In these circumstances, you may need to consider unoccupied home insurance.

Period of vacancy

Your existing buy to let landlords insurance may provide appropriate cover for your purposes while you have tenants in place.  If your property is empty for extended period though then your buy to let insurance may cease to provide cover.

With some policies this may happen after 30 consecutive days though with some others this may extend to 45 days. You may typically need to study your own policy to understand the exact position for you.

Different risks

Unoccupied home insurance is specifically designed to offer protection for the variations in risk profile that may typically occur when a property is empty.

Having tenants in your property may result in issues that might potentially develop into something more serious, being caught and dealt with early. This may include situations such as a broken window allowing weather related damage to happen or a leaking pipe causing extensive water damage.

Vandals and thieves may also be on the lookout for properties showing no obvious signs of habitation.

Terms and conditions

There may be terms and conditions contained within a typical unoccupied home insurance policy, which may be quite different to those you may be familiar with in your buy to let building insurance.

There may, for example, be a condition that requires that you have your property inspected on a regular basis (perhaps weekly) to check that everything is ok and to carry out any necessary repairs or on-going maintenance work.

This might include keeping the garden tidy and free from rubbish. You may also be required to keep a log of these visits.

Sensible precautions

Of course, your policy may also ask that you take some sensible precautions to help to keep your property safe while it is unoccupied.

For example, setting up timers to automatically turn a few lights on and off may help to give your property a lived in look that may deter thieves.

In the winter, unless you are keeping the heating on at a low temperature to avoid frost damage, unoccupied home insurance policies may also typically suggest that you drain down all heating and water systems.

Filed Under: Landlords Insurance Tagged With: ,

Is the cheapest motorcycle insurance automatically the best?

December 22, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

It is probably true to say that there are those who would not hesitate to answer the above question in the affirmative.  They may well see the cheapest motorcycle insurance as being, by definition, the best.

Yet the story may be rather more complicated than that and going forward with a view that the cheapest equals the best, may prove to have unfortunate ramifications.

That may come to pass because insurance really only exists for one purpose – to provide you with financial support in the event you suffer one of a specified range of problems covered by your policy.

Therefore, if you are unfortunate and find yourself in the position of needing to make a claim, the cost of your motorbike insurance policy to date will be something that is of no interest to you whatsoever.  Your focus of attention will be almost exclusively on things such as the cover provided by your bike insurance policy and the service provided by your bike insurer in helping to conclude matters satisfactorily for you.

If you accept the logic of these positions, it seems inevitable that you must conclude that sourcing an insurance policy based upon price alone, might end up in extreme disappointment in the event of a claim.  Perhaps the very best thing that can be said about an exclusively cheapest motorcycle insurance and price-driven focus, is that it may prove to be extremely risky.

If a focus on cover is adopted, it is perfectly normal to ask what place price therefore has in the equation.  Perhaps comparatively few of us have sufficient financial resources to entirely disregarded the subject altogether!

One approach that may be useful is to search for insurers that are able to offer product ranges that are closely aligned to your own bike needs.

For example, some insurers offer things such as female bike insurance or young/old rider cover.  In areas such as these, assuming you qualify, you may be able to find some interesting economies that may appeal to you.

You may find that the cheapest motorcycle insurance for another rider may end up proving to be anything but the cheapest for you if the policy is not providing the cover you need.

Filed Under: Motorcycle Insurance Tagged With: ,

Bike insurance and new riders

November 15, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

If you are new to motorcycling, you may be wondering about just how bike insurance works and how much it is going to cost you.

Although it is impossible to accurately answer the second part of the question, without you going through a full quotation process, you may find the following points to be useful:

  • as a new motorcyclist, you may need to accept that your insurance may be somewhat less cost attractive than policies for more experienced riders;
  • if you both lack experience and are relatively young, then the two things together may increase your costs a little further;
  • as you might expect, the cost of your motorcycle insurance will typically be significantly affected by the size, type and value of your bike – the way you use it (e.g. your annual mileages) may also play a part;
  • unfortunately, motorcycles are not immune from the attention of thieves and vandals, with a significant proportion of such problems arising when bikes are parked overnight, therefore, if you can park your bike off the public road on your driveway (or better, in a locked and secure garage) you may be able to keep down the price of your insurance;
  • one thing that may adversely affect the cost of your bike insurance is a motoring conviction – avoiding these may therefore not only be socially responsible bike riding but also practical in helping to reduce your costs;
  • if you are purchasing a second-hand bike, it might be prudent to check whether or not it has been modified away from the original manufacturer’s specification – if it has, that may also increase the price of your bike insurance, as some insurers are fearful of such modifications;
  • if you are in the process of choosing the bike with which to start your motorcycling experience, remember that a combination of a powerful machine combined with an inexperienced and/or young rider, may result in some fairly hefty insurance premiums – it may be advisable to consider a smaller and less ambitious machine until such time as you have accumulated both experience and a no claims discount;
  • the position with regard to no claims discount may be complicated and vary significantly between insurance policies, however, as a general rule it may be advisable to avoid relatively small value claims, as these may put your discount at risk;
  • finally, it might make sense to try and find an insurance provider who is able to offer you a choice of several insurers’ bike insurance policies to choose from – it may allow you an opportunity to find motorbike cover that is suitable for you.
Filed Under: Motorcycle Insurance Tagged With:

What does landlords insurance cover?

November 14, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

The answer to the question, what does landlord insurance cover, may appear to be deceptively easy.

Some people may answer the question by simply saying:

  • buildings, fixtures and fittings cover;
  • contents insurance;
  • third party public liability cover.

That may be broadly correct, however, the position may become a little more complicated if you consider wider areas of protection when thinking about what does landlord insurance cover.

Some landlords buildings and contents insurance may offer cover for what may be considered to be business risk areas, sometimes including things such as:

  • a loss of rental income in the event that you are unable to rent out your property while trying to recover from a problem caused by an insured risk (this may typically not include situations where you had lost rental income due to absconding tenants or where you are engaged in a legal battle with them over eviction etc);
  • malicious damage caused by tenants;
  • trace and access cover – where a tradesperson has found it necessary to damage areas of your property while they were endeavouring to find the source of a problem.

It is typically advisable to be clear in your own mind, as to what cover a let property insurance quotation and its associated policy will provide to you, if you decide to purchase it.

Some landlords may be inclined to simply select the lowest cost landlord insurance they can find but this runs the risk of starting to have debates about what is or is not covered, only in the context of a future claim.

You may find it far preferable to have this discussion with potential insurers before you have purchased the policy rather than at the time you are trying to make a claim.

Although it may appear a rather gloomy way of thinking about it, in the final analysis, your landlords insurance may be all that stands between you and potential financial ruin, should misfortune strike.

It therefore seems to be intuitively logical to take the question of the selection of your insurance seriously and to make sure that you have obtained a thorough answer to the question, what does landlord insurance cover, prior to signing any policy purchase agreements.

Filed Under: Landlords Insurance Tagged With: ,

Trying to identify the best landlords insurance

November 10, 2011 By Jason Leave a Comment

If you have started a search trying to find the best landlords insurance, you may find the following tips to be of some use:

  • while looking, don’t lose sight of the fact that the concept of best is very subjective and may depend very heavily upon your unique situation – what is the best let property insurance for someone else may not prove to be best for you;
  • even the best landlords insurance, however you define that, may not include cover for unoccupied properties (typically defined as properties that sit unoccupied for periods exceeding 30-90 consecutive days depending on the provider) – so you may also need to search for unoccupied property insurance if your property is likely to come into that category;
  • subsidence may be a very expensive problem to remedy and one that, in extreme cases, may even require the demolition and rebuilding of a property – unfortunately, today not all landlords buildings insurance necessarily provides such cover as standard, so it may be worth looking for a policy that does;
  • some policies may also offer cover for theft or malicious damage attributable to your tenants and if you have experienced such problems in the past, you may feel that the best landlords insurance for you might need to include such protection;
  • some policies may have restrictions relating to the type of tenants they will cover and some may positively exclude tenant groupings such as DSS and students, so, if you wish to market your property to potentially any tenant, you may need to search for cover that is not restrictive;
  • if you have more than one property under administration, you may sometimes feel as if your life consists entirely of paperwork and you may be keen to reduce that whenever possible, if so, you might be particularly attracted to those landlords insurance policies that offer multi-property landlords insurance cover;
  • multi-property policies may not only offer savings in terms of administration time but they may also allow you to achieve economies of scale and more cost-effective solutions;
  • the risk of being sued under public liability provisions is ever-present for landlords and it may be prudent to ensure that your policy offers a healthy degree of financial cover – some may offer cover of up to £5 million;
  • something else that may be attractive and help you to consider an option to be the best landlords insurance for you, is loss of rental income protection – this will allow you to claim a contribution towards lost rental income in the event your property has to be emptied and tenants moved out, due to an insured risk making it uninhabitable.
Filed Under: Landlords Insurance Tagged With:
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