Fire and flood can be devastating and when you watch the news you can see that they appear to be getting more common. As Mother Nature seeks her vengeance on humankind as a business you need to make sure you are prepared. Most businesses at some point will sit down and work out which insurance you need and which insurance you can leave to save some of the budget. One of the most overlooked types of insurance is business interruption, yet I believe it to be one of the most crucial – could you business survive following a fire or flood at the premises?
Even though it can be frustrating to see businesses not understanding the importance of business interruption insurance it can be even more frustrating to see a well prepared business that had all the business interruption in place still flounder (or even go under) because the insurance company payout was so tight that the business just cannot afford to carry on.
Fire and flood could potentially ruin your business premises and stock, you are going to have staff that are temporarily out of work, you will have contractors to sort – and then on top of that is the insurance claim. It can be emotionally draining and when you find out that the insurance will expect you to deal with your end of the claim yourself – whilst they have a specialist loss adjuster in place to pick the case apart and ‘adjust’ the payout you will receive, it is like a disaster all over again.
You are not going to have the specialist knowledge to take on the big boys, so you should hunt down the services of a firm of loss assessors. Essentially a loss assessor does a similar job to the loss adjuster that has been employed by the insurance company. There is, however, one small difference – the loss assessor works for you. As they work for you they will only have the interests of your business in mind, leaving the playing field completely levelled out.
The key points to remember are:
- That the loss assessor represents your business and no one else, they will be working towards getting you the best possible settlement following a disaster like fir or flood.
- Loss assessors have areas of expertise and the appropriate one will be assigned to your case – this helps ensure maximum payouts.
- They deal with all the paperwork for you; they liaise with insurance company for you. Essentially the loss assessor will take all of the responsibility of the claim away from you and leave you to deal with the more personal aspects of the disaster.
Leaving business interruption claims solely in the hands of the insurance company is never a good idea – you owe it to your business to make the most of a bad situation. You will have spent years of blood, sweat and tears building up the company to get it where is and to see it close through no fault of your own can be equally devastating.
Wayne Barker writes for Harris Balcombe – the UK’s most prestigious claims recovery and claims management company. With a pedigree stretching back over 100 years you can be sure that their loss assessors will help your business be one of the ones that survives following a major disaster. Harris Balcombe specialise in business interruption and fire insurance claims.
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