Property
From a small buy to let project to the largest industrial estate, if you are a commercial property owner Garratts Insurance Brokers are on-hand to provide you with the optimum cover for your circumstances.
As a commercial property owner it is prudent to seek professional advice to ensure that your properties remain a successful investment. Building a profitable property portfolio is something which can take a long time establish but little time to ruin if you are insufficiently insured. We can take all of the necessary measures on your behalf to ensure you are fully safeguarded.
We can take all of the necessary measures on your behalf to ensure you are fully safeguarded.
The Building
When insuring a building, it is essential to make certain that the sum insured is adequate to cover:
- full rebuild of the property without deduction for wear tear or depreciation
- professional fees (such as architects & surveyors fees) incurred in the reconstruction process
- demolition costs
- shoring up / propping up costs
- debris / waste removal costs
- additional costs of reinstatement to comply with Public Authority requirements or building regulations
- allowance for "non recoverable" VAT on rebuilding costs
- allowance for cost fluctuations and inflation
Cost fluctuations can be very difficult to determine therefore we offer policies which incorporate “Day One Inflation Protection". This protection lifts the declared value of the property by a percentage (usually 15-25%) to effectively cover for fluctuations and inflation from “day one”.
Rental Income
To ensure you continue to maximise your earnings from your commercial or industrial property it is essential to ensure that your investment continues to pay even in the event of loss or damage. To cover for the potential loss of income that may be incurred (as a result of your tenant’s insurance being inadequate in the circumstances or if trading is made difficult and alternative premises are required), we can arrange commercial property insurance that will safeguard your investment and ongoing earnings from it.
Within the cover it is recommended that service charges are included. If your property is partially damaged, loss of service charges will be incurred from those tenants who have vacated the damaged portion of the property. The cost of services is unlikely to reduce to the same extent for other parts of the premises and full costs will not be recoverable from the remaining tenants. If the rent being charged includes VAT to tenants who cannot recover VAT this element should also be considered in the insured sum.
Property Owners Liability
Where the responsibility to maintain and upkeep a property is retained by the landlord, they must make adequate provision for any legal liability.
A standard Commercial Property Owner policy will usually include legal liability cover for claims arising out of the ownership of property. This will include standard maintenance and minor repair of your property by your employees. If major structural work or alterations are to be undertaken it is essential that you inform your insurer so that the necessary cover can be effected to provide protection in the event of loss or damage to Third Party property.
Our Commercial Property Owner policies offer a range of options to cater for a variety of factors including:
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Similarly, our Residential Commercial Property Owner policies offer a host of options to help perfectly tailor to your requirements:
- Asset protection - for residential portfolios from single to multiple:
- Core covers: buildings, subsidence, contents of communal areas, glass and sanitary fittings, money, assault, specified contingencies or all risks
- Optional covers: landlords contents, engineering, terrorism
- Revenue protection:
- Core covers: loss of rent, alternative accommodation expenses, temporary storage of furniture, standard limit of 20% of the buildings sum insured for the above covers
- Legal liabilities:
- Core covers: property owners liability - £1 million as standard
- Optional covers: employers’ liability, residential property owners legal protection, residents association directors and officers
- Services: statement of fact, legal and tax helpline, risk helpline
In addition, Garratts Insurance Brokers cover every base to ensure you receive the optimum service:
- renewal dates: if you have multiple properties we can arrange to spread your payments by staggering your renewal dates or financing the payments
- loss adjusters: we have previous experience dealing with most of the approved loss adjusters used by the insurers. We will ensure that your requirements are complied with when arranging a facility
- insurance schemes: dependent upon your preferences and the volume of business to be insured, due to the volume of business we place with insurers we have huge negotiating power, which we can pass on to our clients, unlike the brokers that place business on a more 'ad-hoc' basis
- cherry picking the best option: due to increased insurer competition for property risks (due to the higher profit margins for the insurer) commercial property insurance is very much a buyer’s market. Garratts Insurance Brokers are truly independent and do not operate with a 'preferred supplier'. We can therefore cherry pick from the whole of market to ensure that each risk is marketed fully and that every client receives the best terms.
- documentation: most insurers require a statement of fact confirming the risk information utilised to place cover. A summary certificate is issued by Garratts Insurance Brokers, together with a policy document and schedule by the insurers
- flexible payment: invoices can be issued either directly to the tenants or to the Property Managers as required