The continued restrictions that have been put in place to fight the coronavirus have had a drastic impact on UK businesses, particularly within the retail, food, leisure and hospitality sectors.
For many businesses, this has meant temporarily closing their doors for an extended period, and there are mounting concerns within businesses and insurers due to buildings continuing to remain unoccupied during the third lockdown.
Reviewing Your Unoccupancy Cover
In the first lockdown, many insurers extended their unoccupancy to ensure that businesses were still covered despite exceeding the fixed limit on their standard terms and conditions.
Many insurers are no longer placing blanket extensions on unoccupancy policies and are instead taking a much more tailored approach on an individual basis. How you are affected will vary based on the terms and conditions of your policy.
It’s incredibly important that you make your insurers aware of any changes, whether you’ve adapted from your usual practices or temporarily closed your business.
Protecting Your Unoccupied Premises
When a building is left unoccupied, it is subject to an increased risk of vandalism, theft and water damage, more so than when it is being utilised regularly.
To better protect your premises while it remains unoccupied, ensure that you utilise the security measures you have:
- Ensure alarms are working and activated
- All doors and windows are locked and secured
If you don’t have them in place already, it may be worth investing in CCTV and light sensors to deter and capture criminal activity.
How Can We Help?
At Jukes Insurance Brokers, we will be on hand to support our clients through this period of uncertainty in any way we can.
To discuss how your unoccupancy cover will be affected, please get in touch. We’ll review what you’re covered for based on your policy condition. Call our friendly team on 01527 874092.
