No doubt you will have seen the press coverage on the August riots across the country and the terrible damage to business premises such as the Sony warehouse in Enfield, the Carpetright and Aldi stores in Tottenham and the House of Reeves department store in Croydon. All were severely damaged with likely insurance payments estimated at between £40-£50M, just for these cases alone.

The Riots will be a real test for those Insurance Brokers that have put Business Interruption insurance into place for their clients. Firms with a 12 month Business Interruption cover will unfortunately find that the indemnity period is woefully inadequate for their needs. This leads to us asking you the following question.

Is your Business Interruption cover adequate for your needs?

Unfortunately, you only discover that you have a problem with your cover after a loss has occurred and you are looking to make a claim.

The most common issues discovered when dealing with a Business Interruption loss include;

• Failure to understand the difference between turnover and earnings.
• Failure to understand the insurers’ definition of Gross Profit. Quite often, the Accountants definition is completely different to that set out in the insurance policy wording.
• Failure to give careful consideration to the appropriate length of the indemnity period required.
• Failure to look forward far enough in time when setting your sum insured.
• Failure to consider Additional Increased Cost of Working cover.
• Failure to ensure that the policy covers all of the appropriate locations.
• Failure to evaluate risks right along the customer / supply chain.

If you would like some further guidance on how we can help you give proper consideration to your Business Interruption covers please call the team on 0800 093 4470 or e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it