Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited

New Look Ashburnham Insurance Website

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:19:00 +0000

It has been a long time coming but it is finally here. The new look Ashburnham Insurance website went officially live today. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look now at www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk.

Initially you will notice the new layout, menus, pictures and the different colours we have used. We are still transferring a lot of the old pages over to the new site so you may find that your browser will display the old look site on some of the pages and the new look site on others. Functionality is still 100% regardless of what page you are on. The update is continuing behind the scenes so keep checking back for new content and other updates.

Feel free to give us your feedback on how you like the new site (good or bad!) and any features you would like to see in the future.

Public Liability Insurance for a Bricklayer

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:54:00 +0000

I'm a Bricklayer, do I need liability insurance?

Being a Bricklayer you will understand that there are many risks associated with the trade and as such it is crucial to have liability insurance in place.

What are some examples of possible liability claims for a Bricklayer?

• Whilst working you accidentally damage a third parties property (e.g. you go into someone’s property and accidentally knock something over)

• Whilst working you accidentally damage a third party (e.g. you leave a toolbox lying around and someone trips over it)

These are just two examples of what could quite easily happen in the day to day job of a Bricklayer. The costs for such liability claims can obviously be quite substantial which is why the indemnity limits for liability insurance are generally so high.

How much is will it cost for liability insurance for Bricklayer?

Generally speaking, liability insurance for a Bricklayer can be purchased through ourselves at very competitive rates whether its just public liability for yourself or if you have employees and need employers liability.

Unoccupied Property Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:29:00 +0000

Unoccupied property insurance is insuring your property (by insuring your buildings, your contents or both) whilst you are not actually living in the property. There are a few types of insurance that you can get for this circumstance ranging from insuring the property before a tenant moves in to insuring a property that you are going to renovate and then sell on.

If you get the basic level of cover then it will cover the buildings and contents from any cases of fire, lightning, earthquake, explosion, aircraft and subsidence damage. This is the standard level of cover on unoccupied property insurance and will protect the property and the things that you have left in there. This insurance is usually more expensive than most property insurance as the property is at a higher risk of incurring damage as there will be nobody in the property to notice any damage immediately after it has happened.

The second level of cover will cover all the things in the basic cover level but will also include things such as storm, flood or weight of snow damage, escape of water and escape of oil and collision by any animal or vehicle. This level of cover is one that will cover a lot of the perils that may happen but leaves out cover for things such as theft or attempted theft or malicious damage. You can get these last two perils covered by choosing level three cover which will cover an unoccupied property for the same things that it would if the property had someone living in there.

Due to the levels of cover the premium that you pay will increase as you get the higher levels of cover on the policy; this is due to the higher likelihood of their being a claim on the policy the more things that it covers against. There are also certain things like subsidence that are covered on all the policies apart from if you are selling the property as the insurers will not cover a long term peril such as subsidence if you are planning to sell the house on.

The excess that you may pay on this type of policy may be higher than the standard one hundred pound excess simply because of the higher risk; therefore you may be given either a two hundred and fifty pound or five hundred pound excess whilst the property is unoccupied. If the property is vacant but will be let out eventually then there may be a time limit on the policy in which you must find a tenant and get them in to occupy the property, this is generally a ninety day time limit and if you choose that policy and then don’t get a tenant in time then the insurer will cancel the policy and you will lose cover after the period is up.

So if you have a vacant property that you want to insure it then follow this link to get a quote for unoccupied property insurance.

Tenant's Contents Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:34:00 +0000

A product we have been offering for some time has now been made available for our online customers. Tenant's contents insurance is a policy specifically designed to meet the needs of tenants in rented properties. As a leading landlord insurance provider in the UK, we have always met the insurance needs of the property owners but now it is time to extend this service to those who actually reside in their properties.

New Liability Trade Search Facility

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:59:00 +0000

We have just launched a new trade search facility for our liability quote website. This will enable users to start typing what trade they are seeking public or employers liability for and then be presented with various options depending on what has been typed.

Click thumbnail to see a website snapshot of the trade search in action

With an ever increasing number of trades, we have felt the need to offer our customers a new trade search facility. When we first started our online liability quote website we had less than 100 trades and a simple drop down list seemed to suffice the needs of its users. As time has gone on, we have gradually added more and more trades and now find this list topping 200 trades. There is also a queue of other trades waiting to go on the list that could easily see this being several hundred more!

We have realised that a drop down list is no longer practical and have changed this to an instant search facility where the user begins typing in their occupation and then after a few letters the system beginnings to predict what trade you are looking for. If more letters are typed, the list is whittled down until a user finds exactly what they need or they can stop at any point to browse the list and simply select the one they are looking for.

If you have any feedback on the new system or any other suggestions then please feel free to email website support from our contact page.

6% Insurance Premium Tax

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:51:00 +0000

Following our blog post last month (New IPT rate begins), it is now the 4th January 2011 so all premiums shown will now be at the new higher government imposed insurance premium tax rate of 6%.

New IPT rate begins

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:02:00 +0000

Just a quick message to all customer obtaining new quotes from us. You will begin to notice differences in premiums quoted for policies with inception dates of the 4th January 2011 and later. This is due to the change of Insurance Premium Tax by the Government on this date from 5% to 6%.

With the way insurer accounts work, some policies will apply the higher rate based on the inception date of the policy (i.e. the date cover commences) whereas others will base it on the transaction date (i.e. the date you take out the policy regardless of when it starts). This means that the next few weeks leading up to deadline date, some quotes will incur the new higher rate of tax while some do not. From the 4th January onwards it is more straight forward as all policies will be at the new rate.

At the time of writing, we are not aware of any forthcoming rate changes by our insurers so the apparent increase in premiums will purely be due to the higher tax rate that you are paying.

Commercial Property Insurance Instant Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:25:00 +0000

If you have a commercial property that you need to insure it used to be a case of giving the insurance company the details and then having to wait while they manually work out the quote before coming back to you with a figure, but this is no longer the case as there are insurance companies that are now starting to give instant figures for this type of insurance which cuts out the waiting part of it.

There are various types of commercial properties that you can insure and you can also insure properties that are part commercial and part residential under this policy (for example a shop with a flat above where the owner wants to insure both on the one policy). Mainly however this is for commercial places such as shops, surgeries and even more obscure things such as leisure halls or recording studios.

You cannot insure these under other types of insurance unless you are also looking to insure things such as the stock, or the goods that are kept in the property in which case you would need a commercial combined policy which would include things like public and employers liability insurance for the people that work within the premises, but if it is just the bricks and mortar and loss of rent cover you are looking for then this is the insurance for you.

There are certain circumstances where you may still not be able to get an instant figure for example if the property was in a high risk area of either subsidence or flooding then it would have to be referred to the insurance company and the same if the property has either construction that is beside the normal or if the load bearing walls or the roof had been touched during any building work that may have occurred at the property in question.

Aside from that if you know things such as the postcode and full address, the rebuild cost of the property, the commercial use of the property and the year of build and construction details then that should be enough to get a quotation for this. So if you have a property that you need insuring you can visit us at Commercial Property Insurance to get more details.

Public Liability Insurance for Northern Ireland

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:55:00 +0000

In the past if you were working in Northern Ireland then you would have to go to a broker within the BT Postcode to get your Public Liability Insurance but that has all changed thanks to Ageas Insurance (formerly known as Fortis Insurance) who now allow us to quote for tradesman that work in the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland.

Tradesman within large areas of Northern Ireland such as Belfast and Londonderry can now come to us for a quote on their Insurance and although most companies will still not provide a quotation there is now one that can after they saw an opportunity in the market for Public Liability Insurance in that area as so many other insurance companies refuse to offer quotes and cover for any BT Postcode.

This seemed like a large whole as we have always been able to offer quotes in that postcode for both Residential Landlord Insurance and Commercial Property Insurance but the area of tradesman insurance is always one that has eluded us until recently. Most insurers tend to see that they can insure properties in these areas as they have a postcode which the insurance can be rated on and now that we can offer liability quotes in that region as well we have the area covered for the main markets that we do.

The terms on the policy would be the same as they would be if the insured was working anywhere in England, Wales or Scotland and if a claim was to be made it would be handled the same way it would for these areas as well. So if you are a tradesman who needs Public Liability Insurance for Northern Ireland then visit us to get a quotation.

Land Insurance - Buy Online NOW

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:35:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce a new landowners insurance scheme exclusive to Ashburnham Insurance and underwritten by MMA Insurance.

The new scheme offers public liability cover for all types of land such as private roads, undeveloped land, woodland, moorland, development sites and more.

It is available on our website at www.ashburnham-insurance.co.uk/land-insurance-quote/ and offers a full quote and buy online facility which we believe is the first of its kind in the UK.

Climate Change WILL Increase Insurance Premiums

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:40:00 +0000

We could have a big long discussion over climate change, how it is caused, what it is doing, what we can do to stop or reduce it. The bottom line is, it is happening and we will be looking at changes in our climate in future years.

What we are here to discuss is how this could affect insurance premiums. The hardest hit are going to be property insurances, in particular home insurance. Changes in climate will lead to more severe storms and higher sea levels meaning an increase in storm and flood damage claims.

It is said that more and more places will be deemed as being in flood area making it difficult if not impossible to obtain insurance full stop. The main thing we will see is steady increases in such insurance costs as claim levels begin to rise.

There is little we can do to stop this happening. It is not just home and other property insurance that will be effected but motor insurance as well. Poor weather will unfortunately result in more accidents and floods obviously affect whatever is in their path which includes your house and the car parked outside.

Insurance Fraud on the Increase

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:04:00 +0000

The accountancy network known as BDO have released their half year report on fraud which has made for some very interesting reading. The report has been running for seven years and for the first time has broken the £1billion mark for a 6 month period. The total amount of recorded fraud for the first 6 months of 2010 is almost the same as the whole of 2008 which shows how worryingly fraud is become more common.

Obviously BDO are recording all types of fraud but their figures show that the insurance sector leads the way with 49% of recorded fraud making it the most targeted by the fraudsters. Whilst the distribution is not surprising, and probably hasn't changed a great deal over the years, the amounts we are talking about are increasing at an alarming rate.

Regulators are taking more and more steps to combat fraudulent activities but these figures show that they may not be working. It is not coincidence that this dramatic change is happening at the same time as the recession. BDO has predicted these figures will continue to rise in the second half of 2010 so we could end up seeing further records being broken that we perhaps don't want to see.

BP Oil Spill Raises Liability Insurance Awareness

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:23:00 +0000

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has certainly raised the awareness of the need for liability insurance. The cost of the spill is still unknown but is certainly going to stretch into the billions of US dollars.

Obviously in most businesses, the amount of risk is very unlikely to get anywhere nearer the cost of this incident but it is an eye opener as to the unexpected things that can happen. Some people think that £1 million cover is more than enough but you just never know how much injury or damage you could end up causing.

I'm sure BP probably thought that £1 billion cover should be enough to cover any event but we can see this wasn't the case. I don't know anything about BP's insurance protection but an event of this magnitude was certainly unforeseen.

This is the whole purpose of liability insurance, to protect against the unforeseen. You should always obtain more cover than you think you need otherwise we are putting ourselves at risk of footing a rather large bill.

IGI Insurance is now AmTrust Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:11:00 +0000

With effect from 1st July 2010, IGI Insurance Company Limited have re-branded to AmTrust Europe Limited. IGI Insurance are one of the main insurers we use for landlords insurance but from now on they will be known as AmTrust Europe.

Our website has been updated to show the new name for all new customers. If you are an existing policyholder of IGI Insurance then your policy will not be affected. From renewal you will notice that documentation will have been updated to reflect the new name.

The change of name comes about due to the acquirement of IGI by AmTrust International Insurance Limited back in 2007. AmTrust are developing their presence in the UK and other European markets. They have now decided to consolidate this under one brand being AmTrust Europe.

Keith Wardell, the managing director of IGI Insurance has said:

"The change of name is about growth and progression. We have an exciting future ahead of us and this development is hugely positive. Our priority is to continue to deliver profitable and cost-effective insurance products backed up by a reliable and quality service."

Insurance Premium Tax up to 6%

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:58:00 +0000

As predicted in our blog post a few weeks ago (Emergency Budget - Insurance Premium Tax on the Increase), Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) is being increased.

The increase is not as extreme as we thought but the current rate of 5% is being put up to 6% with effect from 4th January 2011. This means that for every £100 of insurance premium we pay, we will have to pay an extra pound of tax to the government.

A typical car insurance premium of £420 which consists of a £400 premium and £20 IPT will now go up to £424 being the same £400 premium but with £24 tax instead. A £4 increase may not sound a lot but this is only one insurance policy.

When you take into account all the insurance that you hold as an individual, family and/or business then the extra you are paying could be very considerable.

We are also seeing an increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20%. This rate is used as the tax rate on travel insurance policies so if you are taking out this cover then be prepared for a large jump in your premium when the new rates come in to effect.

FSA to be Abolished

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:32:00 +0000

George Osbourne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the UK, has followed through on a promise that the now Prime Minister, David Cameron, made in July 2009 in that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will be abolished.

Over the next 2 years, the powers of the FSA will be split among different regulators but with most power going to the Bank of England. The current chief executive of the FSA, Hector Sants, will become the Chief Executive of one of the new agencies called the Prudential Regulatory Authority. There will also be the Financial Policy Committee which will also be headed by Sants but the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, will have the overall control over both these bodies making the ultimate decisions at both. Workers at the FSA will be split among the new agencies over time and by 2012, the FSA will no longer exist.

The decision to make these changes comes along due to the conservatives thought that the FSA have failed in what they had set out to do. The former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, set up the FSA in 1997 as they believed that Bank of England were not handling the supervision of the financial services in the best possible way. It looks as though that 15 years on, the power will switch back to where it originally was.

Emergency Budget - Insurance Premium Tax on the Increase

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:06:00 +0000

Almost every insurance product in the UK is subject to tax known as Insurance Premium Tax (IPT). This tax rate currently stands at 5% and has been the same for over 10 years. The new Government has announced an "emergency budget" in little over a weeks time and there are rumours that there could be a significant increase in this rate.

It is being said that the rate could be doubled to 10% or even brought in line with VAT which is currently 17.5%. To put this in to perspective, if you currently pay £525 per year for car insurance, this would go up to £550 or even £587.50 depending on the rate decided upon. This doesn't even include changes in the premium itself which, at the current moment in time, is on the way up. Your £500 premium could easily be over £600 next year when you haven't even made a claim! What you need to keep in mind is that this is only one type of policy and this sort of increase would be likely to happen against all your individual insurances.

Insurer and broker associations BIBA and the ABI are against this increase on the basis that the increase would actually end up costing the treasury more money than the increase would actually earn them. This theory comes from the fact that massive increase in insurance premiums people are going to have to pay for things like car insurance and the like are going to affect all of us. Insurance is a common thing to be avoided by individuals or businesses who are trying to reduce their outgoings so is likely to increase the number of people who are uninsured when, in the current climate, people should be encouraged to be protecting themselves.

Of course, this increase has not been announced yet but it is certainly something that requires a lot of thought by the Treasury as any quick decision could end up costing them, and ultimately us, more money.

Capital Gains Tax Forcing Landlords to Quit

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:41:00 +0000

Capital Gains Tax (or CGT for short) is a tax charged on the profit made from the sale of let property, stocks and other assets. The current rate of this tax in the UK is 18% but the new coalition government has plans to increase this to a staggering 40%.

Many landlords who invest in the buy to let property market have been forced to re-evaluate their business venture as this possible change could strike a huge dent in profit made.

An example of what difference this could make would be to look at a property purchased 10 years ago for £90,000 and sold this year for £190,000. The profit would be £100,000 and currently £18,000 would be paid in tax. This is set to change to £40,000, an extra £22,000 in this example which is a very significant amount of money that was once in the landlord's pocket but now in the government's pocket instead.

There are rumours that landlords are beginning to bail out now before the tax rise occurs and who can blame them? There are obviously other costs and taxes involved in the buying, selling and development of property which all eat into the profit margins.

The budget happens later this month on June 22nd 2010 when we will see if the proposed change occurs and what the future holds for the buy-to-let landlords of the UK.

Public Liability Insurance – Policy Extras

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:51:00 +0000

Many people are aware of Public Liability Insurance, which is insurance to protect you against any third party damage or injury that you may cause during the course of your work, and in many cases the people that you undertake work for will require that you have the insurance even though it is not a legally compulsory insurance, unlike things like car insurance that you have to have by law. Apart from the Public Liability Insurance there are also a number of extras you can get on the policy that can increase the amount of cover that you receive and insure against other aspects of the work that you undertake.

Employers Liability Insurance: -

Employers Liability Insurance is something that most insurers will generally only allow you to get if you have Public Liability Insurance already. However, unlike Public Liability Insurance which is not legally required, if you have employees or are directly employing them as a labour only sub contractor, then by law you have to have Employers Liability Insurance. The main reason for this insurance is to protect the employer from being sued or held liable should any of their employees suffer any injury, illness or in the worst case death whilst they are working under their direction.

Tools Cover: -

The first of these and generally the one that most people seem concerned about is the option of covering their tools. Many people are concerned that if their tools are either lost or damaged then they wouldn’t be able to carry on their work without them so they insure against that happening. For example if they were stolen from the back of a locked van or something like that then you could claim against the loss.

Goods in Transit: -

Secondly we have Goods in Transit cover which basically means that you can cover against any loss or damage of goods that are relevant to the business, whilst they are either on, in, being loaded onto or unloaded from any motor vehicle. The amount of cover that you can get here is generally up to £2,000 per any occurrence and may be useful if you would like to protect your business goods in this instance.

Contract Works: -

Contract Works Insurance is where you can protect yourself against any physical loss or damage to any property that you may be building under contract if the property is still in your possession. For example if you were under contract to build a new build house and someone said that once you had finished they would pay you £200,000 for it but the day before you handed it over it was to burn down you would be left with the bill, and this insurance can be used to help you recoup the losses in Materials and Labour that you have suffered.

Own Plant Cover: -

This cover will insure you against any loss or damage to the larger tools and stock that belong to you for use in connection with the business that you undertake, either on the site of any contract undertaken. This cover will insure things such as constructional plant tools, equipment, site huts or caravans (basically the larger things that you may use, as things like hand tools and portable power tools are covered under Tools Cover).

Hired in Plant Cover: -

This cover is almost the same as the Own Plant Cover except that it is designed to protect any things such as constructional plant tools, equipment, site huts or caravans that you have hired in to use whereas the above is designed if you actually own the items that are being insured.

Landlords Contents Insurance Invalidated by your Tenants

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 24 May 2010 09:46:00 +0000

Well it seems that the summer has finally shown it's face. Temperatures have suddenly risen around the country and our jackets have performed the annual position change with our shorts at the back of the wardrobe!

This time of the year brings hazards with regards to landlords and their property insurance, in particular any contents cover that they may have. What happens when it gets hot is that your tenant will open the windows, nothing wrong there, but then they might go out for a while leaving the windows open. This may be intentional to try and keep the house cool for when they get back or unintentional as they have quite simply forgotten to shut them on the way out, either way it spells trouble.

With landlords contents insurance, theft cover will be included as long as there are signs of forcible entry. If your tenant has left the window open then a thief can just hop on in without having to break in and this would mean that your cover is invalidated.

Obviously your tenant has a responsibility to protect your contents an the onus would then fall to them but we all know that this sort of scenario can lead to problems with the tenant especially as they have probably had their contents stolen along with yours and are also experiencing an inability to claim due to not securing the property when they left.

It is not a nice situation to be in and there is not a huge amount you can do to prevent it but by bringing the message to more people it may help reduce the number of these incidents enabling tenants and landlords to enjoy the nice weather and not worry about invalidating their landlords contents insurance and having to foot a large bill themselves.

Vacant Land Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:50:00 +0000

Vacant land insurance is a type of insurance you can get which will cover you for any third party injury or accident that someone has whilst they are on your vacant land and the holds you responsible.

Vacant land insurance is also commonly known as just land insurance by most insurers, although there are very few that can actually offer cover for a piece of land, it is used for pieces of land that have nothing on them such as fields and hills that are just grass areas. The public can generally get into most fields and as such you as the land owner could be a t risk of being held liable for any injury other people may sustain whilst on the land.

Land insurance is something that a lot of people are looking at now simply because it seems that we live in an age now of people trying to hold others responsible for things and trying to earn compensation from accidents that in years gone past would not have been thought of as potential claims.

The price for a piece of vacant land to be insured generally starts from about two hundred pounds for a years cover. Obviously this has been calculated as if it was a normal small piece of vacant land at one million pounds worth of public liability cover and if you were to want a higher amount of cover (either two million pounds or five million pounds) then you would pay a higher premium.

Anyone can get a quotation for vacant land insurance and all that they will need is a few details such as the postcode or location of the plot of land, whether or not the public have rights of access, how long they have owned the land, any former uses it may have had and how big the piece of land you are insuring is to the nearest acre and you will be able to get a quotation.

Public Liability and Goods In Transit Insurance for Couriers

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:14:00 +0000

If you are a self employed courier, you will be aware of the many types of insurance policies that are essential to protect yourself against unforeseen events. The first one you are likely to take out is cover for your van. No surprise really as to drive your van legally on the road, you will need this cover.

After this compulsory insurance has been obtained, what do you look to next? Well the most obvious is public liability insurance and goods in transit insurance. First of all I will explain what both of these are:

Public liability insurance for a courier is to protect yourself from any injury you may cause to the public or damage you cause to third party property. You may carry a large parcel to someone's door and accidentally place it down on their toe. Stupid as it may sound, it could happen and you would be responsible for the injury caused. The cost of this could be quite considerable, especially if such an injury put them out of work. Imagine if you put it on a professional footballer's toe!

Goods in transit insurance for couriers provides cover for the loss or damage of goods that are under your direct control. This is for parcels or other goods that are in your trust for which you are responsible. Loss includes theft from a secure vehicle.

Ashburnham Insurance have teamed up with MMA Insurance to provide couriers with a tailor made insurance policy from just £140 which includes the following:

£1,000,000 public liability cover
£10,000,000 employers liability cover (optional)
£2,000 goods in transit cover
£1,250 tools cover
24 hour business, legal and taxation helplines

For more details on this, and to get a quote and instant cover, please visit the Ashburnham Insurance Courier Public Liability and Goods in Transit Insurance page.

Let Property Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:14:00 +0000

Let property insurance is a type of insurance that doesn't need any explanation due to the name itself but I doubt this term is used as much as it should be. Instead we always hear landlords insurance being mentioned or buy to let insurance. Okay, so I will clarify the obvious anyway in that let property insurance is insurance cover for a property that is let to a tenant. The more popular terms don't clarify this.

Landlords insurance can be anything to do with a landlord. Insurance for their property, insurance for their rent, insurance for their legal disputes. The thing is, when a customers asks for landlords insurance, 99% of the time they are after insurance for their property but this is not necessarily clear.

The use of the term buy to let insurance also falls into this category. For a start, buy to let is simply a phrase describing the fact that the property has been purchased to let out. It is in no way describing what is to be insured unlike obvious examples of car insurance and home insurance.

I think that let property insurance should be used as much as possible as this is unambiguous in its meaning with the only clarification needed being whether it is for a residential or commercial let property. There is no major purpose for this blog post really other than to make you aware that certain terms are very unclear in their meanings. In your head you are asking for one thing and in the insurer's head it may be another. This sort of confusion can lead to being uninsured for something you thought was covered so it is always best to check carefully and maybe use a different, more precise term to clarify exactly what you want covered.

Malicious Damage by Tenant Cover Included as Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:38:00 +0000

Have you checked your landlords insurance policy recently? One thing to look out for when you next check it is the inclusion of malicious damage by the tenant cover. It still shocks me how few insurance companies actually include it on their policies. The ones that do offer the cover, most will class it as an "add-on" or "extension" to their policy and charge the customer extra for it. Ashburnham has a panel of insurers, most of whom have malicious damage by tenant cover included as standard.

For me, this cover is vital as a landlord. If you don't have the cover and your tenant decides to wreck your house, your going to be the one paying the bill, especially if your tenant disappears off the face of the planet which is pretty common if they have done such a thing. When we speak to people making these sort of claims, it is presumed that this cover is normal. When we tell them that most other insurers don't have this sort of cover, they are shocked (and obviously pretty pleased they have a policy with us). I can't imagine being on the end of a phone call from a landlord trying to make a claim for malicious damage by their tenant and having to tell them that their policy doesn't cover it.

Don't be mistaken when you see that your policy has malicious damage cover. All policies should show that malicious damage by persons not lawfully allowed in your property is covered but obviously this does not include your tenants. Always take out a policy that specifically says that malicious damage by tenants is included. You shouldn't have to pay extra for such cover in my opinion as this sort of protection is what makes it a landlords insurance policy what it is.

Icelandic Volcano To Give The Insurance Industry A Bad Name

noreply@blogger.com (Ashburnham Insurance Services Limited) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:42:00 +0000

So the first thing you think when you read the title of this post is that the insurance industry has got a bad name already. You're probably right but the antics of the volcano that sits beneath the Eyjafjallajökul glacier in Iceland is not going to make it any better for us insurance guys.

How can an Icelandic volcano give UK insurers a bad name I hear you ask. Well, it's all down to the disruption that the ash plume is causing to air travel in Europe. If you don't know by now, the eruption has sent a huge ash cloud over the UK and beyond and has grounded all flights in the country for the last few days. All these cancelled flights are causing a huge amount of claims on travel insurance policies for people stranded in foreign countries trying to get home to the UK or people who are in the UK finding that their holiday has been cancelled before it has even begun.

The unfortunate situation is that with most insurance companies that provide this type of cover, claims involving all sorts of natural disasters or incidents are excluded. A volcano erupting is quite obviously a natural occurrence so most will find that their policy provides no cover for the consequences of this event. This is going to leave a huge amount of people left without compensation for the additional expenses they may be lumbered with for rearranging transport or paying for accommodation while stuck away from home.

I have heard that a few insurers have declared that they will pay out claims related to the ash cloud situation which is a huge goodwill gesture to all their customers but I can guarantee that this will be overlooked as most people will "expect" their insurer to pay out. Instead, all we will hear about is that the insurance industry are getting out of paying claims yet again.

If you are a policyholder about to make a claim on your travel insurance policy then please read your insurance policy first to see if natural disasters are excluded or not as this will prepare you for what reply you can expect from your insurer when you put the claim in. You may be lucky enough to be with one of these insurers that is paying out regardless but be prepared to have your claim rejected.

There is a growing expectation that an insurance policy covers everything to do with the risk it is covering but you will find there are many exclusions that differ from insurer to insurer and this is why it is important to read a policy before you take out cover. When you have a claim refused and it is written in black and white in the policy you were told about and/or given to read, please don't blame the insurer. It is always the bad things we hear about insurance companies and very rarely about all the money they do pay out so perhaps next time you get paid out swiftly, honestly and to the amount you were expecting, let everyone know that we're not all bad!