equipment (with only 11% stating that
they had received no payout because of
extraneous circumstances, or had
received less money than the cost of the
total sum of equipment).
When it comes to damage of property,
there are some clauses that you need to
be aware of. Of our panelists, 37% had
been affected by property damage (but
not all had claimed, as the costs of fixing
the damage was affordable and they
were concerned about their premiums
increasing in future years). The most
common damage, unfortunately, was
vandalism related, with a whopping 85%
being broken windows and damage to
signs. However, there were also some
very unique cases which included a car
being driven into a tattoo studio and a
fire in a nearby building.
£9million
The average amount paid out to businesses
in insurance claims every day
But what happens when you can’t get a
payout? A couple of our panelists shared
their experiences:“The fire closed my business for 5
months... I tried to find out if any type of
insurance would cover me for this and
was told that loss of earnings cover
would be hard to get because of my type
of job (and would be very expensive if I
did) – and also, because there was no
damage to the studio (it was the council
stopping me getting into it that was the
reason for the closure), it would be hard
for them to pay out if I did. I was told, in
no uncertain terms, that it was not their
problem.”One of our panellists also got a shock
after they tried to claim for a broken
shop window:“I initially thought I could claim on the
landlord's insurance, but the very small
print on the lease stated that I was liable
for [the damage]. There was a huge
rigmarole of to-ing and fro-ing and the
insurance company wanted to know
everything about it: crime numbers,
prices and cross-referencing similar cases
from businesses that were also affected.
I wasn’t reimbursed the full amount sadly.
I realise that it is important to make sure
your own insurance covers things like
plate glass – because a lot of landlords
insurances don’t!”We asked our panel about how they felt
their claiming process went, and we were
surprised to discover that of the 36%
who had made a claim, one third were
unhappy with how the process went. The
main reasons specified were the time it
took to evaluate each case and in 8% ofWhy a claim
may be denied
The value of the claim is
less than the excess
Lack of information/evidence
Fraud/suspicious circumstances
Not covered by the policy