Cafe Insurance
Cafe Insurance Insurance for your cafe business is available as part of a package insurance policy. These type of policies offer a wide range of perils in different sections to provide valuable protection for any business owner. Some of the sections are compulsory, others you can pick and choose to suit your needs.
If you own the building in which your cafe is located, you will need to effect buildings insurance (if you have a mortgage on the property, your lender will usually insist on their name being on the policy wording. Many cafe owners rent their business premises and the building insurance is thus taken care of by the landlord. The proprietor is then left to arrange his own business insurance covering his stock and equipment and liabilities, however, a cafe insurance policy comes with a variety of different sections to help protect the business owner.
Cafe Insurance - The perils covered
From an insurance perspective, most proprietors are really only concerned about two perils: fire & theft. It’s easy to image a cafe being damaged by fire, particularly because of the fact that cooking is carried out at the premises, dependent of the range and types of cooking carried out, catering establishments can be more susceptible to fire and most polices contain a raft of warranties to make sure that the cafe equipment is kept clean and in good working order. Theft is also an issue at cafes, thieves know they deal mainly in cash and they can sometimes prove to be an easy target, either out of opening hours (when most money has gone) or when the owner takes monies to the bank. ( If money is carried on a regular basis patterns of movements can be easy to spot, especially if the time and route is not varied) If money is lost on the way to the bank, this event can be covered by a separate section entitled money. It is usual to provide a standard sum insured and the cafe owner will need to make sure that it is adequate for his needs. In most cases, higher sums insured can be provided on request.
As well as these two perils, cover will include a wide range of insurance eventualities including flooding and burst pipes. With the apparent change in weather patterns, many high street cafes are finding their business washed out by floods and some have been closed for many weeks if not months. Whilst the flood section of the policy will deal, with the clean up and the damage to the cafe stock and equipment, the cafe proprietor will need to consider, how he is going to cope with his loss of income following a claim. A cafe package policy, will have a section called business interruption ( or loss of profits) and this will help the business when they are unable to trade following an insured perils. Most cafes, cannot sustain a lengthy period of loss of income and this section of the policy is vital to ensure continuity of the business. As well fires and floods, business interruption can help you if the event of a wide rage of other occurrences, such as denial of access( you cannot enter you property because of an incident at another premises) failure of public utilities, such as water gas or electric or an out break of certain types of illness.
Cafes, located in towns or city centres, may also find they are more susceptible to vandalism, especially broken shop front glass. If you rent your building, the landlords building insurance policy may not cover, the shop front or it’s glass and these can usually be covered under a cafe package policy. Glass is expensive to replace and damage to windows is becoming all to familiar. As well as the cafe glass, the shop front and any signs can also be included.
Another section of the cafe insurance policy will deal with the matter of liability. This is a very important section and can generate the biggest losses, when an incident occurs. The public liability section, will protect the cafe owner against claims from members of the public for damage or injury and any catering business will need the included products liability insurance, to guard against food poisoning. Occasionally claims are submitted where a customer has become ill after eating at a cafe, often they amount to nothing, however, they still need to be investigated and defended if the customer peruses the matter. Claims can arise from a number of directions, illness caused by food poisoning and allergic reactions to food are nowadays more likely to be perused by customers with the benefit of companies offering to do the legal work for them. As well as injury or disease, there is a chance that a customer could be injured or suffer property damage whilst in on the premises. To stay on the correct side of the law, you will also need Employers Liability insurance and a certificate will have to be displayed at the premises. Claims from employees are quite common and often result from the use of equipment. However, in an environment where food is being prepared, slipping, tripping or encountering an open door or cupboard that shouldn’t be, can all too often result in damage to limbs.