I disagree with cancelling business interruption insurance. It’s not intended to cover a pandemic which is a global once in 100 years event. That’s something that affects a whole society and insurance isn’t intended to cover things like that. I know it seems harsh. But some big events are never covered by insurance, like war, for instance.
The basic principle of insurance is that things are covered unless the policy states “only these things are insured” or it says “these things are not included”.
Some insurance policies didn’t mention pandemics either way because the insurance contract writers slipped up.
Most big insurance companies made sure to “improve” their wording after SARS and MERS. However some companies thought “what’s the worst that can happen?” They thought a pandemic wouldnt be that bad in a modern society and made a decision to cover an event that they didn’t think would happen catastrophically and would only affect a few businesses for a few months.
Some insurance companies used the phrase notifiable disease because they intended to cover food poisoning and things like scarlet fever (not sure if this is notifiable but you get the idea). Unusual illnesses. Not a pandemic. So that’s why there was an argument in U.K. Courts but it only covers a small number of policies..
What business interruption covers - and this is essential and really important - is the delay between something that causes a claim on your insurance and getting back up and running again. So for instance a fire might destroy your business premises, but whilst you wait for a cheque and the work to be done you can’t trade. Business interruption cover underwrites your lost profits for a period of time. It’s the same if you were broken into, or had a car crash into your shop front, as well as the cost of making good you also can claim for being closed.
There are a few cases where you aren’t claiming for being closed for fire or flood or theft but you can still claim on your business interruption insurance. I used to be an insurance broker abd some of the more unusual claims we had was a business that was closed for a police investigation because of a death on the premises.
There was a lot of upset after a foot and mouth outbreak closed down hotels and tea shops in the countryside. People were very upset that they couldn’t claim on their insurance and companies like Hiscox, who don’t insure farms, thought “ok, we could have covered these losses” and they deliberately rewrote their policies to include noticeable diseases.
End of history lesson...
will be checking whether it’s something I’m paying extra for if it is it’s being cancelled!
xx
