Following recent visits from both Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis we’ve unsurprisingly noticed an upsurge of claims reported for storm damage.
Our horse insurance claims team have noticed some key trends in recent weeks, and have put together four questions you should consider:
Are your buildings of standard construction?
Standard construction is usually defined as a building that is made of brick, stone or concrete and roofed with slate tiles or concrete.
Buildings of these materials would be covered as standard under SEIB policies.
What if your buildings are of non-standard construction?
Non-standard construction buildings are usually made up of timber or tin and for SEIB polices are over 10 years old.
If you have buildings on your land of non-standard construction they can still be insured, but you’ll need to be able to show through photographic evidence that they’re in a good state of repair both inside and out. On SEIB policies, if the insurer is happy with the condition then storm cover can be extended to them at no additional cost (subject to the excess).
Are you underinsured?
It’s really important that your sums insured are accurate. The value of buildings and materials can increase year-on-year and if you don’t inform your insurance providers and need to claim, it’s likely that only a percentage of your claim would be paid, as you’d be underinsured.
For example, if you added in a few temporary stables and didn’t inform your insurance provider and these were subsequently damaged by a storm, you wouldn’t be covered, so always keep your insurance providers in the loop with new purchases, building work or equipment.
Have you got business interruption insurance?
Many equestrian establishments choose not to include this cover, but it’s extremely important and could keep you out of trouble if your business was ground to a halt because of the effects of a storm or other incident.
An example of when this cover could help would be a livery yard owner who has 30 horses, but less than five acres of turnout. The stables become flooded, and there is not enough turnout for all of the horses to be turned away whilst the stables are drained and repaired, so clients move their horses elsewhere and as a business owner you’re left out of pocket. Business interruption insurance would cover this loss of earnings.
About SEIB
SEIB have been arranging Horse Insurance, Riding School Insurance and Livery Yard Insurance for over 50 years. If you would like to discuss your cover or get a quote, please call our team on 01708 850000.
