In the event of any claim regardless of size, that any of your Sums Insured are determined to be inadequate, (such as on Buildings, Fixtures, Fittings & all other Contents, General Stock, Cigarettes & Tobacco, Wines & Spirits, etc.), your insurer will apply Average Clause, (IE. reduce the claim settlement by the same proportion.)

If you are underinsured by 50%, your claim will be reduced by half! For example, if you have a burglary where cigarettes to the value of €10,000 are stolen, your insurer will appoint a Loss Adjuster to call to you and deal with the claim. The first task undertaken by the Loss Adjuster is to check the adequacy/accuracy of your Sum Insured. If they find that your Sum Insured was €10,000, but that you actually normally carry a total stock of €20,000 then Average Clause will be applied and you will be allowed only €5,000 before deduction of your policy excess.

The highest claims costs under Shop Insurance is by a long way slips and trips.

Do you have a policy for dealing with spillages and wet days? 80% of slips arise from wet floors. Many are caused by spillages. Other causes are wet weather and very often staff cleaning/washing floors while the shop is still open for business. (This should only ever be done after the shop has closed and all customers have exited.)

After such incidents are reported to insurers a Claims Investigator is sent to the shop. The very first thing they do is to establish whether the retailer has a daily cleaning/floor monitoring record. If they do not, the insurer considers that our chance of defense has quite simply fallen at the first hurdle!