heritage insurance
Heritage Commercial - introducing a new dimension to commercial insurance
We have now added an option to include insurance cover for personal and household contents, personal legal liability and family legal expenses. See the heritage commercial insurance with household summary of cover for further information (ONLY available as a PDF).
Heritage Commercial insurance is for your customers who own, or own and operate from, a heritage property in the commercial market.
Heritage buildings exist in significant numbers and vary in occupation from shops to theatres, museums and offices. Thousands of heritage properties are in individual private ownership, and thousands of businesses are run from them.
For these commercial businesses, the heritage label may not be considered as important as their main business activity. A pub or hotel sees itself as just that, regardless of whether it operates from a heritage building.
But think again.
The heritage assets are often critical to customer demand and may place legal constraints on the business. So, although many of your existing commercial clients may rely on the heritage aspect of their properties to attract customers, they do not specifically seek out insurance for heritage property.
Meeting your customers' needs
Owners of heritage structures certainly need guidance about the additional risks facing them. Indeed 79% of brokers we questioned agree that, 'businesses are often unaware of the complications which can arise in the re-build or repair of an historic building', and 64% of brokers questioned agreed that, 'businesses who occupy listed buildings are often unaware of the legal constraints that can be enforced by the local authority on the materials used for repairs and rebuild'. *
Why choose Ecclesiastical?
Research by our Survey & Risk Services Team showed that only 28% of listed properties are correctly insured, with 17% significantly over-insured and a massive 55% were under-insured - get the right valuation from our expert team without additional charge (subject to eligibility). *
Ecclesiastical has the capacity to write the largest risks and the smallest – from St Paul’s Cathedral to St Paul’s Café.
Saving a heritage building is a long and slow process. Ecclesiastical has years of experience working with English Heritage and local authorities to ensure repairs are completed sympathetically. One extreme example of our commitment to sympathetic restoration is when we negotiated to reopen a quarry to obtain an authentic match of the appropriate stone for a partial loss. Find out more about our partnership with English Heritage and more recently the launch of their new initiative Heritage at Risk. We're proud to be the first commercial organisation involved.
We’ve teamed up with specially selected affinity providers to ensure that you and your customers are able to make the reinstatement process run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Through our specially selected affinity providers, your customers can get further discounts on construction management services, legal services, storage of records and much more.
Our Heritage Commercial insurance is suitable for a wide range of businesses and we will positively consider any heritage risk – from country pubs and inns to hotels, offices, stately homes, castles and forts. It’s not just insurance for heritage property or insurance for listed buildings – it’s more than that. We consider locations, monuments, non-listed properties and businesses which share the extra dimension of being based in and responsible for a heritage property, and the associated implications that come with it.
To develop this opportunity for your business, or find out more about heritage insurance, please contact us. Alternatively you can view or use the order literature link.
*Ecclesiastical research
