Commercial building insurance
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Based on 39,717 reviews
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For 80% of settled claims
Why is commercial building insurance important?
From leaking pipes to electrical faults, everyday building risks can be devastating for a small business. Commercial property insurance is designed to help cover repair or rebuild costs, if your business buildings are damaged during an event like a storm, or if it’s been vandalised. You can add this cover on to your business insurance policy, combining it with other popular options like contents insurance.
- combine business building and contents insurance, all in one policy
- rated 4.7/5 based on 39K+ public liability customer reviews
- trusted by over 900,000 small UK businesses for flexible, tailored cover
What does commercial building insurance cover?
Office-based businesses often have automatic cover provided by the owner of the building or management company, but if you own your premises or need protection for equipment, contents, and fittings, a tailored quote featuring office contents insurance and buildings cover can be a key support.
Public liability insurance
In case someone is injured while visiting your premises.
Employers’ liability insurance
Required by law for most employers, covering employee injuries and illness
Contents insurance
In case the specific contents you use at your business premises, such as furniture or appliances, are damaged or stolen
Fixtures and fittings insurance
Cover for fitted contents like your sinks and toilets
Flood
Fire
Storm
Escape of water
Subsidence
Public liability insurance
In case someone is injured while visiting your premises.
What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?
- accidental injury or damage to a third party and/or their possessions
If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.
For example:
- a customer visits your business and trips over a raised carpet, falling and injuring their arm
What isn’t covered?
- deliberate acts
- asbestos-related claims
- loss or damage of data
Read more about public liability insurance
Employers’ liability insurance
Required by law for most employers, covering employee injuries and illness
What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?
- an employee, including a contractor or casual labourer, suing you after falling ill because of working for you, or
- making a claim for an injury they’ve had while working for you
For example:
- an employee in your shop slips on a wet floor, injuring their lower back
**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**
Contents insurance
In case the specific contents you use at your business premises, such as furniture or appliances, are damaged or stolen
What’s typically covered by contents insurance?
- your contents and office equipment
- some insurers limit cover to the address stated on your policy details – your ‘insured address’ – and others will cover items away from your address, while inside the UK
For example:
- your business laptop is stolen during a break-in at your commercial premises
What isn’t covered?
- incidents where there are no signs of forceable entry or exit
- defects
- deliberate damage caused by the policyholder
Read more about business and office equipment insurance
Fixtures and fittings insurance
Cover for fitted contents like your sinks and toilets
What’s typically covered by fixtures and fittings insurance?
- escape of water, flood, storm, and fire
- in some cases, malicious damage
For example:
- your bathroom and kitchen fittings are damaged during a fire on your business premises, and you need to close for repair works
What isn’t covered?
- the cost of resolving the issue – this cover applies only to the damage caused
- deliberate damage caused by the policyholder
Read more about professional indemnity insurance
Flood
What does this cover?
- damage and destruction caused by flooding
- cover for your contents, up to the insurance level you’ve selected
When would I need to make a claim for flooding?
- for example, a heavy storm causes your kitchen area to flood, and you need to replace damaged contents including the table and fridge
Fire
What does this cover?
- damage and destruction caused by fire
- cover for your contents, up to the insurance level you’ve selected
When would I need to make a claim for fire?
- for example, a serious fire breaks out in your office, meaning it needs to be fully refurbished
Storm
What does this cover?
- damage and destruction caused by a storm
- cover for your contents, up to the insurance level you’ve selected
When would I need to make a claim for a storm?
- for example, strong gales cause several roof tiles to become dislodged and you need to pay to repair them
Escape of water
What does this cover?
- damage and destruction caused by an escape of water
- cover for your contents, up to the insurance level you’ve selected
When would I need to make a claim for escape of water?
- for example, a burst pipe floods your storage room, and you need to replace damaged contents including the lights and flooring
Subsidence
What does this cover?
- damage and destruction caused by subsidence
- cover for your contents, up to the insurance level you’ve selected
When would I need to make a claim for subsidence?
- for example, a wall at your premises collapses due to subsidence and it needs urgent repair work to make it safe
This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions
How much does commercial property insurance cost?
Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.
Prices start from £3.19 per month
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Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes
10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.
Example commercial property insurance quotes, real prices
£52.23 /month
£464.24 /year
An owner-run clothes shop located in a small retail space
- 2-3 years' experience
- Sole trader
- No employees
- Based in Birmingham
Public liability
£2,000,000
Employers’ liability
Not included
Buildings
£150,000
£94.39 /month
£839.05 /year
A large sandwich shop located on a busy high street, operating a 5 litre deep fat fryer and ATM machine
- 5+ years' experience
- Limited company
- 3 employees
- Based in Belfast
Public liability
£5,000,000
Employers’ liability
£10,000,000
Buildings
£225,000
How we work out building insurance example quotes. These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 07/03/2023). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your property. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.
Looking for something else?
Depending on your set-up, clients and business type, these expert covers might be helpful too:
When you run a quote you can select from a range of covers.
How it works
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How do claims work?
Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.
£39 million in claims paid out in 2022
Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022
The figure above is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.
Example business building insurance claim
Having business property insurance through Simply Business has saved UK SME owners thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.
Liz saved more than £22,000
Subsidence caused a wall at Liz’s (not her real name) shop to collapse. The optional business buildings insurance added to Liz’s business policy helped cover emergency repair work.
Insurance payout
£22,938.00
Covering the cost of subsidence
Liz’s costs
£100
The excess amount stated in Liz’s policy terms
Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords
We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.
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Rated 4.7/5
Based on 39,717 reviews
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Commercial building insurance FAQ
Whether you’re new to buying insurance or you’ve been operating your business for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about commercial building insurance.
You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.
If you own a business premises, there are lots of risks you’ll face on a daily basis which could cause serious problems for you or your tenants. Commercial buildings insurance can protect your contents, fittings, and equipment, paying for repair or replacement costs if they’re damaged by an event like a flood or vandalised.
In most cases, the owner of the commercial premises (i.e. the landlord) is responsible for the buildings insurance. If you own your business premises outright, then it’s likely you’ll need buildings cover. Sometimes, the tenant may be responsible for buildings insurance, so if you rent a commercial space make sure you check your tenancy agreement and speak to your landlord to make sure you have the right cover in place.
Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work.
If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.
Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.
You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:
- one-off credit or debit card payment
- BACS payment
- Direct Debit
If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly instalments.
We provide a range of cover options for specific business types, including:
Is your profession not listed? When you run a quote you can select your trade from over 1,000 options.
We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions
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© Copyright 2023 Simply Business. All Rights Reserved. Simply Business is a trading name of Xbridge Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Registration No: 313348). Xbridge Limited (No: 3967717) has its registered office at 6th Floor, 99 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NG.