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For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Insurance for franchises – why is it important?

Running a franchise usually means working with the public and any employees you may have, which comes with risks. If a claim came up, would you have the funds to handle it? By combining covers, you can protect your business against the specific challenges you face.

  • liability insurance for franchises, including public and employee risks
  • public and product liability between £1 million and £10 million
  • trusted by over 900,000 small UK businesses for flexible, tailored cover

Start your quote

What does franchise insurance cover?

Public liability insurance is usually a key cover for many businesses. It protects your business against compensation claims if a member of the public gets injured or loses out financially. Beyond that, tailor your policy to your needs as a franchise, adding covers as you need them.

Public liability insurance

In case your business and products cause an injury or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for franchises?

Claims against your business for:

  • damage to someone’s property, caused by your work
  • an injury or illness caused by your business activities
  • certain accidental damage or injuries caused by your employees

For example:

  • you accidentally knock a shelf of products onto the floor while working on a client’s premises, which break and need replacing
  • you leave a trailing cable outside your premises, causing someone to trip and injure their back
  • an accident happens at your premises and someone is injured because of your work

**If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.**

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case anyone gets ill or injured while working for your franchise

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • injuries to staff (including casual labourers and contractors) that are caused as a result of your business
  • illness suffered by an employee (including temps and casual workers) caused by working for you

**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.**

For example:

  • your office manager breaks their finger while trying to close a faulty window at your business premises
  • your receptionist trips over a cable running across the floor of your office, breaking their ankle
  • a temp worker scratches their arm on one of your tools, and the injury becomes infected

Contents insurance

In case something happens to your fixtures, fittings, or operational equipment.

What’s typically covered by business contents insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • theft or vandalism to your office furniture or business equipment
  • damage or destruction caused by fire or flood

For example:

  • a fire caused by faulty electrics destroys your office furniture and other contents such as business equipment
  • someone forces entry to your business premises and graffitis your office furniture
  • a leaking pipe floods the ground floor of your business premises, and you need to replace your damaged contents

Read more about business contents insurance

Business legal insurance

In case you’re hit with legal expenses connected to your franchise.

Claims against your business for:

  • costs and expenses for disputes relating to debt recovery, including judgement enforcement
  • disputes with debt collectors, or any party who takes legal action against you, as a result of identity theft
  • costs and expenses for contractual disputes arising from an agreement

For example:

  • one of your clients isn’t happy with your work and believes you haven’t met the contractual requirements
  • someone gets access to your company’s bank details and uses them to buy goods and services
  • your client is disputing a contract they had with you on the provision of a service

Read more about business legal insurance

Stock insurance

In case something happens to your products and consumables.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • theft or vandalism to your stock
  • other loss or damage to your stock, for example through fires or floods
  • essential stock that you need to sell in order to operate

For example :

  • your equipment is faulty, causing fresh produce that you keep as stock to go off
  • water from a flood destroys stock and you have to throw it away
  • a thief clears out your stockroom – you have to replace stock quickly to operate

Read more about stock insurance

Buildings insurance

In case something happens to your business premises.

What’s typically covered by business building insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • repair and rebuild costs after damage caused by a storm, fire, or vandalism
  • fittings and fixtures that get damaged
  • underground pipes and cables, if you’re responsible for them

For example:

  • someone tries to force entry into your shop, damaging the door, which needs replacing
  • a burst pipe causes water damage to floorboards and walls – they need to be replaced
  • equipment catches fire and damages your building, which will need to be completely rebuilt

Read more about business buildings insurance

Excess insurance

In case you need to make a claim on your insurance policy.

What's typically covered by excess insurance?

Claims made by you for:

  • when you make a claim on a cover included in your business insurance policy, you won’t need to pay excess

For example :

  • after a heavy storm you need to make a claim on your building cover – you don’t have to pay the £250 excess thanks to your excess insurance
  • a leak in the bathroom causes a guest to slip and injure themselves and thanks to excess cover, there’s no excess to pay on the claim
  • a tenant’s suitcase scratches the wooden flooring in your hallway – you won't have to pay any excess on your accidental damage claim

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 franchise 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

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

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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.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

No excess

£750

Employers' liability

No excess

No excess

Contents

£200

£4,000

Stock

£200

£4,000

Main building

£200

£400

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

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Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am - 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am - 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am - 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am - 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

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FAQs

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How do insurance claims work for franchises?

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 team 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.

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of 5 back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,760 reviews

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Franchise insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about insurance for off licences. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • 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 installments.

  • This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

    If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

    There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

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

Helpful articles for franchise businesses

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