Business Burst Pipes
Freezing weather may lead to damage caused by water escaping from burst pipes. Imagine a pipe full of water freezing. You may remember from school that ice takes up more space than water, and in a pipe it has nowhere to go - so it tries to expand the pipe inside which it is sitting. The force of this may be huge – and something has to give. The pipe may split but remain plugged by the ice - until the thaw comes - and that is when you find out what the freezing has done!
Your business's stock, as well as machinery, plant, office equipment, fixtures & fittings etc are all vulnerable to damage by water. The damage may be immediately obvious – or unseen and insidious. As always, the insured (you) have a duty to mitigate losses – in effect, to act as if you are not insured, so that your insurers’ liability is kept to a minimum (likewise, should you find that your cover is less substantial than you thought, or not even there at all, you would wish to see that all potential damage is indeed kept to a minimum).
However, in the real world nothing is ever as simple as it first appears. As a business, you are liable to take different decisions depending on a whole range of factors – depending on how strong or effective your insurance cover is. This is not to say that you should exploit your insurer, however, depending on the structure of your insurance cover you could choose between, say, mopping up yourself or calling in a professional disaster recovery company.
If you and your staff undertake the disaster management yourselves, as well as not necessarily having the appropriate equipment, you might be diverting important time, effort and resources that could be better spent communicating with your customers and suppliers to protect the business overall to best effect. Whereas your personal efforts will be applauded by your insurer, the costs of doing things yourself would not be met additionally by the claim, as essential wages are already paid under the Business Interruption section. However if you were to call in external expert disaster management personnel, not only does that release you and your staff to keep what you can running as best as possible, your insurers are quite happy to pay the presented bills. The result is that both you and your insurers’ interests are protected overall – however, the emphasis is to look at what is best for your business, not what is best for the insurance company.
There are other circumstances where taking on the clean-up yourselves would not be in your best interests, and this is why professional Loss Assessors will guide you through the process to do what’s best for you and your business. There is nothing wrong with keeping costs to a minimum. Insurers are looking to save money; you are looking to save your business, which is not necessarily the same thing and, once more, this is why you will need an experienced professional Loss Assessor working on your side.
Truman Associates are experienced in dealing with claims for businesses affected by disasters such as Fire, Flood, Storm, Theft and Escape of water and it is worth remembering who has whose interests at heart. An insurance company, like any other business, has to make as much money as possible. They will work hard to pay out the minimum amount possible when you make a claim for damage caused by water that has escaped from a burst pipe. Insurance companies employ insurance loss adjusters, insurance experts who will investigate all the details of the claim in order to find ways of reducing your insurance settlement. Insurance loss adjusters deal with insurance claims on behalf of insurers on a daily basis, whereas you may not have experience of making a claim. What you need is your own insurance expert working on your side - that's where an insurance loss assessor like Truman Associates comes in.
If a burst pipe has caused damage to your business premises or other property, call us now on 0800 542 1616 or 07831 259545 for help with your insurance claim. One of our insurance loss assessors will be happy to help you get the settlement you deserve.
