8+1 rules to safeguard your company. The "gray" areas in insurance policies.

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Insurance began as bets made by wealthy people who used to drink their coffee or beer at a well-known London pub. They were betting on whether or not a cargo would reach its destination. Since then a lot of time has passed and today insurance have become complex and are  a key pillar of the economy all around the world.

Loss adjusters and loss assessors appeared almost immediately after the first insurance act. They deal exclusively or almost exclusively with losses and their experience is paramount for a "proper business insurance". 

It is important for each company to calculate the risks and protect itself against them, but property insurance is really "mandatory" for any individual or legal entity. 

1. Property insurance must provide a correct description of the insured premises and assets. Buildings, machinery, objects or even stocks that are not properly described could be excluded from insurance or compensation estimates.
2. In many cases, companies never recovered from a moderate loss, even though they were well compensated by their insurance companies and the conditions of the previous paragraph were met. This happens because property insurance was not accompanied by an equally good and adequate business interrumption contract. The business interruption contract mainly covers a company's gross profit during the restoration period up until the company can go back to normal production and sales.
3. It is absolutely necessary to estimate the property and loss of profis capitals in order to be insured under the terms of the coverage and especially the "compensation base" of the insurance policies. This is achieved with the help of a pre-insurance assessment which should be reviewed periodically and according to the changes made in the insured companies.
4. When there are irregularities or inaccuracies in licensing documents (operating license, fire protection certificates, building permits and other documents), it is absolutely certain that in the case of a damage these irregularities, significant or insignificant, will create serious problems in settling the loss. Therefore, all pending issues or irregularities should be identified and diclosed to the brokers primarily.  They, in cooperation with the loss assessors, should deal with the issues in a technical manner and make the appropriate interventions either in the insurance contracts or in order to eliminate the irregularities.
5. When one reviews the global market, it is clear that uninsured risks can be detrimental for healthy businesses. A recent example is the issue that arose with Samsung tablets. Depending on a company's main activities and market penetration, the basic insurance covers may include the following: General and Employer Liabilities, Product Liability, Professional Liability and Executive Liability. It does not make any sense for a company exporting American products to be insured for product liability under Greek law. Similarly, a hotel hosting 50% of Britons or Scandinavians should not have civil liability cover of their customers under European law. Analyzing such issues is the most important part of marketing an insurance policy.
6. All the aforementioned insurance policies have, like all contracts, special and general terms and exceptions. There is always room for improvement in these terms, especially when they do not affect the essence of the policy. It is therefore absolutely essential that insurance policies are read by claims experts and recommendations be made so that the contracts are improved each year according to the needs of the companies and according to the special conditions that prevail during their effective valid period. I quote some examples of cases we have encountered: a) a hotel that was insured for the civil liability of their customers was not compensated for a client's claim due to an exception which the tour operator had transferred to the hotel through the contract signed between them (hotel and tour operator), b) a furniture showroom was not compensated for flood because there was a special cover condition for placing the goods on pallets, c) a production unit located on a plot of land outside the city plan was not covered for fire because there was an exception for forest and shrub fires, d) a warehouse - commercial company was not adequately covered for fire due to the fact that the company guard was permanently residing in a chamber on the roof of the warehouse building and not in the outpost.
7. The implementation of the recommendations made by the underwriting departments of the insurance companies is not optional, it is MANDATORY, unless otherwise clearly stated. In case of disagreement or in case of inability to implement the recommendations, these disagreements should be notified in a timely manner and negotiations should be held either for time extensions in their implementation or for their replacement with other milder recommendations.
8. In the case of leased buildings or premises (equipped or shells) it is necessary to take into account the lease agreements, so that the insurance contracts covering such properties operate in parallel and do not contradict each other. Although it is rarely done, tenants and landlords, should coordinate, if not work closely together, so that a) leases include paragraphs that care for cases of damage and b) insurance policies are properly drafted to "work in cooperation" with the respective leases. Throughout the process, borkers and loss assessors are essential partners and can provide solutions.
9. In more advanced insurance markets than the Greek one, there are specialized property insurance policies that take into account the special risk conditions. For example, there are insurance policies for restaurants with open flame use or for empty apartments or houses. These "special" contracts could easily penetrate the Greek market, while it is not difficult to take care of any special cases that may exist in the country.