Zurich Comercios — Multi-Risk Insurance for Shops, Venues and Commercial Premises

What this policy is

Zurich Comercios is a multi-risk policy for the premises where a business operates:
a shop, an office, a bar, a salon, a teaching centre, an agency. It is built on two sums
insured, and the simplest way to tell them apart is this: turn your premises upside
down. Everything that does not fall is the continente — the premises
themselves: walls, ceiling, floor, installations, finishes. Everything that falls is the
contenido: furniture, stock, computers, machinery.

From which a simple rule follows. If you rent the premises, insure the contents;
the landlord takes care of the building. If you own them, insure both — with one
exception: if you let them unfurnished, the building alone is enough.

The five most common claims in retail and services

According to Zurich they are: burst water pipes, damage to electrical appliances and
wiring, damage caused by attempted break-ins, machinery breakdown, and water seepage. All
five are covered, and none of the five is the fire that comes to mind first.

What has been added to the product

There are now specific guarantees for remote working, home delivery and businesses
run from home. For an agency with part of its staff working from home, or for premises
that deliver, this has stopped being a grey area.

Loss of profits — what the policy is really for

The building is half the story. The real loss begins when the business stops. The policy
covers permanent costs — rent, wages and loans that keep running while the premises
are closed — or pays a fixed amount for each day of interruption. The cover period
and the daily limit are chosen when you take out the policy, and the guarantee can be
extended to interruption caused by electrical damage.

Civil liability

The policy includes liability for the premises: €300,000. Depending on the activity,
it is joined by operating liability, employer’s liability for accidents at work
(€300,000, of which €150,000 per victim) and liability for products and completed
work. Court bonds and legal conduct are included. Separately there is legal defence for the
business: €6,000 of lawyers’ services for disputes arising from the activity.

What it does not cover

Two exclusions worth knowing in advance.

• Contagious diseases. Losses, costs and claims arising directly or indirectly from
  a contagious disease — or even from the fear or threat, real or perceived, of one — are
  excluded unless otherwise agreed.
• Cyber risks. Cyber losses and anything to do with the loss, repair or reproduction
  of data are excluded. The one exception: where a fire or explosion is the direct result of a
  cyber incident, the material damage is covered — unless that incident originated in a
  cyber attack.

For those risks Zurich has separate products: cyber protection, D&O, transport, fleets
and accident cover.

Five activities with conditions of their own

For offices, bars and restaurants, hairdressers and beauty salons, teaching centres and estate agencies, Zurich has conditions of its own. The common core is the same; the differences are in the table below, and they weigh more than you would think: in some cases a whole guarantee is added, in others an exclusion appears that is better known in advance.

How the price is calculated

By floor area and the sums insured for building and contents, by the activity, by the
construction and age of the building, and by the protection in place: extinguishers, hydrants,
sprinklers, grilles and metal shutters, an alarm connected to a monitoring centre, security
staff. Protection counts for a great deal: a declared and working alarm changes both the price
and the terms of the theft cover.