Q: We are dealing in electrical appliances. Recently one of our warehouse roofs collapsed and it damaged almost 60 percent of our material. We lodged the claim with our insurer. Initially they said that impact damaged is covered under the policy, but later they confirmed in writing that the claim was not admissible under the policy. Since our material was damaged due to impact of falling roof, why this loss is not covered under the Fire Policy? A: The standard fire policy does have a cover for impact damage and the wording as per the policy is usually “IMPACT by any mechanically propelled vehicles, horses or cattle not belonging to or under the control of the insured or insured's employees .” Hence as per your policy the damage occurred to your material due to the impact of falling roof is not covered. However, I would like to point out that had you taken a property all risks policy instead of standard fire policy your claim would have been covered under the policy. I would suggest you to immediately upgrade all your fire policies into Property All Risk policies to avoid such problems in future. You may have to pay an additional deductible and extra premium (between 15-25%) for this type of coverage. Q: I am in-charge of importing goods from different countries. It is a small operation. Usually we import under L/C. The banks normally insist on us to produce the policy for risk to process our papers. I find it difficult to get the right insurance, as most of the insurers are not interested in insuring small shipments, generating small premium. What will be the best solution for us? A: It is true that you will find it difficult to get the right insurer for your small marine shipments. Since the premium generated is very small and the cost of servicing is more and in case of any claims the insurers will have to bear the liability, this discourages them to go all out for such type of business. In the current scenario almost all banks have their allied insurance companies or tie-ups with insurance companies. I will suggest you to ask the concerned bank to get the policy from their side. This will be cheaper and easier to process as this will save time and botheration to all the parties concerned. The other alternative is to approach a good broker, who can do your job of getting the right insurances. * Shujaath Ahmed Khan, an M.B.A., General Manager, Creative Associates is also a consultant and an expert in Insurance, Investments and Real Estate. He can be contacted at [email protected], website-www.creativeassociates.blogspot.com. __
