Insurance of course. It’s taken us months to think of this one and it was staring us in the face all along.
What is Insurance?
Everything needs insurance. Whether it’s ‘Construction All Risks‘, or ‘Delay in Start Up’, good old ‘public liability’ or the dreaded ‘professional indemnity’. We all love to be insured. You take out a policy – hopefully one that’s good value, and hope that you never need to use it. If you do need to use it, you’d better hope it ‘responds’.
The world of insurance is a fascinating and historic one, with underwriters and brokers and loss adjusters, there are a bewildering number of people and players involved. It also seemed to be the last part of the city to still do most of its business in the pub on a Friday afternoon – before lockdown at least. We’re lucky to have worked with some of the leading insurance lawyers in the land, but the world of insurance is still quite a mystery.
It’s not what it seems…
Watch out – your cover is clever. Not everything is as it seems.
A great insurance lawyer once pointed out to us, ‘construction all-risks will not cover all risks’! Surely there’s a rule against that kind of thing? Still – bear in mind that the cover you buy will only ever cover you, like everything in law, for what’s written in the contract.
Even worse – what if (as in one great example) a flood happens in a building or site, but you have a pricey piece of plant sitting in an airlock beyond reach of anyone. The piece of plant still works, and so isn’t damaged – you can just never get to it. The insurance will likely not cover you for damage to the plant, because it was never damaged!
So the one thing we learned about insurance, is that it’s much like everything in law – complicated. Luckily we don’t have to get too involved, but get in touch if you need help finding someone who does!