If you are a business owner, it is important to have insurance in place. You likely have many different types of policies that protect your business from being sued or having property damage. But what about the risks associated with running a company? Does your current policy provide coverage for those potential disasters? If not, this post may be helpful!
This post will cover how to purchase business insurance and why it’s so important. We’ll also discuss some common misconceptions people have about their existing coverage and how they can find out if they’re adequately protected without any unexpected surprises down the line.
Insurance protects against financial loss and liability.
A typical insurance policy covers the insured against loss caused by perils such as fire, theft, and accidental damage.
The public is often under the misapprehension that churches are automatically exempt from paying for commercial property insurance. This means that many smaller churches pay unnecessarily high premiums or simply cancel their coverage altogether. However, recent case law has made it clear that churches are not automatically entitled to a special exemption from paying commercial property insurance premiums.
The case of Nisbet Plant Hire Ltd v County Insurance Committee [1984] is a warning to all churches which might be tempted to risk the future security of their buildings and ministries by ignoring their need for appropriate insurance cover. In this case, the House of Lords allowed an appeal by the insurer and held that a church was not exempt from liability to pay for commercial property insurance.
If you own or occupy a building, it is your responsibility to ensure that it has appropriate fire and public liability insurance. This applies equally to all types of insured occupiers such as charities, churches, and private individuals. Here are some things you need to know about the law on insurance for churches…
- Churches are not automatically exempt from paying commercial property insurance premiums.
- The church must be used wholly or mainly for the purposes of public religious worship if it is to qualify as a place of ‘public religious worship’ and hence qualify for an exemption.
- The amount of cover required can be determined by the court but must reflect the full cost of rebuilding the building plus loss of profits for any period during which it is unusable. The insurer will want to know whether you have insurance now and how much it would pay out if sued. If not, they may tell you that they will not insure you.
- If you think that your church building may be in need of some repairs or renovation, it would probably be wise to contact the insurer before starting the work. This way your insurance premiums are likely to remain at an acceptable level without loss of cover during any necessary repairs.
It helps to maintain good credit ratings, meaning that you’ll probably get loans or credit cards with better interest rates.
It helps to establish financial responsibility, which can be an asset when applying for certain jobs, such as government positions.
It can help to build your personal identity since you’re able to prove who you are through legal documents. For example, you may have to provide a birth certificate and/or other documents when enrolling in school, applying for a driver’s license, etc.
It helps protect your loved ones; if something happens to you, or if you become incapacitated and require medical services and/or financial assistance, having legal documentation can make it easier for someone else to take care of your affairs.
It helps you to protect yourself, as a legal document can be used as evidence in a court of law. For example, if someone tries to sue you for damages or other losses that they claim were caused by you, being able to prove that those claims are false can help defend yourself against their accusations.
It can provide tax benefits for the company and its owners, reduce liability for US founders and employees, and protect assets in case of lawsuits.
Possible that our tax system is the biggest incentive available to people dealing in the digital world that convey intangible goods and services (such as software). (Source: Taxes in the United States, Wikipedia)
It was almost a year ago when we became aware of the US presence of an organization taking advantage of the benefits of the BVI and we started to investigate how this could be possible, especially since its own promotional material advises individuals and corporations on how to move assets to the United States.
Businesses with insurance are more likely to stay in operation after an accident or disaster and thus reduce the loss in tax revenues and jobs.
But what happens when a company chooses not to insure itself? What if it even goes so far as to actively avoid insuring its business with high-quality carriers? The result can be devastating, especially in cases where policyholders use their lack of insurance as a reason why they shouldn’t comply with regulations. It’s called the “Catch-22” for a reason.
The City of San Diego learned this hard lesson when it sued the owners of The Witching Well, an allegedly haunted hotel in Old Town, after fire damage to the property in 2009. The city had not one but two opportunities to inspect The Witching Well for building code violations. Had either inspection led to ordered repairs, the building probably would not have caught fire in 2011 and burned three-quarters of it to the ground.
But San Diego lacked an incentive to inspect The Witching Well: there was no insurance policy that needed protection from risk like this. Without adequate insurance, property owners can literally get away with murder – literally.
The hotel’s owner, Jacquie Barnaba, testified that she believed sign warning guests of the presence of ghosts made her property uninsurable. “I believe that insurance companies shy away from scaring people,” she said in court. Her parents’ company ended up spending $2 million to rebuild the hotel, which reopened on October 31 of this year.
