Commercial building insurance

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Why is commercial building insurance important?

From leaking pipes to electrical faults, everyday building risks can be devastating for a small business. Commercial property insurance is designed to help cover repair or rebuild costs, if your business buildings are damaged during an event like a storm, or if it’s been vandalised. We offer commercial buildings cover on business, shop and commercial landlord insurance.

  • combine business building and contents insurance, all in one policy
  • rated 4.8/5 based on 39K+ public liability customer reviews
  • trusted by nearly 1 million small UK businesses for flexible, tailored cover

What does commercial building insurance cover?

Office-based businesses often have automatic cover provided by the owner of the building or management company, but if you own your premises or need protection for equipment, contents, and fittings, a tailored quote featuring office contents insurance and buildings cover can be a key support.

  • Public liability insurance

    In case someone is injured while visiting your premises.

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    Required by law for most employers, covering employee injuries and illness

  • Contents insurance

    In case the specific contents you use at your business premises, such as furniture or appliances, are damaged or stolen

  • Fixtures and fittings insurance

    Cover for fitted contents like your sinks and toilets

  • Flood

  • Fire

  • Storm

  • Escape of water

  • Subsidence

  • Public liability insurance

    In case someone is injured while visiting your premises.

    What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

    • accidental injury or damage to a third party and/or their possessions

    If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

    For example:

    • a customer visits your business and trips over a raised carpet, falling and injuring their arm

    What isn’t covered?

    • deliberate acts
    • asbestos-related claims
    • loss or damage of data

    Read more about public liability insurance

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    Required by law for most employers, covering employee injuries and illness

    What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

    • an employee, including a contractor or casual labourer, suing you after falling ill because of working for you, or
    • making a claim for an injury they’ve had while working for you

    For example:

    • an employee in your shop slips on a wet floor, injuring their lower back

    **Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

  • Contents insurance

    In case the specific contents you use at your business premises, such as furniture or appliances, are damaged or stolen

    What’s typically covered by contents insurance?

    • your contents and office equipment
    • some insurers limit cover to the address stated on your policy details – your ‘insured address’ – and others will cover items away from your address, while inside the UK

    For example:

    • your business laptop is stolen during a break-in at your commercial premises

    What isn’t covered?

    • incidents where there are no signs of forceable entry or exit
    • defects
    • deliberate damage caused by the policyholder

    Read more about business and office equipment insurance

  • Fixtures and fittings insurance

    Cover for fitted contents like your sinks and toilets. Including buildings cover will include fixtures and fittings as standard. 

    What’s typically covered by fixtures and fittings insurance?

    • escape of water, flood, storm, and fire
    • in some cases, malicious damage

    For example:

    • your bathroom and kitchen fittings are damaged during a fire on your business premises, and you need to close for repair works

    What isn’t covered?

    • the cost of resolving the issue – this cover applies only to the damage caused
    • deliberate damage caused by the policyholder

  • Flood

    What does this cover?

    • damage and destruction caused by flooding
    • cover for your building and fixtures and fittings, up to the insurance level you’ve selected

    When would I need to make a claim for flooding?

    • for example, a heavy storm causes your kitchen area to flood, and you need to replace damaged contents, like kitchen units

  • Fire

    What does this cover?

    • damage and destruction caused by fire
    • cover for your buildings, up to the insurance level you’ve selected

    When would I need to make a claim for fire?

    • for example, a serious fire breaks out in your office, meaning it needs to be fully refurbished

  • Storm

    What does this cover?

    • damage and destruction caused by a storm
    • cover for your buildings, up to the insurance level you’ve selected

    When would I need to make a claim for a storm?

    • for example, strong gales cause several roof tiles to become dislodged and you need to pay to repair them

  • Escape of water

    What does this cover?

    • damage and destruction caused by an escape of water
    • cover for your buildings, up to the insurance level you’ve selected

    When would I need to make a claim for escape of water?

    • for example, a burst pipe floods your storage room, and you need to replace a damaged part of your buildings such as shower and kitchen units

  • Subsidence

    What does this cover?

    • damage and destruction caused by subsidence
    • cover for your buildings, up to the insurance level you’ve selected

    When would I need to make a claim for subsidence?

    • for example, a wall at your premises collapses due to subsidence and it needs urgent repair work to make it safe

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does commercial property insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices for commercial property insurance from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £4.74 per month

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The price is for up to £2 million of public liability insurance – 10% of customers paid £56.82 or less annually between 1st Jan – 31st May 2024. Equivalent to £4.74 a month (and excludes the extra costs for paying monthly). 76% of customers have a £1 million limit and 24% £2 million. If you complete a quote, more types of cover will be available. These all have additional costs.

Example commercial property insurance quotes, real prices

£61.59 /month

£615.90 /year

An owner-run clothes shop located in a small retail space

  • 2-3 years’ experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Birmingham

Public liability

£2,000,000

Employers’ liability

Not included

Buildings

£150,000

£129.11 /month

£1,291.14 /year

A large sandwich shop located on a busy high street, operating a 5 litre deep fat fryer and ATM machine

  • 5+ years’ experience
  • Limited company
  • 3 employees
  • Based in Belfast

Public liability

£5,000,000

Employers’ liability

£10,000,000

Buildings

£225,000

How we work out example quotes: These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 01/10/2024). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

Looking for something else?

Depending on your set-up, clients and business type, these expert covers might be helpful too:

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Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.

£51 million in claims paid out in 2023

83% of claims were settled in 2023.

The figure above is rounded across our range of products. “Settled” covers paid, declined or withdrawn. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis. Our specialist partner Sedgwick will pay the claims on behalf of the insurer. Reviewed on 24/04/2024.

Example business building insurance claim

Having business property insurance through Simply Business has saved UK SME owners thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Liz saved more than £22,000

Subsidence caused a wall at Liz’s (not her real name) shop to collapse. The optional business buildings insurance added to Liz’s business policy helped cover emergency repair work.

Insurance payout

£22,938.00

Covering the cost of subsidence

Insurance payout

Covering the cost of subsidence

Covering the cost of subsidence

Chosen by nearly 1 million small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then, with nearly 1 million customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

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Commercial building insurance FAQ

Whether you’re new to buying insurance or you’ve been operating your business for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about commercial building insurance.

You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

If you own a business premises, there are lots of risks you’ll face on a daily basis which could cause serious problems for you or your tenants. Commercial buildings insurance can protect your contents, fittings, and equipment, paying for repair or replacement costs if they’re damaged by an event like a flood or vandalised.

In most cases, the owner of the commercial premises (i.e. the landlord) is responsible for the buildings insurance. If you own your business premises outright, then it’s likely you’ll need buildings cover. Sometimes, the tenant may be responsible for buildings insurance, so if you rent a commercial space make sure you check your tenancy agreement and speak to your landlord to make sure you have the right cover in place.

Buildings and Contents Insurance should be tax deductible. It should be an allowable expense, which means it’s one of the costs you can subtract when calculating your taxable profit. We recommend speaking to your accountant or contacting a financial adviser for help with making any tax-based decisions.

Yes, you can choose a policy that combines both commercial and residential tenancies. This can be handy if you own a shop with a flat above it.

Yes.

Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work.

If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

The amount of commercial property insurance cover you need will depend on the size of your business and the type and number of buildings that you own. 

You’ll want to make sure you cover the cost of rebuilding your properties, which can be more than their actual value. This would have to include the total cost of rebuilding all insured buildings, plus other costs associated with this such as architects and surveyors fees.

You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

  • one-off credit or debit card payment
  • BACS payment
  • Direct Debit

If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly instalments.

We provide a range of cover options for specific business types, including:

Is your profession not listed? When you run a quote you can select your trade from over 1,000 options.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions