Insurance Help

sugarwalsh

Hi again,

I was recently asking advice and I am back for more. I received an insurance quote to cover PLI for our big letters which we are hiring out for weddings.

I arranged to call the insurance brokers back today, only to find they close early on Fridays. I am now stuck as I don't know where to find insurance for this.

Can anyone help? We are due to take the letters to a wedding fair on Sunday and I desperately want to have it sorted before then!

Megan

paddyrg

Can you buy via the websites for immediate cover, paperwork to follow?

Savvy_Sue

I'd guess there's not as much risk at a wedding fair as at an actual wedding, you'll be there the whole time won't you?

sugarwalsh

Paddy, I have tried to look into it, but really struggling to find 'wedding prop hire' type of insurance.
Tried Axa who helpfully gave me another brokers - again closed. How do these people make money?
Savvy Sue - would this really work? I know we will be there - but what about things like damage to the building (Not that we are planning on doing anything!) and the likes?
Thanks
Megan

paddyrg

Sue's suggestion is to self insure and be careful. A fair is very low risk compared with a wedding - it's daytime and people are sober and you're there to set things up right and supervise. It's a gamble. Almost certainly nothing will go wrong, but it'll cost you if it does. FWIW the damage to a building would have to be quite extensive to cost more than your policy excess, unless you start a fire! Personally I'd probably just do the fair if the option is less business for the coming year, doubly so if you've already paid!

sugarwalsh

If we set fire to the building I would say our chances of getting work - insured or not - are pretty low...

I think we are just going to go - we have literally worked day and night on them for the last week to hit this dead line. We have called company after company to find most of them closed and the ones which aren't don't cover it or want to charge 4 times the amount we were originally quoted. I am just so, so annoyed that the brokers didn't tell me they close early.

Thanks again for your advice.
Megan

Savvy_Sue

sugarwalsh wrote: »

I am just so, so annoyed that the brokers didn't tell me they close early.

I hope it went well, but take this as a lesson, you have to plan well ahead and check, check and double check!

sugarwalsh

Thank you Savvy Sue. We went for it in the end. We decided to take them after all that went wrong.

It went amazingly well, we have already had 4 bookings and more in the pipeline.

We have also been in touch with a different insurance broker, who are fabulous. As they say, everything happens for a reason.

Megan

paddyrg

Glad it worked out and congratulations on your new business!

sugarwalsh

Thank you so much, Paddy. Now that the immediate stress has gone we are enjoying it!
We still have some things to sort out, but now we feel we can concentrate on the promotion and the nicer side of it! Megan