B&B building and public liability insurance - can't find reasonable quotes

chilswelluk

In light of the new Scottish B&B legislation, I am now required to have building and public liability insurance.  I have a full time job, so only run the B&B at the weekends over the summer for some extra income.  I only made about £4000 last year and insurance quotes are coming out at around £800.  That's almost 25% of my profit!  Can anyone recommend any providers that may be significantly cheaper? I don't need contents insurance and only the basic legal minimum for the B&B (building and public liability) 

MobileSaver

chilswelluk said:

insurance quotes are coming out at around £800.  That's almost 25% of my profit!  Can anyone recommend any providers that may be significantly cheaper?

Can you not use the B&B insurance as a replacement for your normal home insurance so although it might be £800 it will only be £500 or whatever more than you'd have to pay anyway?

I know a friend of mine uses Direct Line for Business but no idea whether they are competitive or not.

chilswelluk

MobileSaver said:

Can you not use the B&B insurance as a replacement for your normal home insurance so although it might be £800 it will only be £500 or whatever more than you'd have to pay anyway?

I know a friend of mine uses Direct Line for Business but no idea whether they are competitive or not.

I only pay £150 per year for domestic home building insurance.  I never bother with contents, its just not worth it.  Most of the  business insurance with public liability adds cover for things that I never need, such as loss of earnings, damage to stock etc. 

DullGreyGuy

chilswelluk said:

MobileSaver said:

Can you not use the B&B insurance as a replacement for your normal home insurance so although it might be £800 it will only be £500 or whatever more than you'd have to pay anyway?

I know a friend of mine uses Direct Line for Business but no idea whether they are competitive or not.

I only pay £150 per year for domestic home building insurance.  I never bother with contents, its just not worth it.  Most of the  business insurance with public liability adds cover for things that I never need, such as loss of earnings, damage to stock etc. 

They are normally optional extras which you can add or remove as required 

Unfortunately commercial insurance is more expensive than domestic, brokers charge a much higher fee to the insurers, more focus on quality of cover than price etc. 

There arent any aggregators for SME insurance either, if you go to confused.com or such they just use a single company like Simply Business who are a broker and just expose their panel in a style similar to an aggregator but you always have to buy from that one company. As such its more legwork to be done.

MobileSaver

chilswelluk said:

MobileSaver said:

Can you not use the B&B insurance as a replacement for your normal home insurance so although it might be £800 it will only be £500 or whatever more than you'd have to pay anyway?

I know a friend of mine uses Direct Line for Business but no idea whether they are competitive or not.

I only pay £150 per year for domestic home building insurance.  I never bother with contents, its just not worth it.  Most of the  business insurance with public liability adds cover for things that I never need, such as loss of earnings, damage to stock etc. 

Around here a lot of small business owners swear by NFU Mutual for being very business friendly and handling not quite mainstream situations.

I can see they do do Holiday Accommodation Insurance so may be worth a phone call or email to see if they can offer a bespoke policy for you?

Savvy_Sue

Possibly also worth phoning a broker, but noting DGG's comments: commercial is more expensive!

chilswelluk

MobileSaver said:

Around here a lot of small business owners swear by NFU Mutual for being very business friendly and handling not quite mainstream situations.

I can see they do do Holiday Accommodation Insurance so may be worth a phone call or email to see if they can offer a bespoke policy for you?

I already tried them and they too are around the £800 mark.  This stupid Scottish government have really messed things up with this licensing scheme for small B&B owners who live on premises.  I can understand the public liability component, but why the hell they mandate building insurance is the height of the nanny state. 

chilswelluk

DullGreyGuy said: 

if you go to confused.com or such they just use a single company like Simply Business who are a broker and just expose their panel in a style similar to an aggregator

I have been to confused.com and other price comparison sites, but I cant find a single one where you can compare business insurance.  I have also phoned brokers and had quotes around the £800 mark.  Phoning brokers is also so time consuming.  As well as the B&B I have a full time job in the week working 12 hours a day, so have little time.

LessImpecunious

We've used a broker called Lloyd and White (based in Taunton but national coverage) for several years after NFU became too expensive - for a working from home business, so not the same as your situation. They've always managed to find us much cheaper prices than any other quotes (I compare every couple of years), tho' they did put their own fee up from £25 to £50 at last quote (in November).

chilswelluk

DullGreyGuy said:

They are normally optional extras which you can add or remove as required

I have approached a few brokers, but I have been told I can't remove them as they come as "standard".  Some of them even include "anti terrorism cover" - what an absolute load of nonsense!  What annoys me is I have had a nice little business giving me an extra 4-5 thousand per year, but because of this stupid Scottish government, my profitability is instantly reduced overnight for some bureaucratic nonsense.