As a restaurant, you have the unique pleasure of providing a product that everybody in the world needs to survive; food. Of course, you have to compete with other restaurants, stores, and various other sources. However, the satisfaction of feeding hungry customers is something that never goes away.
With this in mind, it can be devastating when the building experiences damage. Sadly, fires could almost be considered common in restaurants and the journey back to normal can be long and difficult. Not only are you having to find money to pay for repairs, you’re also missing out on important income while the doors are closed.
Before we provide advice on filing claims, we first advise every restaurant owner to check their insurance policy to see what is and isn’t covered. After experiencing a fire or another cause of damage, the last thing you want is your provider telling you that you aren’t covered.
Common Claims
Alongside fires, common claims for restaurants include;
- Incidents with delivery drivers
- Staff injuries
- Customer injuries
- Food poisoning
- Liability claims
Lost Income
With businesses, the rules are slightly different to those we see with homes. For example, you may not have to experience a direct physical loss in order to claim for lost income. In one example we saw previously, civil authority ordered the evacuation of the restaurant after physical damage had been experienced nearby. In this case, no physical loss was experienced by the restaurant in question, but staff and customers were forced away from the premises which allowed them coverage.
In other policies, there’s a feature known as ‘Spoilage Coverage’. In your restaurant, you probably fear things like power outages. In addition to rendering machinery and appliances useless, losing power for too long will also affect food and ingredients in the building. Therefore, Spoilage Coverage will protect against these losses.
Seek Legal Assistance
Unfortunately, there’s just so much that can go wrong in a restaurant from the kitchen side to the restaurant itself. Make sure you have the right type of insurance at all times and seek legal assistance if you want to make a claim. Especially if the insurance provider is making things difficult (as normal!), Cannella Legal will provide the help you need!