Allianz updates

Allianz Update 12 January 2021

Allianz have issued updated guidance following the new lockdown measures. We have summarise this guidance for you:

Premium payment options

Allianz have a number of premium support options in place and will work with us to identify the most appropriate solution for your circumstances. They continue to accept instalment applications and there is an opportunity to defer payment on instalments by up to 3 months for unincorporated* customers. They’ll consider requests for deferred payments from incorporated customers on a case by case basis.

Premises in Government enforced lockdown

If you are unable to open for business due to any Government enforced lockdown and the length of enforced closure triggers the unoccupancy condition on your policy, this condition will apply but there’ll be no restriction in cover and Allianz will not charge an additional premium for the unoccupied period. You do not need to notify us that your premises are unoccupied.

Premises where lockdown does not apply or no longer applies

If you are able to open for business under Government guidelines but choose to remain closed due to Covid-19 the unoccupancy definition and condition on your policy will apply including any cover restrictions; however Allianz will not charge an additional premium for the unoccupied period. You must notify Allianz via your usual contact at Bridge that your premises are unoccupied.

Government or local travel guidance

Where Government or local travel guidance means that travelling to unoccupied premises would breach regulations, Allianz understand that complying with the unoccupancy conditions will not be possible.

Unoccupancy conditions:

Allianz expect you to take all necessary steps to protect your premises, including complying with your policy’s unoccupancy condition.  Where this isn’t possible for any reason, please inform your usual Bridge contact as soon as possible.

Where it isn’t feasible for you to comply, Allianz will show flexibility, including:

• They’ll consider ‘immediately’ to mean ‘where practicable’ where the condition stipulates ensuring that any defects in the condition or state of repair of the building or any defects in security, alarm or fire protection installations are rectified, remedied or repaired immediately

• They’ll take a pragmatic approach and agree mutually acceptable timescales for risk improvements, as detailed in COVID-19: Risk Improvements.

To help mitigate the likely losses from escape of water that are prevalent in the colder months, Allianz would ask that you maintain heating of the premises at a minimum of 5 degrees Celsius, or arrange for the water systems to be isolated and drained down. Additional guidance on how to prepare for the cold weather can be found by clicking here.

For contract sites, the Contract Works section of the Allianz Construction Select policy already provides cover for a period of 90 days whilst there is cessation of works and this will not be extended. Please speak to your usual Bridge advisor if the cessation of works is likely to go beyond 90 days.

Temporary cover enhancements

Allianz understand that many businesses continue to operate a working from home model at this time. With this in mind, they’ve automatically extended policies to provide cover for property temporarily removed from the business premises, where this was not already included. A summary of the current enhancements are detailed below:

Property at the homes of Directors/Partners/Principals or Employees

The Policy is automatically extended to provide cover for Property (including electronic office equipment) temporarily removed from the Business Premises to the homes of Directors/Partners/Principals/Employees as a result of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This cover is provided up to a limit of:

• £1,500 any one item
• A maximum of £3,000 at any one Employee’s home.

This extension is automatically provided for Property otherwise covered under the Policy and subject to the Policy Wording and Excess in the Policy.

The total Sums Insured will be limited to those specified in the Policy Schedule.

Public and Employers Liability

Your Employers’ Liability Policy automatically provides coverage for home working activity. For many businesses this will represent a change to their normal operating procedures, and it’s therefore important to ensure that you continue to comply with relevant legislation such as the

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The Health and Safety Executive have published their latest information and advice on their webpage with regard to home working, and Allianz request you follow this guidance.

If your Public Liability policy doesn’t currently provide coverage for working from home, it’s automatically extended to do so for non-manual activities only.

Allianz Update 19 June 2020

Allianz have issued the following update:

For business incepted before 20 March 2020, we previously extended the period before a premises was classed as unoccupied to 90 days. This was where your customer’s premises were temporarily forced to close due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

As lockdown and travel restrictions ease and businesses begin to reopen, it will be easier for your customer to comply with our unoccupancy conditions. As such, we’re amending our approach as follows:

Premises still in Government enforced lockdown

If your customer is still unable to open for business due to the Government enforced lockdown, the unoccupancy condition on their policy will apply but there’ll be no restriction in cover and we will not charge an additional premium for the unoccupied period. You do not need to notify us that your customer’s premises are unoccupied.

Premises where lockdown has been lifted 

If your customer is able to open for business under Government guidelines, please inform us if their premises are to remain unoccupied. The unoccupancy condition on their policy will apply for these premises including any cover restrictions; however we will not charge an additional premium for the unoccupied period.

Policyholders who are shielding

If your customer is unable to meet the unoccupancy condition on their policy because they’re shielding and no one else from the business is able to attend the premises, they do not need to comply with the condition. You do not need to notify us of any non-compliance with the unoccupancy condition. We will not restrict cover and we will not charge an additional premium for the unoccupied period.

Government or local travel guidance

Where Government or local travel guidance means that travelling to unoccupied premises would breach regulations, we understand that complying with the unoccupancy conditions will not be possible.

Unoccupancy conditions:

From 30 June 2020, we expect your customers to take all necessary steps to protect their premises, including complying with their policy’s unoccupancy condition.  Where this isn’t possible for any reason (except for shielding and government or local travel guidance), please inform your usual Allianz contact as soon as possible.

Where it isn’t feasible for your customer to comply, we will show flexibility, including:

• we’ll consider ‘immediately’ to mean ‘where practicable’ where the condition stipulates ensuring that any defects in the condition or state of repair of the building or any defects in security, alarm or fire protection installations are rectified, remedied or repaired immediately
• we’ll take a pragmatic approach and agree mutually acceptable timescales for risk improvements, as detailed in COVID-19: Risk Improvements.

For details of our Unoccupancy Conditions per product, please refer to our product pages.  

For contract sites, the Contract Works section of our Allianz Construction Select policy provides already cover for a period of 90 days whilst there is cessation of works and this will not be extended.

We’re continuing to review and monitor the situation and will provide a further update before 31 July. 

Allianz Update 15 May 2020

Instalment Payment Deferrals

If you require support in these challenging times as a direct result of COVID-19, please speak to your usual contact at Bridge as Allianz may be able to provide assistance in your payment scheduling..

Restarting Your Business

Allianz recognise that many of you will be looking to re-open after temporarily shutting down or reducing operations due to covid-19. This can introduce certain risks and hazards and Allianz have produced  a guide to help you identify and mitigate those risks. Please click here to read the guide.

Allianz update 7 April 2020

Temporary Cover Enhancements

Allianz have now advised that where you policy does not already include this cover, the following is added:

Property at the homes of Directors/Partners/Principals or Employees

The Policy is automatically extended to provide cover for Property (including electronic office equipment) temporarily removed from the Business Premises to the homes of Directors/Partners/Principals/Employees as a result of the restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This cover is provided up to a limit of £1,500 any one item with a maximum of £3,000 at any one Employees home. This extension is automatically provided for Property otherwise covered under the Policy and subject to the Policy Wording and Excess in the Policy. The total Sums Insured will be limited to those specified in the Policy Schedule.

Public and Employers Liability

Your Employers’ Liability Policy automatically provides coverage for home working activity. Allianz recognise that for many of you this will represent a change to your normal operating procedures, and it’s therefore important to ensure that you continue to comply with relevant legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The Health and Safety Executive have published their latest information and advice on their webpage with regard to home working, and they request you follow this guidance. You can access the HSE website’s home worker area by CLICKING HERE.

If your Public Liability policy doesn’t currently provide coverage for working from home, it’s automatically extended to do so for non-manual activities only.

Policy Conditions & Warranties

Due to the current Government restrictions on movement and resulting temporary closure of businesses, Allianz appreciate that your premises may be unoccupied and you may be unable to fulfil certain policy conditions designed to mitigate loss. Where this is the case, Allianz ask that you speak to your usual contact at Bridge so they can discuss your circumstances with one of their underwriters.

They have promised to work with you to take a more flexible approach to managing the situation. If you have been observing policy conditions up to the point of closure, they may be able to relax conditions relating to intruder alarms, automatic fire alarms or automatic sprinklers, fire suppression including cooking ranges and frying, if you are now non-operational and unable to meet the conditions due to COVID-19.

Where your business continues to operate, or where you or an agent is capable of fulfilling the conditions, policy conditions will continue to apply.

Allianz reserve the right to accept risk or amend our terms and conditions, but commit to demonstrating flexibility where possible if you are unable to meet such conditions.

Risk Improvement Requirements

Allianz have advised that if current risk improvements, which have already been raised following a survey at the Premises, are unable to be completed as a result of the restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they will review these on a case-by-case basis taking into account the steps already taken to mitigate the risk and the circumstances surrounding the inability to complete the risk improvements. When setting deadline dates for new risk improvements, they have stated that they will take a pragmatic approach and agree mutually acceptable timescales.

If you don’t think you are going to meet a risk improvement deadline, please speak to your usual contact at Bridge so we can discuss your circumstances with Allianz.

Contract Sites

For contract sites, cover is already provided for a period of 90 days whilst there is cessation of works. Please review this clause in your policy wording.

Statutory Inspections

Allianz continue to carry out Inspection work for critical industries or those within their supply chain, and their Engineer Surveyors have been defined as ‘key workers’ for this purpose. They will now prioritise industry sectors considering their criticality, with the highest priority being given to facilities that are crucial for the treatment and containment of the virus and/or the general infrastructure of the country. For example but not limited to industries linked to health, food, water and power.

Allianz point out that he current position of the HSE and HSA is that as yet, they confirm that no derogation (an exemption from or relaxation from the law), is currently being considered in relation to thorough examinations. The HSE have said that they will keep the situation under review and do not have any plans to issue any exemptions to the current regulations at this time. They confirm that if an examination of a piece of equipment is overdue, the responsibility remains with the duty holder (you) and a pragmatic approach should be adopted.

Allianz advise that Items overdue for examination should not be used until the examination has been completed. You should focus on the highest risk items first and work in conjunction with your competent person to balance ongoing maintenance condition against the likelihood of the item failing catastrophically. You should consider focusing this first on premises where the most vulnerable are located such as hospitals and care homes, for example.

Should you need further advice then your local Allianz engineer surveyor is available by telephone and would be pleased to discuss your options with you.

Allianz’s full guidance on engineering inspections can be accessed by CLICKING HERE.

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Allianz updates prior to 7 April 2020

We have been involved in in-depth discussions with a number of insurers over the arrangements of our clients’ policy in relation to the restrictions imposed by the UK Government in order to contain the COVID 19 pandemic. Allianz have issued formal guidance following the outbreak of COVID19 and this can be accessed by clicking here (https://www.allianz.co.uk/coronavirus/broker-update.html#legal) We have reviewed the guidance and have summarised the important points below. It is important that you read both our summary and Allianz’s guidance in full.

Policy Coverage

Allianz’s policy wording in general follows the rest of the UK market in that the UK wide lockdown of premises, such as your own, isn’t a sufficient trigger for policy coverage. COVID 19 has to manifest itself at, or occurred specifically on your premises leading to its closure. We appreciate that the above clarification will come as a disappointment, however this is largely the same position for the overwhelming majority of commercial insurance policies in the UK – not just for Allianz policies. However, we do urge you to check with your usual Bridge contact to clarify the position under your policy.

Further information on the coverage that applies across a wide range of types of insurance contracts across the UK is available from the website of the Association of British Insurers:

https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/coronavirus-hub/

https://www.abi.org.uk/products-and-issues/topics-and-issues/coronavirus-hub/business-insurance/

Unoccupied Premises

Allianz normally require that you notify them if the premises are going to be unoccupied for more than 30 or 45 consecutive days dependent on the type of property policy.  Allianz have now extended this period to 60 days on all commercial property policies, so you only need to let us know at the end of the 60 day period if the premises will still be unoccupied.

Please note that If your premises were already unoccupied before the Covid-19 outbreak, and you are now unable to meet the terms of the unoccupied conditions in your policy due to the current restrictions, please get in touch with your usual Bridge contact so we can discuss the matter with Allianz and ensure that your current level of cover is maintained and any subsequent claim is not repudiated due to breach of these conditions.

Allianz have promised to continue to review this position as the situation develops.

Change in Risk

We asked Allianz to relax their requirement for notification of any changes in risk whereby for example you have the majority of personnel working from home, housekeeping and maintenance procedures have changed or you have adopted a change in your business description (for example to accommodate a takeaway/delivery service when ordinarily they trade as a restaurant). Allianz have agreed that business descriptions can be changed temporarily and you only need to notify them when it is practicable for you to do so. This covers changes relating to staff working from home and other changes in relation to the containment and treatment of the virus. It must be for humanitarian purposes or for the purposes of protecting employment.

We ask you to please review your business activities and operational arrangements and if there is anything you don’t believe is covered by the above please make sure you speak to your usual Bridge contact so we can ensure you are correctly covered.

Capital Additions

Allianz have not advised whether they are prepared to offer automatic increases in sums insured for business and IT equipment to cover the potential capital purchases you may have made to restructure your business operations. Please review your sums insured and speak to your usual Bridge contact to advise us of any changes.

Policy Conditions and Warranties

Other than what we have already discussed above, Allianz have issued no guidance on this so we must advise you to contact us if you are now unable to comply with any of the policy conditions or warranties as a result of the restrictions in place. 

Renewals

We made a request that for those of you whose policy is due for renewal during the period whilst restrictions from the UK Government remain in place that Allianz offer an automatic extension to your policy for a limited period of time. Whilst Allianz have not agreed to this they do appreciate that there may be disruption and if we are unable to effect the renewal in the normal way, they have no intention of leaving you without cover. They may be able to offer an extension on a case by case basis but If that is not possible they will assume that the policy will renew on the terms invited and allow you additional time to provide the relevant information to us for up to 28 days after the normal renewal date.

If your policy is due for renewal we will be in contact with you to conduct the renewal review and we can discuss any requirement for an extension.

Payment Holidays:

Allianz have not issued any guidance yet in respect of payment holidays or alterations to payment schedules if you are struggling to pay your monthly premium instalment to them. If you are struggling then please email them at [email protected] and copy us at [email protected]  

If you pay your instalments through either Close Brothers or Premium Credit then both firms have advised us that they can show flexibility in your schedule of payments by offering limited payment holidays and extending the number of instalments. Both firms will consider each request on a case by case. In the first instance any such request must be made direct to them using the following contacts:

Premium Credit Limited:

Email:    [email protected] or [email protected]

Tel:        0344 736 9836 or 0330 123 9717

Close Brothers Limited:

Email:    [email protected]

Tel:        0333 321 8566 (Personal Lines)

               0333 321 8567 (Commercial)

If you pay for your premium up front then you may want to consider paying it by instalment via one of our Premium Finance partners to help manage your cash flow.

If you think you miss a payment deadline then it is important that you contact us as soon as possible so we can assist you.

Motor Fleet Policies

Allianz aware that many of you will want to support people in their communities who are impacted by COVID-19, including the NHS Volunteer responder scheme. If you, or one of your employees use their company vehicle for voluntary purposes (non-payment) to transport medicine or groceries to support others or for the activities of an NHS volunteer responder your cover will not be affected and you do need to notify us. This is subject to your permission having been given to the employee and any other existing conditions (such as driving restrictions).  

If your vehicles are laid up, SORN and kept off the public highway, please let us know and will approach Allianz to see if they can offer Laid UP cover and provide a discount off your premium.

Useful information

In these challenging and uncertain times we would like to reiterate that Bridge Insurance is deeply to committed to all our clients and we will continue to act in your best interests in these challenging times. We hope that the continued updates from the UK Government regarding financial assistance for business interruption due to the COVID19 pandemic, will prove of use to you.  You can find out more details about this by clicking this link.

Our accountants have produced a very helpful analysis and summary of the financial assistance available from the UK Government and this available to you by clicking this link (https://www.baldwinsaccountants.co.uk/news-and-insights/covid-19)

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of further assistance.

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