Broker FAQs

Public liability and employers liability provides protection against the policyholder’s legal liability to the public or their employees. 

For a breach of duty to be considered, the claimant would need to demonstrate that that the virus had originated through the policyholder’s activities or at their premises and that there had been a breach in their duty of care. This would mean a contravention of Government guidelines or advice in relation to safety at work with regard to employees and service users. 
 
Some organisations may find creative ways of continuing their service delivery and are redeploying staff where it is appropriate to do so.  Our definition of ‘employee’ extends to include staff supplied to, hired in or borrowed by and volunteers as long as such individuals work under the direct control of the policyholder.  Policyholders will need to ensure they have access to the necessary evidence to ensure whoever they take on, even temporarily, is appropriately checked, trained and matched with the role they are about to undertake. 
 
It is recommended that health and safety guidelines including risk assessments are monitored and reviewed as the as the COVID-19 situation develops.  

Resources for employers provided by the Health and Safety Executive can be found here.

The most important thing is that we need to take each and every claim on its own merits.  Providing BI cover is operational and subject to policy terms and conditions.

An instruction must come from the Government, or local authority acting on the Government’s instruction, to shut down the business for there to be the potential to consider a BI claim. 

Our standard claims process should be followed should a claim need to be considered, details can be found here.

We’re all too aware that the COVID-19 outbreak will have forced many of your clients to close their premises. 

If your client has temporarily closed their premises because they are following advice from the Government relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, you do not need to contact us to tell us, until this goes beyond 90 days.  However, the monitoring and physical security provisions that were in place before should stay that way. 

The following risk management advice should continue to be followed:

• Waste removal – once you’ve removed all internal waste, position all external bins as at least five metres from the buildings (or as far as is possible), securing the bins in position if possible

• Fire systems - make sure fire and/or sprinkler systems are fully operational

• Fire doors - ensure all internal fire doors are closed

• Building utilities - turn off all electrical devices and building utilities that aren’t essential

• Inspections - arrange for an internal and external weekly inspection of the building, as long as the travel required to do the inspection is in line with the latest Government advice

• Physical security - ensure the physical security measures are in place, such making sure doors and windows are locked, shutters are in place and gates are locked

• Intruder alarm - set the intruder alarm, ensuring there are enough key holders 20 minutes away to respond to the alarm if it is triggered

• Maintenance - as much as is possible, continue with essential maintenance works

If we have made specific requirements with regards to security and as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 situation that your client is unable to comply with, please contact your usual Markel UK representative and we will be happy to work with you to address the issue.
 
If the insured premises was already unoccupied before the COVID-19 outbreak, and you are unable to meet the terms of our unoccupied conditions due to the current restrictions, please get in touch with your usual Markel representative.
 Your existing policy terms, conditions and exclusions remain unaltered.

Update 24.06.2020
 
As lockdown restrictions begin to ease and economic and social activity increase, we are further updating our approach to the unoccupancy conditions extending the initial 90-day period for a further 78 days until 31st August 2020 to allow time for the necessary steps to be taken to enable your clients to restart their operations.
 
On the 31st August 2020, this cover extension will expire, and normal policy terms and conditions will apply.

We appreciate that you’ll likely now have a number of employees working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak and so we have updated our position on contents cover.
 
Where you have followed Government advice and instructed employees to work from home, your policy has been extended to provide cover for contents temporarily removed to the homes of employees due to the COVID-19 outbreak, up to a limit of:

• £2,500 on any one item 

• A maximum of £5,000 any one employee's home

• This extension of cover is provided at no extra cost

If you require wider cover, please contact your local Markel UK representative and we can further consider your request.  Your existing policy terms, conditions and exclusions remain unaltered.

Update 24.06.2020
 
On the 31st August 2020, this cover extension will expire, and normal policy terms and conditions will apply.