Multi-risk insurance: commercial premises and General LiabilityFAQs

These are two common extensions of General Liability, designed for different workplace accident situations. Employers' Liability covers injuries suffered by an employee on your own payroll in a workplace accident. Cross Liability covers injuries suffered between employees of different subcontractors or contractors working together on the same site or premises.

Both cover damage caused after your company has finished its involvement, but over different things. Products Liability covers damage caused by a defective physical product or tangible good you manufactured or sold, after it has been delivered. Completed Operations Liability covers damage caused by a defect in the manual work, installation or labour carried out, once the work has been completed.

It's a multi-risk policy that protects your business's assets against unforeseen events. Although other coverages can be added, it usually covers three essential areas: material damage, covering the premises and their contents — furniture, computers, stock — against fire, flooding, burglary or broken shop windows; liability, covering compensation and legal defence if you cause damage to third parties, for example if a customer slips in your premises or you cause a leak affecting your neighbour; and business interruption, also called loss of profits, which compensates you financially if you're forced to close the business temporarily due to a claim, helping you cover fixed costs such as rent.

The difference lies solely in the method and violence used to commit the offence. Burglary is unlawful taking using force against property — breaking a shop window, forcing a lock or breaking through a wall. Theft is unlawful taking without force, violence or intimidation: it happens through carelessness, for example a customer who pockets an item from the counter while the shop assistant is serving someone else. Many policies limit or exclude theft. Robbery is unlawful taking using violence, force or intimidation against people, for example threatening the shop assistant with a knife to empty the till. It's worth checking the policy wording, because not every policy covers all three in the same way.

It's the criterion the insurance uses to calculate how much it pays you to replace a damaged item. New-for-old replacement value is the price of buying the exact same item completely new today, with the same features, without any deduction for the age of the destroyed item. Actual cash value is the value of the new item minus depreciation for use, age and wear: it's what the item was worth just before the claim, calculated using a depreciation table based on age, use and condition. The difference between the two can be considerable, so it's worth knowing which one your policy applies before you need it.

The Insurance Compensation Consortium (Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros, CCS) is a Spanish public business entity that acts as a "safety net" for the insurance sector. Its main role is to compensate damage caused by extraordinary risks — major natural catastrophes, terrorism or civil unrest — that private insurers don't cover under their standard policies.

For the Consortium to step in, it's mandatory that the affected party has a private policy in force for that asset and is up to date with payments. This is because a small percentage of your insurance premium — a surcharge — goes directly towards funding this body.

Assets eligible for CCS cover are those protected by the Consortium against catastrophes, provided they already have private insurance in place: buildings and their contents, vehicles, people — through life or accident insurance — and business losses.

It's a coverage that compensates the financial impact of not being able to operate normally after a claim — for example, a fire that forces you to close the premises. It protects the gross profit you stop earning, or, where applicable, the ongoing expenses the company keeps bearing even without activity, as agreed in the policy.