The office has a reputation as the “quiet” type of premises – no fire-hazardous technology, no large stock. Reality is more nuanced: an office’s assets sit in its IT equipment, its tenant’s fit-out and its furnishings, while claims come from water, glass and burglary.
- Most of an office’s assets are machinery and equipment: IT equipment, furniture, technology – with an up-to-date list.
- In a rented office, the tenant’s fit-out (glass partitions, flooring, built-ins) is the typically uninsured item.
- Water damage is one of the most common causes of loss in offices – the server room is the most sensitive spot.
What makes an office different?
The building is often rented, so on the company’s side the assets fall into two big items: the furnishings (furniture, technology, IT) and the tenant’s fit-out – the glass partitions, flooring, lighting and cabling built into the office. The latter is the most commonly missing item: legally it has become part of the building, yet it doesn’t appear in the landlord’s sum insured either – the leased-premises article covers this boundary. The value of the IT equipment also changes fast: keeping the list current is critical here – the machinery inventory.
Typical office claims
The leaders: water damage from pipes (from a leak on the floor above to a flooded server room), glass breakage (storefronts, glass partitions), burglary (target: laptops, screens) and electrical damage from power surges. Fire is rarer, but still real in offices – power strips, a kitchenette, a server cabinet. The cover priorities follow: a strong water-damage and glass element, burglary cover matched to the security level (typical requirements), and electronics cover worth considering.
The home-office layer
Office life today is hybrid: on any given day, half the laptops are with colleagues elsewhere. Premises-based cover doesn’t extend to this by default – the home office article and equipment away from the premises show the solutions. So an office survey today also maps out where the equipment travels: what’s on site, what’s on the move, what sleeps where.
An office survey is typically the shortest – and its most common lesson is exactly these two “invisible” items: the tenant’s fit-out and the mobile IT equipment.
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