Moving is one of the riskiest weeks in a company’s life: assets in boxes, on the road, split between two addresses – while the policy still shows the old one. The rule is simple: the insurance should move first, not last.
- The right order: the new address goes in first, then the move begins.
- Assets in transit are typically outside premises-based cover – the week of the move needs a separate solution.
- Keep the old address’s cover in place as long as assets remain there – an overlap period is normal.
Notification: sooner than you’d think
The insurer reassesses the new site’s risk from scratch: different construction, different surroundings, different security – so a move isn’t a simple change of address, it’s a notification and a policy amendment: here’s how it works. Good timing: as soon as the new address is confirmed, before you actually move in – so the first pallet delivered there already arrives under cover. The place-of-risk rule is unforgiving: assets at an address not listed in the policy are uninsured.
The week of the move: assets on the road
Machinery and stock on the removal lorry fall outside the boundary of premises-based cover – this is where cargo-cover logic applies: the three layers. Solutions can include the removal company’s liability cover (with its limits), a separate cargo cover for the move itself, or both together. High-value, sensitive equipment (servers, instruments) is worth planning for separately – with a specialist firm, and fully documented.
Fine-tuning the new premises
The new address brings a new risk picture: different security requirements (burglary requirements), different water-damage and fire risk, different storage arrangements. Within a month of moving in, a short review is worth doing: fine-tuning the sums insured and the scope of cover once the real layout is known. The full moving schedule, ready to tick off: the moving checklist.
And one often-forgotten set: administrative updates. Beyond the policy itself, endorsements (financing clauses!), official registers and partners also need the new address – on the insurance side, a forgotten endorsement still showing the old address can cause needless trouble at claim time.
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