A workshop or repair shop is a dual-purpose site: alongside the company’s own machinery sit customers’ items taken in for repair. Property insurance protects the first – the second needs separate thinking. This boundary is the first question in any workshop survey.
- The company’s own machinery and tool stock is the classic property insurance territory – with an up-to-date inventory.
- Items taken in from customers are a separate question: covering them typically needs to be specifically named and usually involves a liability element.
- Fire and process risk: welding, painting, oils – the requirements in the terms are stricter here.
Your own assets: machinery and tools
The workshop’s backbone is its machinery – lifts, compressors, diagnostic equipment, a small army of hand tools. The inventory here brings a double benefit: alongside the right sum insured, it also serves as evidence for a burglary claim, since tools are the most sought-after loot. For operation-critical machinery, the machinery breakdown module is worth weighing up; for diagnostic electronics, electronics cover.
The question of customers’ property
A customer’s car on the lift, a machine taken in for repair sitting on the shelf – these aren’t the company’s own assets, so the company’s own property insurance doesn’t cover them by default. If a fire breaks out in the workshop, the company can be held liable for customers’ equipment – that’s the world of liability insurance (felelosseg.biz), and in some cases a separately named cover can be taken out for items in your care. The right structure varies by workshop – this is the first thing to clarify at the survey. On the boundary: own damage vs. damage you cause.
Fire and process risk: the stricter requirements
Welding, paints, solvents, oils – a workshop’s fire risk is real, and the terms follow suit: rules on fire-hazardous work, storage requirements, electrical inspections. Meeting these can also be a condition of the payout – the basic fire-safety checklist is the practical starting point. The service pit, the shaft, the lift also touch the liability side – the two types of cover go hand in hand in a workshop.
The good news: surveying workshops is routine work – the usual mistakes (a missing tool inventory, unclear status of customers’ property, an outdated machinery list) can all be sorted out in a single pass.
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