Buildings and contents insurance
Buildings and contents insurance for your charity
If your charity owns a property, you may want to insure it against risks such as fire, flood or malicious damage. Whether you want to protect a large community building or a small pavilion, we can help.
If your charity is not responsible for insuring a building, but you have equipment or furniture that you’d like to cover, we offer charity contents insurance.
Our building and contents insurance for charities and not-for-profit organisations includes:
- Buildings and contents claims handled on a ‘new for old’ basis
- Cover for cleaning or clearing of drains, sewers or gutters following a valid building insurance claim
- Trace and access cover when locating a leak of water or fuel oil
You can also buy the following optional covers:
- Computer cover
- Business interruption
- Money cover
- Terrorism cover
We can also provide hirers’ liability insurance which may be of interest if you hire out your premises to individuals or groups, and our public liability cover also includes property owners’ liability as standard.
Responsible for a village hall or community centre?
Take a look at our online insurance specifically for village halls or community centres.
Why would we need building and contents insurance?
Buildings insurance covers the cost of repairing damage which has been caused by an incident (rather than wear and tear which you can’t insure against).
It’s important that you have an accurate reinstatement sum insured value for any building you want to insure. This is different to the market value of the property. To find out more, read our article on the importance of having adequate sums insured.
Let’s take an example. During a cold snap, a pipe bursts in a charity’s office on a Friday night. By Monday, the office is flooded with six inches of water. The damage to the equipment and the office will cost several thousand pounds to repair. Our buildings cover will allow for the repair of the damaged floor and walls, and our contents cover will also allow for the replacement or repair of any damaged furniture and equipment (subject to any excess).
For more information about building or contents insurance, please contact our friendly charity insurance experts on 0800 917 9420 or email enquiries.team@uk.zurich.com.
Want to know more about flood prevention or escape of water?
Take a look at our flood risk guidance section for charities and not-for-profit organisations.
Building and contents insurance FAQs for not-for-profit organisations
To make sure you have sufficient cover in place for all of the property you own, it’s good practice to keep an asset register. Your asset register should list all the items your organisation owns or is legally responsible for, and the replacement costs for each of the items listed. This will help you to work out the amount of cover you need, also known as the sum insured.
It’s also important to note the address where these items are used and stored, as this is where they’ll be insured for.
For buildings, it’s vital to know the reinstatement cost. This is what your organisation would have to pay to replace the building, including materials, labour and removing debris from the site. It also includes fees for architects and surveyors and any VAT you're liable to pay. This is different to the property’s market value, what you may be able to sell the property for.
Providing adequate reinstatement costs is really important because if you want to make a claim, and your property is underinsured, your organisation could foot the bill for the percentage of the claim by which you’re underinsured - even in the case of a partial loss. This is referred to within the industry as the condition of average.
Our buildings and contents insurance automatically covers the personal belongings of your customers, employees, volunteers or visitors. The cover is limited to a maximum claim of £1,500 per person and is subject to the items not being insured elsewhere. Each claim is subject to an excess of £50. Cover for motor vehicles, or their contents, is not included.
We don’t provide cover for items that you lend to service users, employees, or volunteers, which they take home. This is because the items would no longer be classed as being in the custody of your organisation. If you wish to lend items to anyone, it’s best practice to ensure the borrower has either signed an agreement, or organised suitable insurance, to replace the item if necessary.
Theft is covered under our buildings and contents policy. For a claim to be successful there must be evidence of forced or violent entry or exit, e.g. an assault on a person, a broken lock, a smashed window, or a broken door handle.
Read the latest charity news
As well as providing insurance, we also produce articles and guides to help charities and not-for-profit organisations with risk management.