Restaurant Insurance

Employers' liability is the only cover required by law, and it applies as soon as you employ anyone. Beyond that, a restaurant needs public and products liability, because you invite the public in and serve food; restaurant building and contents insurance for the premises, fit out and kitchen equipment; stock cover including chilled and frozen food with deterioration cover; and business interruption to replace lost profit if you cannot trade. Most restaurants also add money, glass and legal expenses. If you deliver, that needs cover too, and it is not included as standard.

A restaurant insurance package normally combines buildings if you own the premises, contents and trade fixtures including the kitchen, stock, public and products liability, employers' liability, and business interruption. The parts specific to this trade are the commercial kitchen and its extraction system, food stock deterioration if refrigeration fails, and products liability that responds to food poisoning allegations including defence costs. Restaurant insurance coverage that omits the extraction system or treats the kitchen as ordinary contents is the most common gap we see.

Restaurant insurance starts at around £500 to £600 a year including insurance premium tax for a small independent, and rises with the size of the operation. A larger licensed restaurant with a late licence, a substantial fit out and delivery drivers will sit well above that. What moves you within the range is your turnover and wages, the number of covers, whether you own or lease the premises, the value of the fit out and kitchen equipment, whether you have a licence and how late you trade, whether you deliver, and your claims history over the last five years. Fire risk from the kitchen is the single biggest driver, which is why insurers ask about the extraction cleaning certificate before almost anything else. These are ball park figures rather than a quote, so tell us your covers, turnover and tenure and we will give you a real one.

Legally, employers' liability once you have staff, and motor insurance for any delivery vehicles used for business. Contractually, your landlord will require public liability, commonly £5 million, and buildings cover will be required by a lease or mortgage. Beyond insurance, insurers will expect a documented fire risk assessment, an annually cleaned and certificated kitchen extraction system, a five yearly electrical installation condition report, and portable appliance testing. Those are conditions of cover as much as good practice, and a claim can be affected if they are not met.

Products liability is the section that responds to illness or injury caused by food you have served, including food poisoning allegations, and it covers legal defence costs as well as damages. That matters, because defending an allegation is often the larger cost even where the claim fails. It normally sits alongside public liability. Any restaurant should treat it as essential rather than optional, and it is included as standard on the policies we arrange.

Yes, as contents, but with conditions attached that matter. Insurers will require the extraction canopy and ductwork to be professionally cleaned and certificated, usually at least annually and more often where you cook with heavy frying. Keep the certificates, because a kitchen fire claim will be assessed against them. Mechanical or electrical breakdown of an appliance is not usually covered by contents cover, so a fridge that simply stops working is a maintenance issue rather than a claim unless you have added breakdown cover.

Yes. Indian restaurant insurance, Chinese restaurant insurance and pizza restaurant insurance are all placed regularly, and the cuisine matters to the underwriter because the cooking method does. Tandoor ovens, heavy wok cooking and wood fired pizza ovens each carry a different fire profile to a conventional kitchen, and they need declaring accurately rather than being described as a generic restaurant. Insurers who understand the trade rate these properly instead of loading the premium for the unknown.

We do, and a new venture is not a barrier. There is no claims history to assess, so insurers look instead at your relevant experience, projected turnover, the fit out value and the fire protection and security at the premises. Cover can normally be arranged to start on the day you need it, including before opening while the fit out is in progress, which is worth arranging because contract works and stock arriving on site are exposed well before you serve a customer.

Yes. Bar and restaurant insurance is arranged on the same package where a venue does both, and the rating follows the split between food and wet income along with your licensed hours. Tell us roughly how the turnover divides, because a restaurant with a small bar for diners is a different risk to a venue that trades as a bar late into the evening, and the two are underwritten differently.

It is usually the most valuable part of the policy and the most commonly underbought. A kitchen fire closes a restaurant for months, and the loss is not the equipment, it is the trade. Business interruption replaces lost gross profit over the indemnity period you choose, and twelve months is often too short once you account for reinstatement, refitting and rebuilding custom after reopening. Twenty four months is a more realistic figure for a restaurant that relies on a local following.

Yes. Insurance for a small restaurant is arranged the same way as for a larger one, scaled to your turnover, covers and sums insured. Smaller operators are often the ones most exposed to underinsurance, because fit out and kitchen equipment are declared at what they cost years ago rather than what replacing them would cost now. It is worth reviewing those figures at renewal rather than rolling them forward.