Care Home Insurance

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Insuring a Care Home overview by Towergate Patrick

Having acquired and funded your care home it is essential that you have appropriate insurance cover for all aspects of your business. The Care Concept 2000+ policy provided by Towergate Patrick (formerly G R Patrick & Co Ltd) is designed to provide a wide range of covers at competitive premiums.

1. Your solicitor will ask you to commence cover when you exchange contracts so be sure to obtain a quotation and decide upon your insurer in advance.
2. You will need to assess the cost of replacing the contents of your care home on a new for old basis simply by adding up the cost of all removable items. Include an allowance for all the residents' belongings in the overall contents sum insured and for all your own possessions if you plan to live on the premises. (There are usually limits in insurance policies for valuables and money, so make sure you are aware of these.)
3. You will also need to establish the rebuilding cost of your home excluding VAT as this may be very different from the value of the business or the bricks and mortar. The business valuation will normally provide all three figures.
4. You should consider carefully your need for consequential loss cover to protect your income in the event of damage to your home, following fire, storm and flood, or losses following events such as infectious disease, prevention of access or failure of supply in respect of gas, water and electricity and if you need this cover check that your policy provides adequate coverage. You should ensure that your indemnity period (which is the length of time that the insurer will replace your lost income) is sufficient to rebuild the care home and to restore your occupancy levels to those that you enjoyed immediately prior to the damage occurring.
5. The indemnity limit for Employer's Liability is normally £10m and Public Liability can vary between £2m - £5m. It is essential that you fully understand what is or is not included in your liability cover. The limitation of malpractice or treatment cover to just drugs and medicines is one example that can occur but there are others including the exclusion of abuse and warranties relating to the behaviour of residents. You should consider carefully if you require cover for such incidents and check to see if they are excluded.
6. Our experience is that many policies do not provide effective statutory license protection cover and instead rely on the loss of registration section which may not be suitable. Your registration is vital to the care home and you should make sure that the legal expenses section of your policy includes the cost of appeal cover which is a very important part of protecting your care home business.

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