Product Exposed Unoccupied Property Insurance
Broker Spotlight Stephen Harvie R G Harvie Fin Svs
Issue
October 2020
26
Introduction
A message from Richard Burgess Little did we know, when we produced our last newsletter, that we would still be remote working come September 2020! The COVID situation continues to bring day to day challenges for all of us on a professional and personal level. Most of us are now battling with decisions regarding returning more staff to our offices and when to do so, there is no right or wrong answer – we can only make decisions that are best for our own businesses. I would like to thank you all for your continued support, we continue to improve our product offering and online system behind the scenes and many of you have commented on this – it is great to know we are getting it right for our supporting Brokers.
Thanks also to our spotlighted Broker – Stephen Harvie of R G Harvie Financial Services. I hope you can return to your favoured holiday destinations (Ibiza & Dubai) in the not so distant future and we will certainly come up to Scotland to host another memorable evening out once it is safe to do so! The FCA continue to focus their attention on Vulnerable Customers, customers in temporary financial difficulty due to COVID and assessing adequate financial resources – there is certainly enough for us to be reviewing. Should you need any help or advice on these subjects please feel free to contact me.
Our teams here at ABACUS continue to strive to offer you the highest levels of service possible and we have received some really positive feedback from many of you that have spoken with Robin and Jecelda from our Agency & Marketing Team – your feedback is valuable to us and is always passed back to our teams. Stay positive and more importantly stay safe as we all continue to navigate through these turbulent times.
Richard Burgess, Director
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Previous Caption Competition Winners
The winning caption was from Carla Green of County Insurance:
‘At last! Peace & quiet from the humans at home! I could get used to this!’ 2nd prize goes to David Knott of Nimmos Insurance:
‘Rover didn’t paws for thought before ringing Churchill about his claim!’ 3rd prize goes to Paul Richardson of Ashbourne Insurance with:
‘I said milk & two sugars!’ Well done to our winners and thank you to everyone who entered! We look forward to receiving your entries for this edition’s competition.
ABACUS Caption Competition We have some great prizes up for grabs in our everpopular Caption Competition. The prizes for the top three entries are:
1st £ 50 Voucher of your choice Can you come up with a funny caption for this image?
2nd £25 iTunes Voucher 3rd £10 Next Voucher
To be in with a chance, simply send your caption entry for the photograph above to robing@sabacus.co.uk by Friday 23rd October Good Luck Everyone! 2
News round up New electrical safety standards Landlords granting any new tenancy after the 1st of July must now ensure that the let property has been given an electrical safety certificate following an inspection by a qualified electrician, reported the National Residential Landlords’ Association (NRLA) in June. Under the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations 2020, an inspection must be made, and a safety certificate renewed at least once every five years. The safety standards must reach those set out in the 18th edition of the “Wiring Regulations”, which are published as British Standard 7671, according to government advice. Copies of the inspection report must be made available to existing tenants and furnished to new ones who move in. If one is requested, a copy must also be sent to the relevant local authority. The new Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector regulations will be extended to all existing tenancies with effect from the 1st of April 2021. The new regulations apply to let property in England. Very similar electrical safety regulations have been in force in Scotland since the 1st of December 2015. There are no new regulations for property in Wales, where general safety standards continue to apply.
What do renters and home buyers want from their homes? As the property market is steadily restored for both home buyers and renters, a growing population seems bent on a great escape. According to surveys from several sources, more house-hunters are now looking for property near the seaside, out of town, or simply with space to expand into a garden. Property Investor Today recently for example, cited findings from estate agents in North Yorkshire suggesting that the release from lockdown has motivated many house-hunters to look for larger homes, with the space for working from home and a chance to swap the 10-minute commute for a 10-minute walk to the beach. The fishing village of Whitby, on the North Yorkshire coast, has been named the most popular of these desirable seaside haunts. Meanwhile, Property Industry Eye remarked on the number of homeowners from inner London now looking to buy property out of town, especially in the ever-popular west and southwest of the country. Although they might not have decided to move home, millennials have certainly recognised the importance of the garden attached to any home they own or rent. According to an article published by Property Wire on the 29th of June, millennials spent an average of £213 each on their gardens during lockdown; the highest expenditure by any age group. Commenting on the importance of a garden, 45% of those millennials interviewed described it as key to their overall health and wellbeing at home. This compares with just 39% of the population at large.
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News round up Thinking of buying a holiday home? For some years to come, staycations seem likely to replace long-haul foreign holiday destinations. Little wonder, therefore, that there has been a recent upsurge in holiday homes and cottages throughout the UK, according to a recent article. The article revealed some interesting statistics on the most sought-after locations in the UK for holiday homes: l Wales, for example, accounts for 15.35% of all holiday homes in the UK; l Cornwall is hot on its heels with 12.82%;
l Scotland at 9.30%; l D evon 8.39%; and l North Yorkshire 8.13%.
As notable as these established favourites are, the up and coming hotspots County Durham, Wiltshire, East Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Suffolk have all registered significant increases in popularity as locations for UK holiday homes.
PM pledges to build more new homes Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced plans to bring forward some £5 billion in capital expenditure on projects such as infrastructure and “hundreds of thousands” of new homes. The stimulus for more housebuilding also includes a major revamp of the current planning regulations to make it easier not just to build new houses, but also to extend dwellings, and to convert other buildings for residential use. The recently announced expenditure comes on top of some £12 billion which has already been promised in support of building 180,000 affordable new homes over the coming eight years. The leader of the opposition Sir Kier Starmer, on the other hand, remained sceptical, complaining that the sums announced were simply a recycling of previous election commitments and pledges rather than new investment.
Landlord insurance FAQs Figures reveal that there are 2,594,720 private landlords in the UK – meaning there are potentially great opportunities for providing your clients with landlord insurance cover. Here are some frequently asked questions (FAQs) your customers may ask about the product …
What does landlord insurance cover? As with practically any kind of general insurance, landlord insurance policies may differ quite widely from one insurer to another. You need to look carefully at the detail of any particular policy for its match to your needs and expectations. For all the differences, though, the typical landlord insurance cover addresses three main areas of risk:
l l andlord liability insurance is designed to meet the costs of such claims. Some, but by no means all, landlord insurance policies may include (or may offer as optional extras) cover against such risks as subsidence, loss of rental income, malicious damage, and trace and access cover.
I’m only letting out part of my house. Why can’t I keep using my existing owner-occupier property insurance?
Q&A
Your mortgage lender may also make it a condition of your mortgage agreement that you have buy to let insurance in place at all times, in order to protect both your financial interests in the property.
Do your policies include public liability injury to guests and third parties? Our policies include up to £2m public liability for guests and third parties, with options to increase up to £5m if required.
By definition, insurance is all about the management of risk. Once you let your house (or even part of it) to tenants, the risks are different from those when you and your family are the sole owner-occupiers.
Buildings insurance
Because those risks are different, you need specialist landlord insurance to safeguard against them.
l t his covers the structural integrity of the building itself, protecting it against such potentially serious risks as fire, flooding, escape of water, storm damage, impacts, and theft;
If you have tenants in any part of your house, you may find that any subsequent claim for loss or damage is rejected by your insurer if you have only regular owner-occupier’s home insurance.
Contents insurance
What’s the link between l any contents owned by the landlord landlord insurance and and kept in the let property may be mortgages? covered by an element of contents insurance;
Landlord liability insurance l a ny landlord owes a duty of care to his or her tenants; l i f a tenant, one of their visitors, a neighbour, or a member of the public is injured or has their property damaged, they may hold the landlord in breach of that duty of care and sue for damages;
If you are buying the property with the help of a mortgage, the lender distinguishes clearly between a residential home mortgage for prospective owner-occupiers and a buy to let mortgage for landlords. Just as mortgage lenders recognise the essential differences in the way the property is to be used, so, too, do insurers – home insurance for owneroccupiers and buy to let insurance for landlords.
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The importance of marketing mindset Jason Hulott from Speedie Consulting explains what marketing mindset is, and why it is so important.
l Do you need commercial property leads? l Do you want fleet insurance leads? l Do you want PI cover leads?
In the marketing segment of the ABACUS Exposed newsletter, we always talk about the techniques and methodologies used to drive more traffic, more sales and, more enquiries.
There’s a whole bunch of different ways and different techniques to use and if you go back through ABACUS Exposed, or on the Insurance Marketing website, you’ll find a whole bunch of those.
This time we wanted to do something slightly different. Because, as much as using techniques and deploying techniques is important, one thing that we’ve overlooked, which is just as important, is mindset.
But without the right mindset and focus, it is hard to know what’s right and what things you should be focusing on.
l l l l
What do you want the outcome to be?
and you may not be doing any of that right now.
Here are some ideas before you commit to any marketing spend. You need to figure out what is the outcome from a marketing activity.
But the thing I would suggest is to start with the outcome in mind, and then work back. You may then look at these elements and say, ”This doesn’t fit for us right now.” So, ignore it. It saves you time and energy. For example, TikTok is the next big social media platform. There will be lots of ways to monetise content and advertise to a TikTok audience, but that TikTok ad audience may not be your audience.
Now, this sounds a bit ‘woo woo’. But mindset is vitally important to make sure you’re implementing the right marketing techniques, and you’re tracking and monitoring the right outcomes.
What do we mean by mindset? Well, mindset for us is more about focusing on the outcome and not the input. So, when we have clients asking for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), this is the input, not the outcome. The outcome could be: l I want more traffic l I want more sales l I want more enquiries So, SEO may not be the right fit for your mindset at that particular point, especially if you need traffic fast. It’s always worth thinking a little bit more widely about what it is that you require.
This sounds relatively straightforward, but we find that this is one big thing that’s overlooked and causes things to break down - either internally within your marketing department or externally if you’re using a third-party consultant or marketing agency. Decide what it is you want from your marketing and then find the right marketing techniques to use. Then make sure you have the correct tracking and metrics in place so you can prove that your marketing techniques are working - or not.
Find your focus then … well, focus on it
The other part of mindset allows you not to be dragged into conversations or ideas around what other people are doing - because what other people are doing may not fit your business, your requirements. So, it’s common in these internetbased times to be looking at what everyone else is doing and they’re doing: email Twitter ads Facebook all kinds of different things
This is one of the benefits where your mindset and your focus help you remove all these distractions and allows you to work on the traffic sources that you need. The other thing with mindset is that you need to give things some consistent time or investment. Don’t just do something once, or invest £100 in something and think, “well that didn’t work”, for example. It’s one of those things that you need to ensure that you give enough time to. Hopefully, this has given you some food for thought.
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Product Exposed
Unoccupied property insurance (commercial and residential) At ABACUS, we are committed to our broker members by offering what we believe are desirable, cost-effective products that provide market-leading benefits for your customers. This time we take a look at our unoccupied property insurance products for:
Three levels of cover available plus added value benefits
l Residential property l Commercial property l Property undergoing works.
Key features of our unoccupied property insurance (including property undergoing works)
Who is unoccupied property insurance for?
Some of the key features of our unoccupied property owners product include benefits not always offered as standard by some other unoccupied property insurance/property undergoing works insurance providers such as:
Unoccupied property insurance products are for anyone who owns (or has financial responsibility for) a vacant residential or commercial property - for example: l landlords who own a property and who are awaiting a tenant; l someone renovating an empty property (including structural works); l executors of a residential property in probate; l homeowners who are having an extended holiday (such as a gap year) or working away from home for more than around 45 consecutive days, leaving the property empty; l people buying an empty property at auction; l where a property is standing empty awaiting sale; l and so on.
Unoccupied properties undergoing works Our unoccupied property insurance (including properties undergoing works) products are also suitable for residential and commercial properties being renovated - no matter whether they are to be let or owner-occupied after the works have been completed.
We have three levels of protection available, meaning you can offer your clients a choice of cover to suit their own unique requirements.
l subsidence (all levels) l property owners liability from £2m-£5m (all levels) l malicious damage by tenant (levels 2 and 3) l escape of water (levels 2 and 3). these are typically all included as standard (depending on the level of cover chosen – policy limits and riskbased restrictions also apply).
Plus l ability to switch the policy to an occupied let or owner-occupied product mid term l easy to get a quote and buy online l for every quotation request you submit we will provide you with a quotation for each level of cover available l flexible cover options including short term policies of 3 and 6 months l we can cover most unoccupied properties undergoing works including redecoration, redevelopment, restoration, extensions, renovations etc. l we have flexible limits to the value of the works being undertaken.
What about exclusions? The policy excludes damage caused by the Contractor (which should be covered under the Contractor’s own insurance). Where structural works are taking place, no cover is in force for any part of the building that is either being constructed or worked upon.
Why ABACUS unoccupied property owners insurance? We are proud of our unoccupied property owners insurance (including properties undergoing works) as not only does it offer, in our opinion, fantastic cover and great value for your customers, but it provides you our brokers - many benefits too: l up to 25% commission l immediate online access to our panel of insurers - offering a variety of cover options for your customers l simply complete your quotation online in the usual way and you will receive your quote for all three levels of cover immediately. Or, if it “refers”, we will come back to you quickly with our terms l cost-effective, flexible cover to meet your customers’ own unique needs l market-leading product - our policies cover all the standard risks associated with unoccupied insurance including many elements of protection which some unoccupied property insurance policies from other providers exclude. l policy documentation available immediately online l help and support readily available from our Agency & Marketing Team on 01702 606 312.
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ABACUS NOT Out & About – Summer Edition Remote working has continued at ABACUS throughout the scorching summer months, but that certainly hasn’t stopped us connecting with you in the sunshine!
Extra! Extra! Read All About It! July saw ABACUS attending their first ever online exhibition, Broker Extra. The event allowed us 20 minute slots to discuss all matters ABACUS with such a variety of our brokers. We were able to make new connections through this event, as well as keep in touch with existing brokers. It was something very new and different, and it was a very successful three days. July Miles & Smiles Number of Brokers Seen Number of Miles Travelled
June
Pub Lunch Back On The Menu 67 0
Robin spent the first couple of weeks of June on paternity leave, following the birth of his daughter on 1st June. Following that, Robin was straight back into virtual meetings with you. One of the wonderful things about meeting virtually, is that you can be the length and breadth of the country in the same day! Virtual meetings included brokers from Whitby, Bournemouth & Preston! June Miles & Smiles Number of Brokers Seen Number of Miles Travelled
19 0
July July was a fantastic month. We were able to meet with a massive 67 of you virtually this month. Thank you so much for your time over this period, and we are so pleased to be able to support you at this time.
Towards the end of August, we were able to safely meet (in person!) with a broker of ours for a superb socially distanced lunch at a gorgeous restaurant in Thame, Oxfordshire. The setting was brilliant, and it was wonderful to be back out again seeing some of you. August Miles & Smiles Number of Brokers Seen Number of Miles Travelled
47 185
August Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meets, Facetime, we have met with you on many devices over the summer. The technology has held up well, and we have been able to have very productive meetings throughout this period, and August has been no different.
This month, Robin spoke to brokers from all over the country, from as varied locations as Aberystwyth, the Isle of Man & the Scottish Highlands!
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ABACUS Interactive If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to check out ABACUS’ brand new interactive product brochure! The brochure is packed with information on all of ABCUS’ products, including Cover Comparisons, IDD Documents and Risk appetite profiles. On top of all of this, you will find contact information, key points of contact and details on additional services we offer. You can find the Brochure under the ABACUS Info section of our website, www.sabacus.co.uk, or alternatively contact our Agency & Marketing department on 01702 606 312 to request a copy.
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Broker Spotlight
Stephen Harvie – R G Harvie Financial Services
1. Tell us about your brokerage. R G Harvie is a family business established in 1972 and we still remain at the same premises and are going strong. We have two parts to our business which is the Life arm of the business and the General Insurance arm of the business. Including myself there are two staff who have been with the business for collectively 44 years. Our existing clients are our most valuable asset and word of mouth has been the making of our success. 2. What are your plans for the next 12 months? For the next 12 months we plan to continue in the same way that we always do; retain our renewals, complete our new business strategy and ensure our clients are looked after and provided with the best level of service that they always receive. 3. Why do you support ABACUS? ABACUS offer in my view, exceptional Property Owners rates and offers bespoke policies that facilitate the needs of my clients.
4. What is your favourite sports team? Controversial, not much of a football man but I do like Chelsea 5. What hobbies do you have? Playing Guitar and Running are my two lifelines outside of the working arena 6. What is favourite food? Any kind of Fish and Steak 7. What car do you drive? Volkswagen Tiguan 8. What is your favourite drink? Vodka and Soda 9. What is your favourite Holiday destination? Ibiza and Dubai 10. Let us hear about a memorable event with ABACUS. There was an ABACUS event in Glasgow a few years back in a basement pub near Blythswood Square! We had tables outside and it was pretty up there for a Thursday
Agency & Marketing Are Here To Help! Although we are mostly remote working currently, our Agency & Marketing team are here to help you with all Agency queries! If you would like to discuss your ABACUS agency over many of the video platforms, or via the telephone, Robin & Jecelda are available to speak to you on 01702 606 312, or email us at agency@sabacus.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!
Contact Information Accounts
Claims
Agency & Marketing
Existing Business
Tel: 01702 606 320 Email: accounts@sabacus.co.uk
Tel: 01702 606 312 Email: agency@sabacus.co.uk
Tel: 01702 606 311 Email: claims@sabacus.co.uk
New Business Team
Tel: 01702 606 304 Email: newbusiness@sabacus.co.uk
Tel: 01702 606 306 Email: existingbusiness@sabacus.co.uk
The information contained above is not intended as legal or broking advice. Specific advice should always be sought on individual requirements and it is always necessary to read the contractual documentation for full details of the product and cover provided. This newsletter is managed by ABACUS, the content including all views and expressions are those of ABACUS. ABACUS is one of a range of products marketed and distributed by BLINK Intermediary Solutions. ABACUS is provided by Alan Blunden & Co Limited, Baxter Building, 80 Baxter Avenue, Southend on Sea, Essex, SS2 6HZ. Alan Blunden & Co Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Full details of FCA authorisations can be found at www.fsa.gov.uk/register Produced by iamyourdesigner - 07969 663 847 | 1992
ABACUS
Baxter Building 80 Baxter Avenue Southend on Sea Essex SS2 6HZ Tel: 01702 606 300 Email: info@sabacus.co.uk Fax: 01702 606 369