uncle tom wrote:Looking at their respective terms and conditions, I found the following form of words repeated:
"This insurance is intended to cover a Customer for loss of stock incurred during 'day to day' business activities and not a major loss caused by some catastrophic occurrence"
Which means that while they have some degree of insurance, they
do not have the cover that many of their customers might expect, and that events such as fire, flood, or even a major fraud or theft; could leave the customer out of pocket.
I wonder what they actually mean by that. Damage caused by '"day to day" business activities' would appear to me to be things like their workers dropping a case. In those situations, the purpose of the insurance would be to protect the warehouse; the damage would be likely to be recoverable by the customer from the warehouse in any event.
I think it may be the case that that phrase is simply badly drafted. Looking at the next section of the Seckford's Terms and Conditions, the only "catastrophe" exceptions it gives are:
Which is a consequence or war, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities (whether war is declared or not) or acts of terrorism.
Which is due to confiscation, requisition, detention or destruction by or by order of any government, public or local authority.
These are traditional insurance exceptions which are likely to be found in most "off-the-shelf" insurance policies. Octavian has similar conditions. Since the insurance is "all risks", any that is not excluded should be covered. It would seem possible to me that damage sure destruction of the warehouse would therefore be covered.
It may be that they are actually trying to disclaim something else: that they may be under-insured. When that "day to day" sentence is read in context on Octavian's site, it seems clear that what they are saying is that they think they are covered when they drop a case or two but if the warehouse was destroyed they may not be covered for the full value of the goods stored therein.
Octavian is not aware of the actual value of Customer's goods and gives no warranty that its insurance cover will be sufficient in the event of a catastrophic loss. This 'All Risks' extension is intended to cover Customer's for loss of stock incurred during 'day to day' business activities and not a major loss caused by some catastrophic occurrence. In the event of claims exceeding the total sum insured by Octavian, a Customer's claim will be settled out of the total amount recovered from Octavian's insurer pro-rata in the proportion that the value of that Customer's claim bears to the total value of all Customer's claims.
The first statement is, however, a bit surprising. I don't know a great deal about the insurance market, but I'm surprised that any company would be prepared to offer cover without a reasonable estimate of the value of the goods being insured. It is also alarming that there is no guarantee that the "total sum insured" is even a reasonable estimate of the value of the goods. Who is to say that the total insurance is any more than £1?
I am somewhat more impressed with Vinotheque's statement:
All wine entrusted to Vinotheque is automatically insured "All risks" to full replacement cost. The cost of the premium is included within the storage charge. Because of our excellent claims record normally uninsurable risks such as unexplained loss are also covered. Cover also extends to delivery in our, or our subcontractor's, vehicles.
and, in particular:
Cellarage will be at our Vinotheque fine wine warehouse in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
Two storage options are available as follows -
Option 1 ”“ Limited insurance cover.
[...]
All wines cellared with Vinotheque are automatically insured against ‟all risks” at full replacement
value, but subject to a maximum value of £7500 per 9 litre case.
Option 2 ”“ Unlimited insurance cover.
[...]
All wines cellared with Vinotheque are automatically insured against ‟all risks” at full replacement
value with no limit.
