Keep your Sites, Works and Plant covered this Christmas

It’s been another tough year and your clients been working hard to catch up on delays caused by 2020’s lockdown and its restrictions. They deserve to relax during the upcoming holiday season. While insurance is there to protect their businesses, do remind them that they are responsible for taking certain steps to adhere to their policy’s stipulations.

When it comes to protection of the works, the contractor or employer must take all reasonable precautions to protect the sections of work and the surrounding property being worked on where the roof is exposed during the execution of the project. One of the easiest ways to do so is using heavy duty tarpaulins to cover exposed roof areas.

Will closing for the builders’ holiday lead to any unoccupied sites? Their policy may exclude work in progress that has not been completed to a state where it can be left unsupervised. Unfortunately, theft remains a real problem in South Africa and is often accompanied by malicious damage to goods and/or immovable property. Make sure that your clients understand what their policy expects from them for a claim to be processed in case of theft from a site. Theft cover is often subject to proven forcible or violent entry to or from the premises, and the insured taking reasonable precautions to prevent the theft or vandalism. These steps may include, but are not limited to, the provision of qualified security personnel on site, regular patrols and only delivering materials to a site that will be used during that day’s work. These and other conditions may also apply to theft cover for loss or damage to property stored off-site, so highlight these relevant sections of their policy.

We trust that you will have a restive festive season and hope that you get to spend quality time with those nearest to you. Contact us for more information on how you can assist your clients in preparing for the festive season break.