Biba enhances valuation facility

Biba has appointed specialist loss adjuster QuestGates as the preferred partner to operate its enhanced valuation facility for brokers.

The facility, previously offered by Cunningham Lindsey, has been extended to include plant, machinery, contents, fine art, antiques, engineering and technology as well as buildings valuations. The enhanced service goes live today.

It will also include the QuestGates business interruption (BI) survey service, which reviews a client’s existing BI cover and makes recommendations to ensure they have adequate protection in the event of a catastrophe.

The facility, which is accessed via Biba’s website, provides valuations for commercial and personal lines insurance quotations to ensure the sum insured is correctly matched to the relevant risks. Biba members enjoy preferential rates.

Biba’s head of technical services Steve Foulsham said: “Brokers need to provide quality advice on sums insured to their clients to avoid the pitfalls of under-insurance and the risk of paying too much premium for over-insurance.”

In the current economic climate, businesses were looking to cut back and did not always keep buildings values under review. Misconceptions were also common, with many policyholders erroneously taking the market value of a property as the starting point for insurance rather than the rebuilding costs.

“In appointing QuestGates, Biba is giving brokers access to a quality portfolio of valuation services,” he said. “The business interruption service really excites us because it is a known source of problems for many businesses.”

QuestGates director Alistair Steward said: “Having previously managed the Institute of Insurance Brokers (IIB) valuation service for a number of years, we are delighted that Biba has selected QuestGates to manage its new valuation facility.”

“The problem of under-insurance has always existed, but the tough economic conditions of the past five years seem to be exacerbating the problem. We are finding more businesses fail to calculate appropriate sums insured and indeed our data indicates that the level of under-insurance is actually increasing.

“There is mounting pressure on insurance brokers to provide quality advice to their clients, and this Biba facility will assist them by providing access to a team of professionals with day-to-day knowledge of the real cost of reinstating businesses after an insured event.”

For more information go to: www.biba.org.uk/UploadedFiles/989BIBA_Valuation_Facility.pdf