Running a small business can be stressful at the best of times – there just never seems to be enough time in the day – but if your business is the unfortunate victim of some kind of disaster it can be devastating financially and emotionally. It is crucial that you are prepared for such an event as fire, flood or water damage in order to give you business the best possible chance of survival following such a catastrophic accident.

Many small businesses assume that by having their insurance in place that if an event like this should befall them they will be fine. Whilst comprehensive cover is crucial you may also want to know about insurance loss assessors and how they can help you if there is a disaster at your work premises.

The phrase ‘insurance loss assessor‘ is usually mentioned in the same breath as ‘loss adjuster’ and often people assume that they are different names for the same job – which isn’t strictly true. A loss adjuster works for the insurance company and is appointed as soon as you have a made an insurance claim. Let’s say you have had a fire at your work premises, that has left you with little or no stock and has destroyed a good portion of your building – the first thing you will do is make your fire insurance claim. The loss adjuster appointed by the insurance company will investigate fully the events surrounding the fire. They will interview you, any potential witnesses, they will speak to the police (and if necessary hospital and fire departments) – all this is to check your liability in the accident and whether your insurance will cover the damage. As the loss adjuster works for the insurance company (also a business let us not forget!) they will try and keep the payout as little as possible – which will not aid your business to move forward if the figure is too low.

Enter the insurance loss assessor – essentially carrying out similar tasks, but for you. The insurance loss assessor will be employed by your business to act on its behalf in the fire insurance claim. The knowledge that the insurance loss assessor will bring will give you a fighting chance in receiving adequate compensation following the fire. Not only with the insurance loss assessor deal with all the paperwork surrounding your fire insurance claim they will also deal directly ion the negotiation of the claim with your insurance company.

Just by being aware of what an insurance loss assessor can do for your company will give you an advantage should you ever be the victim of such a catastrophic disaster as fire.