Home & Shop Insurance

01Cover Options Available

• Structure Cover: the building itself, including the walls, roof, fittings and any permanent structure.
• Contents Cover: furniture, electronics, appliances, clothing and household goods.
• Structure + Contents: a combined policy, which is what most homeowners take.
• Tenant’s Contents Policy: for people living on rent who want to insure only their own belongings.
• Shop & Small Business Policy: the shop premises, the stock inside, and the equipment used to run the business.
• Jewellery & Valuables: covered on declaration, for a specified value.

02What Is Covered

• Fire, lightning, explosion and implosion.
• Burglary, housebreaking and theft following forced entry.
• Flood, storm, cyclone, earthquake and landslide.
• Riot, strike, terrorism and malicious damage.
• Damage from bursting or overflowing of water tanks and pipes.
• Loss of rent or alternative accommodation while the damaged home is being repaired, where opted.

03How The Sum Insured Is Fixed

This is where most home policies go wrong, and it is the one thing a retailer should get right at the counter.

• Structure: insured on the cost of rebuilding, not on the market price. Built-up area in square feet, multiplied by the current construction rate in that town. The land under the house is never insured, because land cannot burn.
• Contents: insured on what it would cost to replace the goods today — furniture, appliances, electronics and clothing added up honestly.
• Stock in a shop: insured on the average value held through the year, not on the value on the day of the highest festival stock.
• Jewellery and valuables: declared separately with their value, and a valuation certificate for high-value items.

Under the standard Bharat Griha Raksha product, when the structure is insured, cover for general household contents is included automatically at 20% of the structure sum insured, up to ₹10 lakh, without listing every item.

04The Shop Policy Every Market Street Needs

For a shopkeeper the building is rarely the biggest exposure — the stock is. A shop policy can be built up from the pieces the business actually needs.

• Stock: against fire, burglary and water damage — the core of the cover.
• Furniture, fittings and equipment: counters, racks, refrigeration, computers and billing machines.
• Plate glass: the shop front, which is expensive to replace and easy to break.
• Money in the till and in transit: cash on the premises and cash being carried to the bank.
• Public liability: injury to a customer inside the shop.
• Business interruption: the income lost while the shop is shut for repairs after a covered loss.

05Why It Is Worth Selling At Every Outlet

1. The premium is small compared to the value insured, so the customer rarely says no once the cover is explained.
2. Almost every household and every shop in the market is a potential customer — and very few of them already have it.
3. It renews every year, adding steady repeat income for the retailer.
4. A single visit to a market street can generate several shop policies.