Before accepting the first customer vehicle, decide who carries the loss if it is stolen, damaged on a lift or crashed during a road test. A landlord’s policy does not insure your tools, customer vehicles or trading liability.
Insurance requirements also arise from leases, finance agreements and client contracts. Those contractual requirements should be checked against what the policy actually provides.
Cover to arrange before opening
Start with property and vehicle custody, then add road, liability and income protection appropriate to the work.
- Tools, diagnostic equipment, lifts, contents and tenant improvements
- Customer vehicles at the premises
- Road tests, collections and deliveries
- Public and defective-workmanship liability
- Business interruption
- Commercial vehicles, cyber, money and fidelity as applicable
Set controls before the insurer surveys
Install compliant electrical and fire protection, service lifts, separate flammables, control keys and document test drives. Use signed job cards and vehicle intake photographs from day one.
If the premises has solar, batteries, generators or a spray area, declare these installations.
Avoid a turnover-only estimate
A new business may have little historical turnover but can still hold several expensive vehicles. Estimate the busiest total vehicle value and highest single value, then update the insurer as the business grows.
A new workshop suffers a burglary in its second month. Customer vehicles are untouched, but diagnostic tools financed under an instalment agreement are stolen. The claim depends on tools being insured at replacement value and the alarm and security conditions being met—not on the customer-vehicle limit.
Questions an insurer will ask
- What exact services and vehicle types will be accepted?
- What is the peak customer-vehicle accumulation?
- Will employees road-test or collect vehicles?
- What does the lease require?
- Which equipment is financed or hired?
- How many months would rebuilding take?
General information only. RMI requirements, fees and processes can change; confirm current requirements directly with RMI. Insurance cover depends on the insurer’s schedule, wording, limits, excesses and conditions.