When insuring a Mosque or Islamic school it’s important to make sure that you cover it for the correct amount. If you don’t and there is a catastrophic event that damages the building beyond repair, you won't have enough money from the insurance company to rebuild it.
Things To Consider
Ask yourself: if a disaster completely destroyed your Mosque or Islamic school, what would you need to continue functioning?
Obviously the policy should cover rebuilding but that’s not all. It will take time to rebuild a Mosque or Islamic school and you can’t start straightaway either. You may have to wait for investigations to be completed, then arranging paperwork and planning. Even getting quotes and finding a reputable firm that’s free to do the work all takes time.
During that time, which could be for a year or more, you’ll have worshippers or pupils whose needs have to be serviced. If you can’t operate you’ll lose the income that supports the building and its activities. If you find another building to use, then you’ll have to pay rent while you’re waiting for your original Mosque or Islamic school to be rebuilt.
Make Sure You’re Covered
When you’re arranging insurance for a Mosque or Islamic school it’s important to add up all the potential liabilities and make sure your policy covers it all. As an absolute minimum it should cover the cost of a replacement building in the case of fire, vandalism, damage and, unfortunately in this day and age, terrorism.
Note that the cover amount may be less than the market value of the property. This is because it won’t include the land, just the rebuilding cost and other expenses. But it’s important to check the rebuilding costs every year as labour and material prices do fluctuate (usually upward).
Not all building insurance policies will cover some of the incidental expenses that we mentioned above - like compensation for the interruption of your day-to-day operations and additional costs. So it’s important to read policy documents and ensure that you have the appropriate cover as well as enough compensation.
Underinsurance
The insurance term for a shortfall and not having enough cover is ‘underinsurance’ and it’s thought to be a huge problem for all sorts of buildings in the UK, from ordinary houses to commercial buildings.
If your building is underinsured then your Mosque or Islamic school will have more than its fair share of problems if disaster strikes, so the best option is not to be underinsured in the first place. You can do this by understanding how a shortfall could afect you by speaking to one of our experts.
