Robbery - what's covered?

gerrymadden1

I left a substantial amount of money (a kitty which belonged to staff members) in the company safe for safekeeping over a 10 month period.

A few weeks ago the company was broken into & the safe was cut open and the contents stolen.

I assumed that the money would be covered by the company insurance but there now seems to be some doubt about this as the policy has a 50k excess.

If the insurance company refuse to pay up, are the company liable to refund the money?

oldyouth

A €50k excess is very stiff and normally only applies to high risk property losses or for larger businesses that pay substantial premiums and want to keep them down by dealing with as many losses in house as they can.

Are you certain it is a policy excess and not an excess applying to specific sections of your cover.

Insurers will often take the 'office risk' (which includes money cover) aside from the general activity and make more reasonable arrangements

Regardless of the excess, the policy would only ever cover you up to a stated limit on the schedule and would be capped at the design capacity of the particular safe.

If you can give me more background, I can advise further

gerrymadden1

oldyouth wrote: »

Regardless of the excess, the policy would only ever cover you up to a stated limit on the schedule and would be capped at the design capacity of the particular safe.

If you can give me more background, I can advise further

Thanks... I've only been told unofficially about the excess... and yes, it's a very big organisation... The safe was a very large one & the thieves required a lift truck to relocate it to where they cut it open.

The amount that I had in the safe was less than 2K but I was responsible for it & I never even considered a robbery.

My real question is if the insurance company doesn't pay, does the company have a legal obligation to do so based on the excess they negotiated?

oldyouth

Insurance would be my forte OP as opposed to your legal position. However, I think that if you were holding it in trust for your employees, such as Christmas Club money or the like, that you may be liable.

If you assumed responsibility for collection of their money and distribution at a later stage, your employees could rightly assume you would take adequite care of it. If it is a question of them collecting money and asking could they leave in in your safe as a favour, you may not be liable

That aspect is just my opinion though

gerrymadden1

Thanks OldYouth.

I'm really not sure where I stand. I assumed that if the company were prepared to negotiate a 50K excess that this indicated that they were prepared to cover any losses up to 50K themselves?

Not looking too good for me at the minute.

Thanks again.

oldyouth

gerrymadden1 wrote: »

Thanks OldYouth.

I'm really not sure where I stand. I assumed that if the company were prepared to negotiate a 50K excess that this indicated that they were prepared to cover any losses up to 50K themselves?

Not looking too good for me at the minute.

Thanks again.

I'd still check out the Policy excess V Section excess if I was in your position though