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Burglary and Theft

Loss of stock, contents or cash by theft involving forcible and violent entry to or exit from the premises.

Also calledBurglary and Housebreaking · Bharat Sookshma Udyam Suraksha

File/Claims library/Property and engineering/Theft and dishonesty

First thing, todayFile the FIR the moment the loss is discovered, and leave the point of entry untouched.

Three deadlines
  • Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
  • The FIR the same day. An insurer will not move far without it.
  • Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.
A godown shutter forced open at night
A godown shutter forced open at night. An illustration.

When you would claim

  • Break-in at a godown, factory, shop or site office
  • Theft of stock or contents by forcible entry
  • Damage to the building caused by the break-in itself
  • Robbery or hold-up where the cover extends to it

What insurers most often rely on

  • No evidence of forcible and violent entry, which most burglary wordings require
  • A list built from memory that does not reconcile to the books
  • Protections warranted in the policy that were not in use, such as a guard, an alarm or a lock
  • Delay between discovering the loss and reporting it
  • Cash or valuables claimed under a cover that excludes them

Every one of those is answerable, and several are decided by what was done in the first two days rather than by anything argued later.

The documents

most of it exists already

12 items, and most of them exist somewhere in your own office already. Assemble them once and properly; a file sent in pieces takes three times as long to settle.

  • Claim form and the FIR, with its date and time
  • Police final report or non-traceable certificate when issued
  • Photographs of the point of entry before any repair
  • CCTV footage, copied off the recorder before it overwrites
  • Itemised list of what is missing, reconciled to stock records
  • Purchase invoices and serial numbers for the missing items
  • The last physical stock count before the loss
  • Details of the security arrangements and whether they were working
  • Estimate for repairing the damage caused by the entry
  • Cancelled cheque and bank details in the insured's name, for the NEFT payment
  • Details of any other insurance covering the same risk
  • A claim bill: the amount claimed, itemised, with the working behind it
The timelineWhatever else you send, send a one-page timeline: loss, intimation, survey, documents sent, offer. More claims turn on the sequence of dates than on any single document.

Next

Burglary Claim: The First 24 Hours

A burglary claim needs two things a business rarely produces in the first panic: an untouched scene, and a specific list of what is gone.

Most often lost by: Tidying the premises and then producing a round-figure list of losses.

Check the sum insured

This cover carries an average clause. Declare less than the value at risk and every claim pays that proportion short, a partial loss exactly as much as a total one. Three numbers will tell you where you stand.

Filed under: Property and engineering · Theft and dishonesty

Claims that sit next to this one

the same premises, or the same event

Money in Transit and in Safe

cash, which carries its own limits

Jewellers' Block

stock that is small, valuable and portable

Fire and Special Perils

the same premises, the other peril

Been broken into and the list will not reconcile? Report a loss or call 92514 56334.