A pub is several businesses in one building: a bar, usually a kitchen, often letting rooms, sometimes live entertainment, and a public space open late. Each of those is a separate rating question, and a policy quoted against the word pub without them is quoted against nothing. The covers that matter most are the ones people think about least, because the claim that closes a pub is a fire or a flood rather than a spilled drink.
The liability side of a licensed house
Public liability answers for customers injured on the premises, which in a late night venue means glass, stairs, wet floors and the occasional altercation. Employers' liability is compulsory once anybody is employed, including casual bar staff. Where food is served, product liability answers for harm caused by it. Licensed premises are also rated on their hours, their entertainment and whether door staff are used, and all three are material facts.
The kitchen decides a large part of the premium
If the pub serves food, the underwriting looks like a restaurant's: deep fat frying, extraction ducting and how often it is professionally cleaned, fire suppression, and whether anybody cooks late. Duct cleaning at a stated interval is frequently a policy condition rather than a suggestion, and a fire claim is assessed against the certificates. A kitchen also brings food registration and allergen duties, which sit beside the policy rather than inside it.
Business interruption, the section that decides survival
A pub that cannot open earns nothing while the rent and the loans continue. Business interruption answers for that, and the indemnity period is the number to look at: a fire in a kitchen at the back of an old building is not repaired in three months. Stock is its own question too, because cellar stock, spirits and a full fridge are worth more than the fittings around them.
Letting rooms, gardens and everything else the building does
Rooms above the bar bring guests' property, fire safety duties and sometimes a different rating. A beer garden brings outdoor furniture, heaters and glass. Live music brings equipment and crowd questions. None of this is exotic and all of it is a declaration: an insurer told about a wet led pub will not answer happily for a claim arising from a function room nobody mentioned.
Questions people ask about insurance for a pub
What insurance does a pub need in the UK?
Public liability, employers' liability once there are staff, product liability where food is served, buildings if you own the premises, contents and stock including the cellar, glass and money, and business interruption for the income lost while closed.
Does pub insurance cover the cellar stock?
Stock cover normally includes it, and the sum insured has to reflect what a full cellar and spirits shelf are worth rather than an average week. Deterioration after a refrigeration failure is often a named extension rather than part of the main stock cover.
How do opening hours affect the premium?
Late hours, live entertainment and door staff all change the rating, because they change the claims a venue sees. They are material facts: an insurer that was told the pub shuts at eleven will take a different view of a claim at three in the morning.
Do letting rooms need separate cover?
They need declaring, and they usually change the policy rather than requiring a second one. Guests' property, fire safety obligations and the rooms' own contents are the additions, and a pub that started letting rooms after buying its policy should say so.