When fire, flood or an escape of water stops a business trading, the building damage is the part everyone can see. The larger loss is usually the one that does not photograph: the turnover that did not happen, the customers who went elsewhere, and the costs that carried on regardless.
That loss has to be calculated, evidenced and argued from your own accounts, against a policy wording most business owners have never had reason to read closely. PCLA are independent loss assessors. We act solely for policyholders, not insurers. We assess the damage, evidence the claim, manage the process and negotiate the settlement.
We prepare business interruption calculations in-house. Your claim is not passed to a third party and then relayed back to you. We work from your own financial records and management information, and alongside your accountant where that helps.
We act for businesses across Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The earlier you call, the more we can do. Tell us what happened, when trading was affected and whether you have notified your insurer yet. There is no fee for the initial review.
NI: 028 9581 5318 · Scotland: 0141 461 2406
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The property claim answers a question with a physical answer: what was damaged, and what does it cost to put right. The business interruption claim answers a hypothetical one. What would this business have earned if the incident had never happened?
Nobody can photograph that. It has to be built out of trading history, the policy’s own definitions, and a defensible view of what the next twelve or twenty-four months would have looked like. The insurer’s loss adjuster will test every assumption in it, and the parts that decide the figure are usually the parts nobody thought to argue about at the start.
Support is worth considering when:
This is the section the page is built around. These five things decide the number. Getting any one of them wrong at the start is difficult to undo later, because the figures set early become the ones everyone argues from.
This is the single most common and most expensive misunderstanding in business interruption insurance, and it usually happens years before the loss, at the point the policy is arranged.
Your accountant’s gross profit is turnover less cost of sales. Insurable gross profit is a different figure, defined by the policy, and normally calculated as turnover plus closing stock less opening stock, less only those working expenses the policy specifies as uninsured.
The difference matters because most business costs do not stop when trading does. Rent, rates, insurance, finance costs, salaried staff and much of the payroll continue while the doors are shut. Those standing charges belong inside the insured figure. A business that insured its accounting gross profit has, in most cases, insured a materially smaller number than the policy actually measures the loss against, and it will only find out at claim stage.
We check the basis of the declared sum insured against the policy’s own definition before anything else, because that check determines whether the next section applies.
If the sum insured is less than the insurable gross profit the policy requires, the insurer may apply average and reduce the settlement in proportion.
If the policy is 20% underinsured, the settlement can be reduced by 20%, whatever the size of the loss. It is not a penalty applied to the shortfall alone. It is applied across the claim.
An underinsurance position is normally raised after the loss, when the business is least placed to argue about a calculation carried out years earlier by somebody else. What answers it is the basis on which the declared figure was arrived at, read against the policy’s definition, and the wording itself: some policies carry a percentage provision above the declared value, or a “day one” uplift, that the insurer has not taken into account. Those provisions are worth finding before conceding a reduction.
The maximum indemnity period is the longest period, stated in the policy, for which interrupted trading can be measured. It is usually 12, 24 or 36 months, and it runs from the date of the damage, not from the date repairs start or finish.
That has two consequences worth stating plainly:
A 12-month indemnity period is short. It has to cover the time to reinstate the property and the time for trading to climb back to where it would have been. A business that reopens in month nine has three months of recovery inside the period and none after it, however long the customers actually take to return.
Time lost to argument is time spent. Every week spent disagreeing about the scope of repairs is a week of the indemnity period consumed, and it does not extend because the claim was slow. This is the strongest practical reason to get the claim structured early rather than after it has stalled.
Most policies also carry a waiting period, or excess expressed in days or hours, before cover responds at all. It is checked at the outset because it changes what is worth claiming.
When trading is disrupted, businesses spend money to keep going: temporary premises, hired equipment, outsourced production, overtime, extra logistics, express delivery.
Increased cost of working (ICOW) is covered where the spend is reasonable and passes the economic test in the policy: it must be spent to avoid or reduce a loss of gross profit, and it must not cost more than the loss it saves. That test is where most disagreements about these costs actually sit.
Additional increased cost of working (AICOW) is a separate extension, and it is not subject to the same economic limit. It covers reasonable spend to maintain the business where the economic test cannot be satisfied but the expenditure was still necessary, typically to hold on to customers or to protect the business’s position for the longer term. Many businesses that hold AICOW cover do not know it, and so claim under ICOW and see the economic test applied to costs that never needed to pass it.
Both depend on evidence recorded as the spend happens: invoices, the decision behind the spend, and what it was intended to prevent. Costs reconstructed months afterwards are the ones that get argued over.
Business interruption cover is not limited to damage at your own premises. The extensions in the schedule commonly include:
Suppliers and customers extensions. Damage at a key supplier’s or a major customer’s premises interrupts your trading without touching your building at all. Cover is often limited to named parties or a specified radius, so the schedule decides it.
Denial of access. Cover where you cannot reach or use the premises because of damage nearby, or because of an incident that does not involve damage at all. The damage and non-damage versions are different clauses and are worth distinguishing.
Public utilities failure. Interruption to electricity, gas, water or telecommunications supply. Usually subject to a minimum duration before it responds.
Notifiable disease and contamination. Closure orders and contamination incidents, subject to the wording, which varies more between policies than any other extension.
Loss of attraction, and specified events. Cover where an incident nearby stops customers reaching a retail or hospitality business.
These sit in the schedule and are easy to overlook when the claim is built from the obvious damage outward. Reading them first, before the calculation is prepared, changes what the claim covers.
A BI claim is rarely declined outright. It is far more often reduced, and it is reduced in specific, technical places.
The arguments that come up most often:
Each of these is answered with figures and records rather than correspondence. We cannot promise that a reduced claim can be improved, and any firm that tells you otherwise should be treated with caution. What we can do is establish what the insurer is actually relying on, and whether the evidence supports it.
Interim payments. Where the insurer accepts that part of the claim is payable, an interim payment can relieve cash-flow pressure long before the final figure is agreed. It usually has to be asked for, with evidence behind it, rather than offered. On a long interruption it is often the most useful thing that happens in the first two months.
If the calculation you have been given does not look right, the best time to call is before you respond to the insurer.
The records required depend on the policy, the cause and the business, but a BI claim is usually built from:
annual accounts · management accounts · sales records · gross profit information · budgets and forecasts · bank statements · payroll records · purchase and supplier records · VAT records · customer contracts · order books and sales pipelines · booking or production data · stock information · evidence of cancelled or delayed work · records of additional expenditure · records of saved costs · site closure and access records · correspondence with customers and suppliers.
Not all of it will be relevant. We identify what is actually needed after reviewing the circumstances, rather than sending a blanket request.
Where forecasts or growth assumptions form part of the claim, they need support beyond intention: confirmed contracts, historic trends, capacity changes, recruitment, investment or pipeline data. An assumption with evidence behind it survives scrutiny. An assumption without it is the first thing an adjuster removes.
Assess the damage. We review the insured event, the operational impact, the policy sections that respond, and the stage the claim has reached.
Evidence the claim. We identify the records required, organise the financial and operational evidence, link each claimed loss to the interruption, and prepare or review the statement of claim with the assumptions set out and explained.
Manage the process. We handle communication with the insurer, its loss adjuster and your broker, attend claim meetings, track outstanding actions, and update the calculation as the interruption develops.
Negotiate the settlement. We review the proposed position against the evidence and the policy terms before anything is concluded. The insurer makes the final decision on policy cover; our job is to make sure the case in front of it is complete and properly presented.
We prepare the calculation in-house. The business interruption calculation is done by us, from your financial records and management information. It is not outsourced to a third party and then relayed back to you, which means the person preparing the figures is the person negotiating them. Where a claim benefits from your own accountant’s input, we work alongside them and use their records and analysis.
One assessor on your claim. Every case is handled by its own loss assessor, so you are not explaining the claim again each time you call. Where a claim needs it, a senior assessor oversees the case alongside them.
We attend site. Damage assessments, surveys, structural damage surveys and meetings with the insurer or its loss adjuster, across both Northern Ireland and Scotland.
You are kept informed. You will hear from us at least weekly, and in practice more often, since the pace is set by meetings, reports and whatever the insurer is doing.
Specialists when the claim needs them. Surveyors, engineers, valuers and restoration contractors, appointed according to the nature of the loss. We use recognised professionals in their field.
No charge to find out where you stand. There is no fee for the initial review or for the site inspection. Our fee and terms are explained in full before you appoint us.
Where our involvement ends. We take the claim through to settlement. Once it is settled our role is complete.
An insurer-appointed loss adjuster investigates the claim and reports to the insurer. They are usually competent and professional, and they are not working for you. On a business interruption claim the insurer will often also appoint a forensic accountant to examine the figures.
A loss assessor is appointed by the policyholder. We work solely for policyholders, not insurers. On a BI claim that means preparing the calculation, evidencing the assumptions behind it, and presenting and defending the business’s position.
The distinction matters more here than on a property claim, because a business interruption figure is built from assumptions, and assumptions belong to whoever prepared them.
A business interruption claim almost always sits alongside a property damage claim, and the two are connected: the interruption period depends on how quickly the property is reinstated, so a slow or badly scoped property claim extends the loss and consumes the indemnity period.
We handle both together. Commercial property damage, including fire, flood, escape of water, impact, theft and machinery damage, is covered on our commercial claims page. Our guides to fire damage claims and flood damage claims cover the property side in detail.
If your loss is rental income rather than trading income, that is loss of rent rather than business interruption, and it works differently. Residential landlords should start with our landlord claims page.
We act for businesses throughout Northern Ireland, including Belfast, Derry, Newry, Armagh, Ballymena, Craigavon, Coleraine, Enniskillen, Omagh and the surrounding areas.
In Scotland we act for businesses across the central belt and beyond, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Kilmarnock, Motherwell and Stirling.
We attend site in both regions for damage assessments, surveys, structural damage surveys and meetings with the insurer or its appointed loss adjuster. Being able to get to the premises, meet the adjuster on site and see the operation matters on an interruption claim, because the trading pattern of a business is rarely obvious from its accounts alone.
Client-supplied and verified, 2026-08-05. No settlement figure is published.
Location: Duncrue Industrial Estate, Belfast
Date of loss: July 2025
Peril: fire
Claim type: commercial material damage and business interruption
A serious fire at a Duncrue warehouse caused extensive damage to the premises, the stock and the business equipment. Alongside the direct fire damage there was widespread smoke, soot and heat contamination, and water used in the firefighting operation affected further parts of the warehouse and its contents. Trading stopped or was substantially reduced while the condition of the building, the stock and the machinery was assessed, and the business began arranging temporary premises to protect its customer relationships.
Four things made this more than a repair claim.
The two sections had to be presented together. The business interruption cover depended on the fire damage falling within the insured material damage provisions of the policy. Presented separately, the property loss and the trading loss can each be assessed in isolation and the connection between them left unargued.
Stock could not be valued at what it would have sold for. The stock claim had to follow the valuation basis stated in the policy and be evidenced from the business’s own records. We separated the affected goods into raw materials, work in progress, finished goods, packaging and consumables, and then by condition: destroyed, smoke or water damaged, contaminated, salvageable, and any customer-owned goods. Quantities and values were supported with stock reports, purchase invoices, inventory records, sales information, photographs and disposal evidence, which also allowed obsolete, seasonal and slow-moving stock to be treated properly.
The trading loss used the policy’s definition of gross profit, not the accounting one. We assessed when trading stopped, which parts of the operation were affected and when each function could restart, then measured the turnover the business would probably have achieved against what it actually achieved, applying the policy-defined rate of gross profit. Seasonal and historic trading patterns, existing orders and contracts, planned growth, cancelled or delayed orders, and market conditions unrelated to the fire were all considered. We also assessed whether the indemnity period should continue past completion of the building repairs, because the business still needed time to replace stock, recommission machinery, restore capacity and win back customers before it was trading where it would have been.
The relocation costs had to be sorted between two different covers. Temporary warehouse rent, rates and utilities, moving and transport, racking and storage, equipment hire, IT and telecoms installation, additional security, increased distribution costs, staff travel and overtime were all evidenced with the lease, invoices and payment records. Each was then compared with the turnover and gross profit loss it helped prevent, because costs that exceed the economic limit on standard increased cost of working need to be considered under additional increased cost of working instead.
The claim went to the insurer as one submission: the cause and chronology, the cover position, the material damage assessment, the stock and equipment schedules, the effect on trading, the relocation strategy, the interruption calculation, the increased costs, the savings and deductions, the supporting records, and requests for interim payments where appropriate.
Why it matters: the risk on a claim of this shape is not that anything gets refused. It is that the building, the stock and the trading loss each get assessed on their own, and the connections between them, the ones that carry the most value, never get made. Presenting the whole loss as a single evidenced picture is what let the business show the full effect of the fire rather than the visible damage inside the warehouse, and let the management team concentrate on customers and recovery while the claim was prepared.
It is likely to suit a claim where the financial loss is substantial, the trading pattern is complex, the interruption is expected to run for some time, several sites or revenue streams are involved, or the insurer’s calculation is disputed.
It is likely to be less suitable where:
Legal interpretation, litigation, tax advice, audit work and insolvency advice sit with other professionals, and we will say so rather than take work that is not ours. We can work alongside your accountant, broker or solicitor.
Suitability can only be assessed once we have seen the circumstances and the documents.
PCLA explains its fee and terms clearly before appointment.
Commercial claims are quoted individually, against the claim in front of us, and confirmed in writing before any engagement begins.
There is no charge for the initial review or for the site inspection.
What the work involves will vary with the value and complexity of the loss, the number of sites or revenue streams, the quality of the available records, the level of disagreement with the insurer, whether ongoing calculations are required as the interruption develops, and the stage at which we become involved. All of it is explained before any engagement begins.
It may cover specified financial losses caused by an insured interruption, subject to the wording, limits, exclusions, excess and indemnity period. Depending on the policy that can include lost turnover, lost gross profit, increased costs of working and losses arising under extensions such as denial of access or supplier failure. The basis varies between policies, so the wording has to be read before cover or value can be assessed.
Your accounts calculate gross profit as turnover less cost of sales. Insurable gross profit is defined by the policy and is normally turnover plus closing stock less opening stock, less only the working expenses the policy names as uninsured. Because most standing charges continue while trading has stopped, the insured figure is usually larger than the accounting one. A sum insured based on the accounting figure is a common cause of underinsurance.
The maximum period stated in the policy over which interrupted trading can be measured, commonly 12, 24 or 36 months. It runs from the date of the damage, not from when repairs start or finish, and it has to cover both reinstatement and the time the business takes to recover its trading position.
If the sum insured is less than the insurable gross profit the policy requires, the insurer may apply average and reduce the settlement in proportion. If the policy is 20% underinsured, the settlement can be reduced by 20% across the claim, not just on the shortfall. Whether an underinsurance position is correct depends on how the declared figure was calculated and on what the wording says, including any percentage provision or day-one uplift.
Possibly. Increased cost of working is covered where the spend is reasonable and meets the policy's economic test: spent to avoid or reduce the loss of gross profit, and not costing more than the loss it saves. Additional increased cost of working is a separate extension that is not subject to that limit. Which applies depends on your schedule, and it is worth checking before the costs are claimed rather than after.
Commonly suppliers and customers extensions, denial of access in its damage and non-damage forms, public utilities failure, notifiable disease and contamination, and loss of attraction. They are listed in the schedule, usually with their own limits and conditions, and they are the part of a BI claim most often missed.
Your accountant holds the records and the financial picture and their input is valuable. A business interruption claim also turns on the policy definitions, causation, claim presentation and negotiation with the insurer's own accountant, which is insurance work rather than accountancy. We prepare the calculation in-house and work alongside your accountant, using their records and analysis.
In-house. We prepare business interruption calculations ourselves, working from your financial records and management information. The person who prepares the figures is the person who negotiates them.
The earlier you involve us, the more we can do. The best time to call is before you notify your insurer, or before you accept a settlement figure, while the evidence and the scope of the claim can still be shaped. On an interruption claim early contact matters more than on most, because the records that support the projection are easiest to gather while the interruption is happening. A short call at that point costs nothing and does not commit you to anything.
The earlier you involve us the more we can do, and the strongest position is a call before you respond. That said, yes: we can review the calculation behind an offer, the assumptions in it and the deductions applied. Options narrow considerably once an offer has been accepted or a settlement agreement signed, so the review is worth doing before you reply.
Where the insurer accepts that part of the claim is payable, an interim payment may be available before the final figure is agreed. It normally has to be requested with evidence behind it. Payment remains subject to the insurer's assessment.
It depends on the complexity of the loss, the availability of records, how long the interruption itself runs and whether cover or valuation is disputed. A claim measured over a 24-month indemnity period cannot conclude before the loss is known. You will hear from us at least weekly throughout, and usually more often.
We cannot promise a particular figure, and any firm that does should be treated with caution. Our role is to calculate and evidence the loss properly and present it. The outcome depends on the policy, the evidence, the circumstances and the insurer's assessment. The insurer makes the final decision on policy cover.
The initial review and site inspection are free of charge. Beyond that, commercial claims are quoted individually and the fee and terms are confirmed in writing before you appoint us. We cover Northern Ireland and Scotland, with site attendance in both.
An interruption puts pressure on cash flow, staff, suppliers and customers at the same time, and the claim that is supposed to relieve that pressure is the most technical one in commercial insurance.
The earlier you involve us, the more we can do. The best time to call is before you notify your insurer, or before you accept a settlement figure, while the evidence and the scope of the claim can still be shaped. A short call at that point costs nothing and does not commit you to anything.
Northern Ireland: 028 9581 5318 · Scotland: 0141 461 2406