Are your alarms covered?

That said, some customers at the lower risk levels may now be asked to install a system even though we haven’t looked over the building(s). Our decision would be based upon underwriting guidelines, and a view that alarm protection is warranted (due, for example, to the nature of the business, its location and any history of associated risk).

It stands to reason that, without the benefit of a survey, the insurer cannot be too specific about the extent and degree of detection arrangements that should be installed. In such cases, they will rely on the professionalism of the installer to advise the customer. We would also rely on the end user to choose the right installer for the job.

Assessing the risk on site

For risks above a certain size, the insurer will send out one of its own surveyors – at Royal & Sun Alliance we call them risk control consultants – to assess the risk, and determine whether or not the security protections already in place are adequate. Alarm systems already installed will be checked out. If there is no alarm system, and there should be, then the consultant will outline what’s needed.

In either case, the surveyor will take

account not only of the risk-specific features, circumstances and needs, but also of a

number of alarm-related general technical requirements that his or her company believes to be important in almost every instance. These are measures over and above those stipulated in British Standards and police force policies. We should be able to take it as read that these standards and codes will be complied with by any installer recognised by a UKAS-accredited alarm inspectorate.

Further, we should not normally accept any other type of installer for risks where the alarm is a condition of insurance cover.

Most insurers have revised their attitudes towards signalling methods in the wake of the ACPO 2000 policy. For a confirmable alarm installation the insurer will be looking for a dual signalling system – either BT’s GSM or Dualcom

These additional technical requirements may vary from insurer to insurer, but it’s quite likely you will find many of the same features appearing in different insurers’ lists – for installations covering commercial premises, certainly – as it’s more than likely they were originally derived from an Association of British Insurers (ABI) recommendation document published back in 1991.

That document is now seen as being well past its sell-by date. The alarms market has changed considerably in recent times, and insurers have had to adapt accordingly – developing and introducing new general technical requirements to take account of police service insistence on alarm confirmation for new systems.

Requirements needed for cover

The requirements that must be met by installers in order for insurance cover to be granted to the end user in commercial premises are as follows:

• control and signalling equipment must be located in a position where it is concealed from general view, and is least vulnerable to attack;
  
• the alarm system must have an event memory with the capacity to store 200 events (100 if this is sufficient for normal use over 40 days);
  
• the external warning device must be installed at a height of at least 3 metres, otherwise a second sounder will be needed (on another elevation of the building);
  
• any delay on local sounders must be automatically removed in the event of any loss of remote signalling capabilities;
  
• internal warning devices and set/unset sounders must be sited away from the main controls and signalling equipment so as not to identify positioning when activated;
  
• detectors incorporated into the final exit route should create an alarm condition if their activation is not preceded by the initiation of the correct unsetting procedure;
  
• preference should be given over to the use of Loss Prevention Certification Board-approved products if suited to the particular installation.

Technologies in isolation

What’s the current situation when the system has to deliver confirmed alarms, though? If the intruder’s likely target is in an office space with accessible, vulnerable windows, then we’ll want to see that the detection pattern ensures that no entry into the space is possible – either via internal doors or direct from the windows themselves – without creating a confirmed alarm condition.

For the most part, insurers are reluctant to rely entirely upon confirmation technologies that depend on any human interpretation of transmitted sounds or images, and will therefore ask for the safeguard of a back-up sequential confirmation capability.

In such a scenario, the insurer would be happy to accept the fact that audio or visual is the primary confirmation medium, as well as the traditional detector distribution pattern.