Durban - Statistics show that criminal activities and burglaries increase exponentially over the festive season, especially in unoccupied offices and buildings.
Therefore businesses that are planning to shut down over the festive period should take precautionary measures to ensure their premises are safe and secure at all times.
Malesela Maupa, head of Insurer Relationships at FNB Insurance Brokers, offers key safety tips that businesses should adhere to:
Keep valuables safe - valuable items such as computers, laptops and stock should be locked away in a secure room or safe.
Secure the building - test your alarm system and ensure it is in good working order. Request that your security service providers do random check-ins and monitor any suspicious activities at your premises.
Car remote blocking/jamming - always check that your business vehicles are locked before walking away. Furthermore, should there be any valuables in the vehicles, ensure they are placed in a lockable compartment or in the boot, out of sight from prying eyes.
Burglar bars - install quality burglar bars and place them on all opening windows and doors as this slows the burglary process down.
Cash - it is always advisable to store cash in a bank account. However, should there be cash on the premises, ensure you have a safe which complies to the minimum safety requirements in terms of your policy. This is quite essential considering that businesses may have an increased amount of cash on premises during the festive season.
“Banking procedures for the festive season should also be reviewed, and the frequency of banking, to keep cash on premises to a minimum,” adds Maupa.
Disclose valuables left in the open - goods left in the open during the holidays such as compressors and generators should be disclosed to your broker or insurer. Moreover, consider discussing this cover for items housed outside of the main building, such as a component from a generator housed outside or CCTV cameras mounted to the outside of the building.
Keep records of all movable assets in case of theft. Taking inventory of computers, stock, keys, gate remotes including serial numbers can help speed up the insurance process in case of an unfortunate incident.