FCA authorised · FRN 7249520117 325 0027Quote & buy →
If your premises are listed, your neighbours are above and below you, and your best month is August, an off-the-shelf policy is a gamble. Talk it through with Apex before renewal, not after a claim.
Get a quote →Already have a current schedule? Email it to info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk and a named broker will come back to you.
Reviewed by Apex Insurance Brokers · Last reviewed 2026-08-08
The Old and New Town of Edinburgh together form a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a large share of the buildings within it are listed. That matters for insurance in a very direct way: if a listed building is damaged, you generally cannot reinstate it with modern off-the-shelf materials. Repairs tend to mean stone, slate, lime mortar and timber sash-and-case windows, carried out by trades who know how to work with them — and that costs considerably more, and takes considerably longer, than a like-for-like rebuild of a modern unit.
The most common failure we see on heritage stock is not a missing cover at all. It is a buildings sum insured that was set years ago, or copied from a market valuation, rather than from a proper reinstatement assessment. If the declared value is short, the average clause can cut every claim payment proportionately — not just a total loss. For anything listed or within the conservation core, a professional rebuild valuation is one of the cheapest pieces of risk management available.
Time is the other half of it. Consents, specialist trades and traditional materials all stretch repair timescales, so a business interruption indemnity period of 12 months can be optimistic. For premises in the Old or New Town, it is worth pricing 24 or 36 months and deciding with your eyes open.
A great deal of Edinburgh’s commercial space sits in tenements — a shop or café at street level with flats above, or an office, studio or clinic up a shared stair. That layout creates exposures a standalone unit simply doesn’t have.
Water is the obvious one. An escape of water from your premises can travel down through every property below you, and an incident above can close your business through no fault of your own. Your public liability and tenant’s improvements cover need to reflect that you share fabric with neighbours, and your business interruption cover should respond to damage that starts elsewhere in the building — check how your policy treats denial of access and damage to the wider premises.
Then there is the cost of simply getting at the building. Scaffolding a four-storey stone frontage, or moving materials through the narrow closes of the Old Town, adds real money to what looks like a modest repair. Those logistics belong in the reinstatement figure too. Finally, read the lease: in tenement stock the split between what the owners insure collectively and what you insure as an occupier is a frequent source of gaps, and it is far better to find them before a claim than during one.
Edinburgh’s festival season is not a nice-to-have for local businesses — for many hospitality, retail, venue and service firms it is the trading peak the whole year is built around. That seasonality should be reflected in the insurance arithmetic, and often isn’t.
If your business interruption sum insured is based on a flat monthly average, a loss that takes you out of action across the festival period will be under-compensated, because the weeks you lost were worth far more than the average suggests. Declare gross profit honestly, flag the seasonal weighting to your broker, and again, think hard about the indemnity period — missing one festival is bad; being unable to reopen in time for the next one is worse.
Festival trading also generates its own liability picture: crowded premises, temporary structures, pop-ups and stalls, hired-in equipment, and short-term contracts with venues, landlords and organisers that almost always demand proof of public liability at a specified limit. And if you take on casual or temporary staff for the season — even for a fortnight, even friends helping out — employers’ liability applies to them just as it does to permanent employees.
Two things are worth stating plainly. If you employ anyone, employers’ liability insurance is required by law under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. Public liability, by contrast, is not a legal requirement — but in Edinburgh it is close to a practical one, because festival pitches, commercial leases and most trade contracts insist on it before you can operate.
Beyond that, the sensible core for most Edinburgh businesses is buildings or tenant’s improvements set at true reinstatement cost, contents and stock, business interruption with a seasonally honest sum insured and a realistic indemnity period, and — for professionals such as accountants, architects and consultants — professional indemnity. Contractors working on the city’s older stock should look closely at hot-works conditions, which bite hard in timber-floored tenements, and at contract works and tools cover.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is an independent broker based in Bristol, arranging commercial insurance for clients across the UK, including Edinburgh. We don’t claim a desk on your street — what we offer is a broker who will ask about the age and listing of your building, how your income actually falls across the year, and what your lease makes you responsible for, then place the risk with insurers who understand heritage property and seasonal trade. You can read more about our approach on our main business insurance page, or see our national pages for specific trades such as builders.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This article is general information, not advice on a specific policy.
