DAS UK Group wins Simply Business partnership

DAS UK Group, the UK’s leading specialist legal expenses insurer, has announced a partnership with Simply Business, one of the UK’s largest small business and landlord insurance providers.

DAS UK will provide Commercial Legal Expenses Insurance (LEI), Landlord LEI, and Landlord Home Emergency products for Simply Business’ 670,000 customers which comprise SMEs as well as residential and commercial landlords.

For the Commercial LEI product, DAS UK has developed a bespoke offering that provides its standard commercial legal expenses cover for issues such as employment disputes, compensation awards, legal defence, property protection, bodily injury, and tax protection. However, there will be a number of enhancements for Simply Business customers including:

• Inclusion of contract disputes and debt recovery as standard;
• Cover extended to volunteers and increased limits (eg crisis containment cover increased to £25,000);
• Access to Simply Businesslaw, an online resource featuring over 1,000 customisable legal documents, guides and business templates.

The Landlord LEI product, meanwhile, provides DAS UK’s standard landlord legal expenses cover for issues such as repossession of a property from tenants; property damage; eviction of squatters; rent recovery; rent arrears; and legal defence. Bespoke enhancements for Simply Business customers include:

• Increase in the number of rent payments covered to 12 per claim;
• Removal of the cap on the amount of rent covered per month;
• An increased reporting window for rent guarantee claims to 90 days, plus removal of the excess.
• Access to Simply Businesslaw, an online resource featuring over 1,000 customisable legal documents, guides and business templates.

The Commercial and Landlord Legal Expenses products will also be underpinned by DAS UK’s award-winning in-house Claims team which offers an outstanding end-to-end claims solution. Simply Business customers will also have free, unlimited access to DAS UK’s award-winning legal and tax advice helplines.

Finally, the Landlord Home Emergency product offers standard features such as emergency alterative accommodation for landlords and tenants; help with plumbing, drainage, vermin, energy supply and roof damage; as well as 24/7 ‘on the ground’ maintenance support from its home emergency provider CET. Enhancement for Simply Business customers include:

• Removal of restrictions on a boiler’s age;
• Increasing cover to allow for an unlimited number of emergency call-outs per year;
• Including a £250 “beyond economical repair” contribution if a landlord’s boiler cannot be repaired;
• A new dedicated white labelled claims portal which enables customers to schedule and track engineer appointments.

David Swigciski, Director of Client Services, DAS UK Group said: “This is another major win for us which clearly demonstrates our capacity for developing long term sustainable partnerships based on marketing-leading legal expenses insurance and home emergency products that are focussed on customer outcomes.

“It also demonstrates how we are able to offer business partners a range of services that really add value to their offering including digitised customer journeys; industry-leading marketing content and support; and a dedicated supply chain.

“As a company we will continue to focus closely on our business partners and their customers – be they corporate business partners, brokers, solicitors or policyholders – ensuring we clearly provide them all with the best possible outcomes.”

Julie Fisher, Chief Commercial Officer at Simply Business said:  “There’s never been a more challenging time to run a small business or rental property. At Simply Business, we’re constantly exploring ways to make sure the products we’re offering are the best fit for our customers – and that’s especially true now, as our customers’ insurance needs evolve rapidly.

“We’re proud to partner with DAS UK – experts in the legal expenses sector – to offer legal expenses cover and access to 24/7 emergency legal advice. This gives our customers peace of mind that should the worst happen, they can get legal advice as early as possible to deal with the problem and their properties and businesses are protected from the impact of legal costs.”