Timber industry insurance starts with the actual business

Map the roles, including overlapping ones

Record who owns the land, standing timber, machinery and stock at each stage. One company may own woodland, buy standing timber and carry out harvesting. A broad business label may not describe all these roles adequately.

Include secondary activities, work on other people’s sites and subcontracting in the insurance enquiry. France Assureurs explains why declared activities matter for liability cover. Ask the insurer to confirm how the actual operations described in your dossier are reflected in its proposal.

Allocate the questions to the right activity

This is a discussion checklist, not a statement that every policy automatically includes these protections. Confirm the insured entity and each relevant location.

Woodland liability and tree losses are separate

Liability insurance addresses harm to third parties within the policy terms. It does not mean your own trees will be paid for after a fire or storm. The CNPF forest insurance guide distinguishes liability from property damage.

Ask how each French woodland parcel is identified, which values are used and whether associated costs are included. If you undertake work yourself, describe it. The answer needs to address those operations as well as ownership. Keep written confirmation with the parcel schedule and update the discussion when your activities change.

For a mill, examine downtime as well as machine value

Replacing a component does not always restore production immediately. Work with suppliers to sketch a realistic sequence: assessment, ordering, delivery, installation, commissioning and recovery of normal output. Identify stages that cannot happen at the same time. This creates a useful basis for discussing the length of interruption cover.

In the standard cover described by France Assureurs on business interruption, interruption must follow insured physical damage. Confirm the trigger, indemnity period, deductible and calculation basis. A fall in customer orders alone is not that situation.

Test the handovers between policies

Consider a hypothetical timber flow: standing trees are purchased, a contractor harvests them, logs are held at a third-party yard and a haulier takes them to a mill. At each stage, record the owner, custodian, location and policy expected to respond. Send uncertain cells to the insurer.

The France Assureurs business risk checklist separates equipment, transport and liability exposures. Use it as a starting point, then seek confirmation for your actual operations. A partner’s insurance certificate does not describe the protection provided by your own policy.

Prepare evidence instead of relying on a generic premium

Assemble an activity description, site list, turnover split, equipment schedule, stock values and seasonal changes, prevention measures and claims information requested by the insurer. Add relevant hire and subcontracting agreements. Use the same dossier for every enquiry.

For a critical machine, document replacement options and temporary production alternatives. These practical details make the discussion more specific. An advertised price for another business cannot establish your premium. The aim is to obtain proposals based on the same description of your operation, then identify where their assumptions or coverage differ.

Compare offers against concrete scenarios

Choose two plausible loss scenarios and ask how each offer would respond. For example, stock damaged by fire and a critical production line stopping after an insured event. Compare covered activities and assets, limits, deductibles, waiting periods, exclusions and prevention requirements. Record the answers before focusing on the annual premium.

An indicative woodland assessment can inform your asset review. It is neither an insurance certificate nor a valuation automatically accepted by an insurer. Insured amounts and valuation bases need to be agreed in the insurance documentation, alongside the activities they relate to.