Leasing a very small village pub

I work in the insurance industry and have done for more than 10 years. In that time I have underwritten and broked many pubs. My experience is not some anecdotal press related guff. Pubs in general are a massive risk from a liability perspective. There is a reason why virtually none of the big players in the Irish insurance market would touch them pre-covid.

Its surprising that you work in the insurance industry and did not know that covid risks are now excluded and business interruption insurance can be excluded. It is also limited to a specific figure.

Also surprised that you do not know that FBD are one of the main players in the pub insurance market - you can't get more Irish than that, but most business insurance is done by specialist insurers who don't spend millions advertising their name on TV and Radio or have retail sales operations here. If you are in the insurance industry, you'd know that too.

for the op, here's a good vfi guide

https://vfipubs.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/VFI-Pub-Guide-2.pdf

Id suggest before you comment on my posts that you read them all, instead of trying to be a know it all that clearly does not, know it all.

😉

Good luck with it anyway mate. Its unfortunate that the market is so fecked at the moment. Small pubs are the lifeblood of many communities so to see so many closed is quite sad.

I'm certainly not overly knowledgeable on insurance, though I have been purchasing multi unit retail and cafe business insurance for over 30 years and just 2 small burglary claims, so I'd have good knowledge from a business perspective.

I simply pointed out the very glaring deficiencies in your post that gave incorrect information.

The OP can call a specialist broker and get a good idea in minutes of the cost, or ask the current operator how much insurance is. I'll guess it will be well under €2,000 for a small quiet rural pub that will not have a late license.

your prospective landlord is getting on.

i am sure he is the most honorable person in the world but his word it his promise to give you first refusal is basically worthless.

if he dies or has a serious accident (which will happen sooner or later, assuming you are successful) someone else will be in charge and your gentleman’s agreement will be forgotten.

if you are successful he will no longer have any compelling reason to give you a first refusal

you need this first refusal on writing from Day One. There is a strong case to be made that you should have an option to buy the pub for some agreed fixed price too. You need a solicitor for this and there will be legal costs, for the lease and for transferring and maintaining the licence. You will probably have to pay your landlord’s legal costs too

if you can’t get the right legal advice and drafting at day one I would advise you to just forget about it. You would be taking all the risk and doing all the hard work and someone else would be getting the benefit of all the upside.

You are not a barman or a bar manager anymore. You are not this guy’s friend nor is he your friend. You are now a business person, wholly responsible for yourself and your business. You have to make hard decisions as you plan for your and your family’s future.

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity. For a business to survive and grow, it needs profit.

Just back from the holidays in East Clare. Remote is a word that came to mind many times. Village after village with pubs (and shops) for sale/boarded up. The local village to us had one pub still open and they did food. A great variety of food - to eat in or take away. The phone didn't stop ringing whenever we were there.

OP, you'll have no trouble finding a reasonable insurance premium on your standard rural pub. The problems only start coming with live music (excluding a lad in the corner playing guitar etc), dancing, functions and late licence. Your landlord will insure the structure and his contents, you only need to cover your property, stock and liabilities related to your activities.

The Covid related claims for business interruption are not an issue, cover is now excluded. The insurers who paid out might not be as competitive as they were as they need to recoup losses, but they're still quoting

I should qualify that by saying that a lot depends on the construction of the premises. If it's very old, thatched, or felt roof etc, it doesn't just add to the premium, it might affect you getting cover at all

Very interested on hearing how this paned out, i am looking at doing something similar in my local but everyone i meet is advising against it, which makes me want to do it even more 😀 Interested any info that might be of any good mistakes made pros and cons thanks in advance