Fire and property
Fire insurance in India is the Standard Fire and Special Perils policy for larger risks and, since April 2021, three IRDAI standard products with mandated wordings: Bharat Griha Raksha for homes, Bharat Sookshma Udyam Suraksha for businesses with sums insured up to ₹5 crore, and Bharat Laghu Udyam Suraksha from ₹5 crore to ₹50 crore. Rating has been each insurer's own since 2007; occupancy, location and protection drive it.
Technical benchmark — a reference for judging the insurer's number, not a price · Updated 2026-09-05
A location schedule that stays a table, an occupancy that resolves to the right code, and standard-product quotes that are genuinely comparable.
What the RFQ captures
- Each risk location as a row: address, district and pincode, occupancy or nature of business, and the sum insured by head — building and plinth, plant and machinery, furniture and fittings, electronic equipment, plate glass, other contents, stock
- Which product the risk falls under: SFSP, or Sookshma (≤ ₹5 crore) or Laghu (₹5–50 crore) with their fixed wordings
- Basis of valuation — market value or reinstatement — and escalation; declaration or floater basis for fluctuating stock
- Add-ons and sections: earthquake, STFI, terrorism, burglary, and business interruption with its indemnity period
- Risk-assessment factors the underwriter credits: construction, age, fire protection, distance to the brigade
- Previous insurance details and claims history
What changes for the broker
A second warehouse breaks a single-location form. Bridge’s fire intake is a location table from the start, with row totals reconciled against the declared sums and the sum insured split by the heads an insurer’s form actually uses — building, plant, furniture, electronic equipment, plate glass, contents, stock. The client’s trade description is resolved onto an occupancy code, which is the join key for the base rate, flood and terrorism, and for which insurers will look at the risk at all.
Protection details are premium. Since detariffing every insurer sets its own rate and moves it on construction, age, fire protection and brigade distance; collecting those properly at intake is worth real money to the client, and it is the concrete reason for a longer form.
The standard products
Below ₹50 crore the wordings are mandated — Sookshma to ₹5 crore, Laghu to ₹50 crore — so quotes from different insurers are the same cover at different prices. That comparison is honest in a way a bespoke wording never is, and it is the clearest demonstration of what a broker platform adds. Above the threshold, SFSP with add-ons, and the comparison is on the wording as well as the price.
Questions
Does Bridge price fire?
No — India has been detariffed since 2007 and each insurer rates on its own basis. Bridge produces a technical reference for judging an insurer's number and, more usefully, a submission that carries every factor the underwriter will rate on.
Which standard product applies?
By total sum insured: Bharat Sookshma Udyam Suraksha up to ₹5 crore, Bharat Laghu Udyam Suraksha from ₹5 crore to ₹50 crore, and the Standard Fire and Special Perils policy above that. Bridge routes the risk to the right one from the schedule.
Can it read a gate photograph?
Gate photographs are standard for Indian property risks. The document layer reads what it can — signage, construction, visible protection — and proposes; you confirm.