While Commercial General Liability insurance provides coverage for law suits against negligent acts, Commercial Property insurance provides coverage for a business’ buildings and/or contents. The majority of Commercial Property insurance policies, or Business policies, include extra coverage which was designed to fill in exclusions under the base wording. These include items such as:
- Endorsements – changes directly on the property policy
- Following Form Policies – separate policies that have the same exclusions as the base property policies
- Stand-Alone Policies – policies that have their own separate wording
Some of the most common Endorsements include:
- Sewer Backup
- Earthquake and Flood
- Debris Removal – provides a separate limit as opposed to taking away coverage from the available rebuild limit
- Vacancy Permit
- Installation Floater – removes the exclusion for damage to equipment or stock while it is actually being worked on
- Paving – removes the exclusion to walkways and parking lots
- Power Interruption – removes the exclusion to loss due to power outage
- By-laws
- Mold
- Pollution
- Terrorism (limited and expensive)
Some of the most common types of Following Form Policies include:
- Business Interruption
- Valuable Papers – cost to recreate expensive documents
- Accounts Receivable – cost to recreate your general ledger
Some of the most common types of Stand-Alone Policies include:
- Auto
- Aviation
- Marine
- Salesman Floater – removes the contents outside of premises exclusion
- Exhibition Floater – removes the contents outside of premises exclusion
- Sign Floater – removes the exclusion for exterior signs
- TV Floater – removes the exclusion for antennae, satellites, and communication towers
- Boiler & Machinery – equipment breakdown coverage, removing the exclusion for the breakdown of anything under pressure, refrigeration systems, and electrical systems from arching
- Glass Floater – removes the exclusion for exterior glass
- Crop
- Mortality – coverage for livestock
- Crime – includes theft by employees
- Fine Arts Floater
- Marine Cargo
- Outbreak – removes the exclusion for contamination
- Cyber Crime
- War (limited)
- Nuclear
- Contractor’s Equipment – removes the on-premises exclusion
- Tool Floater – removes the on-premises exclusion
Commercial Property insurance policies can be issued as a “package”, which is usually less expensive. The policy is pre-made for what the Insurance Company thinks a specific type of business will need. However, within the packaged policy, the limits on some types of coverage may be insufficient and other types of coverage may not actually be needed.
Commercial Property insurance policies can also be individually tailored to a customer. These types of policies take more time to quote and are generally more expensive than a pre-designed package. However, the coverage is what is actually needed by the specific business.
For more information on Commercial Property insurance, or if you would like to obtain a quote for your business, please contact our Office and we would be happy to assist you!
Thank you,
The Costen & Associates Team
