COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY

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• Property Insurance – Protection for your building or office space and property owned by your business, such as equipment and inventory.
• Liability Insurance – Coverage for costs that arise if someone is injured at your business or by using your products or services.
• Business Interruption Insurance – Also known as Business Income insurance, this coverage replaces lost revenues if your business has to shut down due to fire, wind damage, or other covered losses.

BOP typically does not include:

• Commercial auto insurance.
• Workers’ compensation.
• Health or disability insurance.
• Liability insurance for claims of wrongful professional practices.

While commercial vehicle insurance has some similarities to your personal auto policy, there are essential differences in coverage, exclusions, definitions, limits, and eligibility. Written and rated differently, commercial car insurance is needed for specific situations and vehicle types. Whether transporting goods or people for a fee, using your vehicle to conduct a service, or employees operating a car, you may need a commercial auto policy.

• Bodily injury liability coverage – pays for bodily injury or death resulting from an accident for which you are at fault and, in most cases, provides you with a legal defense.

• Property damage liability coverage – provides you with protection if your vehicle accidentally damages another person’s property and, in most cases, provides you with a legal defense.

• Combined single limit (CSL) – Liability policies typically offer separate limits that apply to bodily injury claims for property damage. A combined single limits policy has the same dollar amount of coverage per covered occurrence, whether bodily injury or property damage, one person or several.

• Medical payments, no-fault, or personal injury coverage – usually pays for the medical expenses of the driver and passengers in your vehicle incurred due to a covered accident regardless of fault.

• Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage – pays for your injuries and certain property damage caused by an uninsured, underinsured, or hit-and-run driver.

• Collision coverage – pays for damage to your vehicle when it hits or is hit by another vehicle.

• Comprehensive physical damage coverage – pays for damage to your vehicle from theft, vandalism, flood, fire, and other covered perils.

Workers’ Compensations Insurance can help businesses cover medical costs and related expenses like lost wages when an employee is injured on the job. Often, this coverage is required by law.

In addition, state laws usually require employers to have Workers’ Compensation Insurance to cover any liability they might have for causing or failing to prevent the injury or illness. When an employee is injured or made sick at work, Workers’ Comp benefits may be able to pay for:

• Their medical costs
• Partial lost wages
• Ongoing care and rehabilitation
• Funeral expenses
• Death benefits

Workers’ Compensation benefits can cover a range of work-related injuries, including repetitive stress injuries, broken bones, back injuries, falls, allergic reactions, etc.

Whether you are the owner of an apartment building bigger than four families, a mixed-use building consisting of an apartment and commercial space or an office building, you will need the Commercial Property Policy. Covering the exposures of an apartment house is not much different than covering a warehouse. The main differences in coverage would generally be contingent on the tenants occupying the premises and their operations. Typical commercial building policy consists of a few parts:

Building Coverage: covers the costs of replacing the property in case a fire or hurricane completely destroys it, including the expense the demolishing any remnants, clean-up and excavation costs, and soft costs such as permit filings and architectural fees.

Personal Property. Certain equipment used to maintain or repair the building property, like lawn mowers, ladders, and other tools, can often be categorized as business personal property. The business personal property or contents coverage usually protects the equipment used to heat, cool, and protect, such as fixed mounted air conditioners, alarms, video surveillance, intercom systems, furniture, and decorations in the common areas.

Loss of Rental Income covers an Actual Sustained Loss basis for one year – coverage will be afforded to replace the loss of rent for one year or less.

Other Structures are separate buildings or structures located on the property but not connected to the described premises. Tool sheds, garages, swimming pools, cabanas, and gazebos can be considered as other structures.

Commercial Liability provides coverage to a named insured for property damage or bodily injury to a third party in the event of a covered loss. Coverage under the general liability section includes:

• Bodily injury due to trips and falls
• Products and completed operations provide coverage for injury caused by a faulty product or faulty installation
• Operations liability affords coverage for injuries to the third party or property in the course of conducting the operations of the business
• Personal and advertising injury coverage provides protections for injury to the persona, including libel and slander, defamation of character, false arrest, copyright and trademark infringement, harassment, discrimination, mental anguish, etc.

Workers Compensation covers employees hired and under the control and direction of the landlord.

Builder's Risk insurance, also called "course of construction" insurance is a type of property coverage for buildings under construction and all of the materials and equipment used in the project.

The coverage can be essential if you are working with materials that are prone to damage or if you are working in an area that is prone to certain types of severe weather. It is also important coverage that protects your investment from unforeseen risks.

Your Builder's Risk insurance policy can be structured to cover the following:

• Property damage: Includes construction material, heavy machinery, and equipment, temporary structures, cribbing, false work, fencing, scaffolding, construction signs, and landscaping

• Theft: Some builders' risk insurance policies will cover theft of building materials; to get this coverage, you may need to have a gated job site

• Labor costs and earned profits: Replaces labor costs, income, and expenses

• Perils of nature and man-made disasters: Hurricanes, fires, blizzards, severe hail storms, lightning, blackouts, broken water mains

• Other damages: Negligent workmanship, flawed materials or design

• Builder's Risk policy does not cover accidents and injuries at the workplace.

A business may be subjected to a professional liability lawsuit. These suits may claim that you’ve been negligent or made an error or omission while performing your services. Liability damages may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Also known as Errors and Omissions Insurance, Professional Liability Insurance is coverage that can help offer aid when a client or customer claims that your business:

• Failed to provide promised services
• Was negligent in rendering its professional services
• Provided shoddy, incomplete, or incorrect work
• Made mistakes or oversights

Without the coverage that Professional Liability Insurance provides, a lawsuit over your professional work could be a catastrophic blow to your business.