Commercial Property Insurance

A. Insurance on real property: Office buildings, factories, and warehouses

1. Additions are covered
2. Fixtures, including outdoor fixtures
3. Permanently installed machinery and equipment
4. Personal property used to maintain the premises
5. Outdoor furniture and floor covering

B. Insurance on personal property:
Furniture fixtures, machinery, and inventory

1. Stock stored or offered for sale, raw materials, manufactured items, supplies used for packaging
2. Leased property that the business has a contractual responsibility to insure, and
3. for a tenant, the improvements that are part of the building.

C. Some of the items not covered (which will require a different policy) include:

1. money, accounts, food stamps, notes, securities
2. animals, unless they are for sale or boarded
3. autos for sale
4. bridges, roads, walks, patios
5. contraband (property illegally transported)
6. cost of excavation
7. foundations of buildings
8. land, water, crops, and lawns
9. personal property transported by air or water
10. bulkheads, pilings, piers
11. underground pipes, flues, and drains
12. vehicles licensed for use on the roads, and
13. antennas.

D. What is the above property protected against?  It may not be protected against all perils.  It is important to ask!

1. Under the basic form the following causes of loss are covered (though keep in mind there are limits on some of the coverage):
   1. fire
   2. lightning
   3. explosion
   4. windstorm or hail
   5. smoke
   6. aircraft and vehicles damaging your property
   7. riot or civil commotion
   8. vandalism
   9. sprinkler damage
   10. sinkhole, and
   11. volcanic action.
2. What perils are excluded?
   1. earth movements
   2. nuclear hazard
   3. failure of power not at the premises
   4. war
   5. water
   6. rupture of pipes (other than sprinklers)
   7. explosions of steam boilers, pipes, engines, or turbines, and
   8. mechanical breakdown.

E. You can buy additional coverage, or “Broad Form,” which covers additional perils:

1. Falling objects
2. Weight of snow, ice or sleet
3. Water damage caused by breaking of a water or steam system.

F. If you are concerned about mold or collapse, then additional coverage for that is available.

G. The final option regarding perils is to select the form that covers all perils, except those specifically excluded.  This type of insurance is called “Open Peril” and is the broadest.