Finding Commercial Insurance

While the general language of a Business Owners Policy on the surface seems to be fairly inclusive, it pays to read the fine print, especially the exclusions. There you will often find, to your surprise, that some things you assumed were covered, actually were not. If these happen to be important to the operation and life of your business, it will be necessary for you to obtain additional coverage to protect yourself. Some of the common exclusions which could have a serious impact on a business are listed below according to the kind of insurance coverage necessary to include them under your commercial insurance.

Commercial fleet insurance is very often not included in BOP’s and requires a separate policy. Obviously vehicles are expensive items and damage to them or total loss of them could seriously impact the conduct of business, particularly if they were integral to the conduct of day to day business operations, as would be with the case if a florist business, for instance, experienced damage to or loss of its delivery vans. Liability insurance with respect to business owned cars and trucks also would not ordinarily be included in a BOP, so commercial van insurance, in this case, should be considered. An accident involving serious damage to another vehicle or vehicles, and perhaps personal injury as well, could result in an enormous liability to a business and should be covered by additional commercial auto insurance insurance.

Often designated as “equipment breakdown” or “mechanical breakdown coverage,” boiler and machinery insurance is normally not included in a BOP. This category of commercial insurance covers the accidental breakdown of boilers, machinery, and equipment, and will reimburse the business for property damage and revenue foregone due to business interruption as a result of the property damage. As an example, this type of commercial business insurance would cover fire damage to such critical assets as office equipment, computers, bulldozers or steam cleaning equipment.

If you live in an area subject to severe weather such as hurricanes, tornadoes or floods, you may want to obtain debris removal insurance as a separate policy or rider to your BOP. Debris removal insurance covers the cost of removing debris after a storm, tornado, fire, flood and so forth. Before construction on a demolished building could begin, storm and damage debris would have to be removed. The typical BOP does not provide for this coverage and it could be quite expensive if the debris is widespread and extensive. If, for example, a hurricane damaged your business premises to the point it had to be rebuilt, before you can start rebuilding, the remains of the old building and storm debris would have to be removed. Property insurance will cover the costs of rebuilding the actual building, but not the cost of removing the debris.

These are only a few of the important risk areas normally not included in a Business Owners Policy. Many more exist, depending on the particular business and its normal operations. The best way to discover your risk exposure exclusive of your BOP is to study your policy carefully, read the fine print thoroughly and have your agent discuss with you the options available. When it comes to commercial insurance, an ounce of foresight is worth its weight in gold.