Insurance is often considered as a grudge purchase, but it becomes an absolute lifesaver when you need it the most, right? Gambling to forego insurance cover especially commercial property insurance is a huge risk most property owners won’t take. The unpredictability of life simply doesn’t allow you to operate your business without proper insurance coverage.
Commercial properties insurance becomes a necessity if you’re serious about your business. Without it, you run the risk of losing everything if disaster strikes. Property owners in particular have so many blind spots since they’re dealing with a range of eventualities. Planning and protecting your business against loss of income or damage to your property is a smart move.
Let’s give you some perspective.
Your Assets are Protected
Being a property owner isn’t an easy job. You need to mitigate all sorts of risks to protect your business and assets. You also have to consider the livelihoods of your employees if anything destructive happens to your business and you can’t recover from losses.
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re operating in, losses and accidents can happen anywhere. It’s simply the nature of life. Taking out comprehensive insurance on your property and other assets isn’t only necessary for legal reasons but essential for your business longevity.
The Different Types of Commercial Insurance
There are different risks attached to different types of businesses, but the main purpose of any insurance remains the same throughout, which is to protect businesses against possible losses. Let’s look at some of the common types of commercial insurance:
- Commercial Property: Owners of commercial properties such as high-rise office blocks, shopping malls or restaurants are susceptible to many risks. Risks such as fires, flooding or any physical damage to your property can ruin your investment. Commercial property insurance protects you against such losses. Depending on the policy you select, you can also get additional coverage for the contents of your property as well as cover against theft.
- General Liability: This type of insurance covers your business against legal ramifications in the event of injuries that occurred in the line of duty. Any bodily harm caused while working and being on the business premises will be covered by submitting a general liability claim to your insurer. It also covers any damage to the property while being operational.
- Cyber Liability: We live in the digital age now, so protection against online activities has become a necessity. This type of insurance safeguards your business against possible property losses while collecting sensitive information from your clients. Cyber fraud and scams keep increasing daily so you can’t be too careful when dealing with financial data online.
- Business Interruption Insurance: If a natural disaster hits, would you be able to confidently say that your business will be covered for any loss of income? Business interruption insurance covers you against loss of income due to a disaster and any profits lost. Most businesses can’t operate during a disaster or even during the rebuilding process afterwards. Take the Covid-19 pandemic for instance, where most businesses were negatively affected because of the hard lockdowns in several countries. This insurance helps your business get back on track after a disaster hits.
More than Only Property Cover
Commercial property insurance doesn’t only cover the brick-and-mortar side of your property but the content of that premises. Depending on the policy you opt for you can get cover on important items.
But what exactly does commercial property insurance cover? Let’s take a look:
- It covers your property as well as all the contents in the building such as fixtures, signage and fittings
- Protection against loss of rent if you’re leasing out your property
- Cover on electronic equipment such as computers, printers, scanners and office furniture and important records
- It offers cover against any physical damages such as vandalism, water damage caused by storms, fires, explosions, burst pipes and theft
- You can get cover for any traumatic event that caused a loss of income and was beyond your control
- Power outages can also be covered under commercial property insurance, but you have to specify it in the policy
- Earthquakes and flooding are additional items that could be included in your cover, but they don’t come standard on most commercial property insurance
Final Thoughts
No matter what way you look at it, you simply can’t get away with skimping on commercial property insurance if you’re a property owner. Also, be careful not to fall into the trap of shifting this responsibility onto your tenants because they don’t have the same interest in your property as you do.
Tenants will take out the minimum coverage just to comply with the lease agreement and leave you at risk if something major happens to your property. It’s important to use reputable commercial insurance brokers that can negotiate the best deal for you. They’re experts at assessing all the risks and making sure you get the right cover for your investment.
Give a commercial insurance broker a call today so you can enjoy peace of mind knowing your commercial property is covered for any eventuality.