Home worker insurance

Buying commercial property insurance might seem like a costly undertaking for small businesses that want to save operational costs and grow. However, the insurance is precisely what you need as a small business owner because of the different types of coverage it offers. Thus, you need to understand the different types of coverage under commercial property insurance before buying a policy. This article highlights the basic types of coverage to expect from an insurance company.

Business Personal Property Cover

When you buy a business personal property cover (BPP), everything housed in your business premises is covered by the policy except the building itself. For instance, if you run a restaurant, BPP insurance covers kitchen appliances, furniture, cabinets, countertops, flooring, utensils and everything inside the premises. Fundamentally, BPP insurance covers everything that falls out of a building should you tilt it. Thus, it means you can protect business equipment against damage by fire, flooding or vandalism. Additionally, you can include theft of business assets in the insurance cover, particularly if the location of your establishment experiences a lot of burglaries.

Building Coverage

As mentioned earlier, BPP insurance covers everything within a business facility but for the building itself. However, you can insure business premises separately by buying a building insurance cover. Simply put, building insurance is the opposite of BPP since it takes care of business premises, not the items inside. Unfortunately, small-scale business owners often do not understand the difference and think that building insurance covers premises and the equipment inside. For instance, if you own a boutique and an electric pole falls on the roof and causes damage to a few pieces of equipment inside, building insurance will only pay for repairs to the building. If you do not have a BPP cover, you have to repair or replace the appliances out of pocket. That said, you should only buy building insurance if you own a building. Otherwise, you should skip it if you are leasing or renting.

Business Income Coverage

This commercial property insurance is also referred to as business interruption cover. It is designed to cover lost income caused by temporary but prolonged business shutdowns. For instance, if a fire razes your restaurant and a safety inspector recommends that you shut down at least until repairs are completed, you would lose income during the period. Business income insurance pays you the income you would have received during the shutdown, clears utilities and payroll and covers the cost of transporting new equipment to the facility. However, you must remember that business income insurance only covers loss of income resulting from a covered event. Therefore, you must read a policy carefully to know the exclusions.