Property Damage Liability Insurance in Business Coverage

There’s a chance that you might cause harm to someone else while trying to provide your business services. Sometimes, the problem you cause involves property damage. Because the damage might be your fault, you therefore might have to repay that other party for their losses. The appropriate property damage liability insurance policy will help you in this regard. However, always make sure that your policy applies specifically to the risks you might cause in your line of work. Here’s a little more information to help you choose your policy.

What’s a Property Damage Liability?

Liabilities are the responsibility you have to something else happening. To insurers, a liability represents the chances that you will do harm to someone else. This means that, if you cause harm to someone else, you might have to repay them. In other words, your insurance might have to pay them on your behalf.

A commercial liability insurance policy can help you pay for another party’s (like a client, vendor or other person) losses when you have to do so. Therefore, you’ll be able to avoid paying for these losses out of your own pockets. You can furthermore use coverage to pay your own legal fees, should a disgruntled customer decide to sue you for the damage you caused.

Among the liability policies offered for many businesses is property damage liability insurance. This coverage will apply when you make mistakes that damage someone else’s property or belongings.

This coverage is important for business owners because they might handle or come into contact with someone else’s belongings any day of the week. You might not intend to cause damage to those assets. However, sometimes, simple mistakes might lead to damage. Still, even if the accident was a mistake, it could still cost someone a lot of money. That’s why you need to have this resource available. It will help you avoid your own financial challenges in case you do have to repay someone.

Where can I get coverage?

In many cases, you get property damage liability coverage through a commercial general liability insurance policy, also called a CGL policy.

Small business owners might be able to obtain their CGL protection through what’s called a BOP, short for a Business Owners Policy. BOPs usually contain many of the most-essential types of coverage that small operations need, including property damage liability policies. The BOP will contain terms and limits that favorably apply to the small business that wants to keep cost and policy cohesion under control.

All the same, not all businesses qualify for BOPs because of factors like their size, revenue, and industry risks. Still, you need liability policies even if you can’t get coverage through a BOP. You might have to buy your property damage liability coverage through either a stand-alone policy, or through a commercial policy package, or CPP. CPPs allow businesses to combine various policies into one package, similar to BOPs. However, they’re more useful to larger businesses that need customized coverage.

What Will My Policy Cover?

You probably realize that your policy is supposed to help you pay in case you do damage to someone else’s property. However, that’s a broad definition. You might wonder exactly what types of customer belongings might sustain damage. Some of these might include:

• Property you damage while trying to fix or service it.
• Property in your care that awaits service or is waiting to be picked up by a client.
• Damage to someone’s home, business or other belongings when visiting their property.

Keep in mind, however, that to cover a wider range of property damage liabilities, you might need additional policies and endorsements. Here are a couple of examples:

• Property damage might be caused by an item you made and sold to a client. You might need a special product liability endorsement to cover this loss.
• Or, perhaps, problems will arise from project you previously completed for a client, which subsequently harms them or damages their property. In this case, you might need a slightly different products-completed liability endorsement for the damage.

The interesting thing about a commercial general liability policy is that it can often cover you for property damage that you cause both while on and off your business premises. Therefore, whether you work exclusively from an office, or make house calls, you’ll have a policy available.

Still, even with wide-ranging policy specifications, your policy likely won’t cover every type of loss. For example:

• Intentional property damage acts, like vandalism, that you or one of your employees might cause will usually not have coverage.
• If you cause a wreck while driving a company car, it is commercial auto liability insurance, not general liability coverage, that will pay for the other driver’s property damage.
• If claims exceed the limits of your property damage liability policy, then you might not have coverage for the excess costs.

Talk to your insurance agent about any questions you have regarding your El Paso property damage liability insurance. Our expert team can make sure you know when your policy will and will not cover you. We can also make extensions and increase the limits of your policy so that they will offer comprehensive protection at all times.

Getting older often merits a few special considerations for anyone. It doesn’t mean you need to become home-bound or isolated. However, you might need to take a few extra precautions to make your home safer to occupy. On one hand, you might install additional security mechanisms; on the other, you might need to make structural improvements to the home to adapt it to your needs. In many ways, these are positive changes that can make you feel secure at home for years to come. However, they will still have insurance risks attached. Here’s a little more information to consider.

At times, as you adapt to aging at home, you might need to take a closer look at your homeowners insurance. For example, you might need to increase portions of your coverage, including your liability and possessions insurance.

Understanding Aging in Place

America’s baby boomer generation is generally classified as people who were born from 1946 to 1964. This is one of the largest age generations in America, and they represent up to 75 million Americans. Therefore, the U.S. today faces an aging society at a faster rate than ever before.

In 2019, the youngest of this generation will turn 55 years old. The oldest are almost 73 years old. All of this generation is now of an age where they might need to start thinking about their long-term security as they continue to age in their homes. This is a phenomenon that many experts call aging in place.

Aging in place has its benefits. You can remain in your home throughout the years. However, this means being able to adapt your surroundings to suit your needs.

It is no secret that aging reduces your physical and mental wellness. It doesn’t happen drastically, and the effects of age might be relatively unapparent to you. However, no matter how far-fetched getting older might seem to you, it still will happen. If you aren’t careful, you might put yourself in harm’s way.

For example, your front porch’s steps might have no handrail. Therefore, if you begin to have trouble walking, you might begin to face a fall risk. At one time you might have thought nothing of going in and out of the house. However, given these new limitations, you might now see a problem getting around.

Scenarios like this one often can benefit from some special consideration. You might decide that it is time to install a ramp in place of steps, or to simply put a railing on each side of them. This consideration is how you can plan to age in place. As you begin to notice the effects of age, you can take steps to mitigate those. Therefore, you’ll better protect yourself, and can enjoy your home well into the future.

Adjusting Your Insurance At this Time

As you make aging in place a priority, this will lead to household changes. For example, you might:

• Make household renovations, such as by leveling surfaces, widening doors or installing rails.
• Install special equipment in the home, such as chair lifts or ramps.
• Place security systems around the home.
• Purchase special belongings like therapy pools or medical equipment.

These changes are supposed to benefit you, which they often will. However, they also impact your home in ways that may extend an impact to your homeowners insurance.

First, these changes might impact the value of the home. Therefore, you might need to make changes to the policy’s structure coverage or possessions insurance.

For example, if you spend a lot of money installing new stair banisters or a wheelchair ramp, this will cost money. It will also be a cost loss in case accidents occur. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure your policy will provide you with enough compensation to repair these belongings in case of damage. At times, you might also need to note on your policy that you own a specialty item, like a wheelchair lift, to ensure that your policy will extend to them.

Not only that, you might also need to adjust your liability insurance. Sometimes, home additions, such as therapy pools, might become higher liability risks to your property. There’s a chance someone might fall in and get hurt, for example. Therefore, you might need to increase your liability limits in order to adapt coverage.

Keep in mind, certain household additions, such as medical alert or home security systems might qualify you for a policy discount. They increase your security in the home, and therefore might reduce your insurance risks, leading to a reduced premium. You shouldn’t hesitate to tell your agent when you install these items.

All in all, any time you make a household change, contact one of our agents. We’re more than happy to help you learn more about what changes your policy might need as you prepare to age in place. With a careful attention to detail, you’ll be able to feel safe at home well into the future.