Business Liability Insurance vs. Commercial Property Insurance

Business Liability Insurance vs. Commercial Property Insurance. If you are new to the commercial insurance, your endless coverage options might seem more like a curse than a blessing. This is because you may never know which policy you need as well as the different types of coverage.

As a matter of fact, your insurance agent can help understand the different types of policies, but if you need a base level of understanding of business insurance policies, this article will help you understand the difference between the two.

Does your commercial property insurance or does your liability policy cover it? Read on to find out as we explore the differences and similarities between business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance.

Business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance - learn which policy covers what and if you need one or both for your business.

Commercial Property Insurance

Business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance: Business property insurance is straightforward as it sounds that is, it covers physical items. You have physical property equipment and tools you can count on to do your work, items which are valuable, or items you like having around. When such property is stolen or damaged, commercial property Insurance is meant to help you repair or replace it so that you can get back to your work the soonest time possible.

In your personal life, you might have experience with this type of coverage. Personal auto insurance and homeowner's insurance helps you pay for damages to your car or home. However, business property policies are the same. They can cover physical items a business owns including the computer equipment, supplies & inventory and office building/space. For example, if there is a fire break out in your office and destroys hundreds of dollars of equipment, you can make a claim on the property Insurance policy, and it will likely provide money to replace the damaged equipment/ tools as well as repair the fire damage. Also, if a burglar breaks into your office and steals computer monitors, your property policy can be used to fix the broken window as well as purchase replacement computers.

Business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance: business property is meant to protect physical assets that your business possesses. Besides, you may need other insurance policies such as the workers compensation insurance, umbrella liability insurance plus Errors and omissions insurance.

Business Liability Insurance

Business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance:: Although Liability insurance covers financial consequences, it is much harder to explain as well as broader in scope compared to Property Insurance. Briefly, liability insurance is meant to cover a person for the financial consequences of his /her actions or lack of action. In most cases, such effects may take the form of monetary damages.

For instance, you fail to deliver an operating mobile application to a client. Because you breached the contract in which you promised the app, the customer claims you are liable for compensating him/her. If you have a liability insurance, it can help pay for those monetary damages thus preventing you from having to Auction your assets or going after your savings.

Business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance: Liability can come in different forms, though, and there are many insurance policies that a business will need so as to cover its liability exposure(s). Common types of liability include:

Premises Liability - If you do business in a given premise, you are responsible for providing a reasonably safe area for visitors to such location. If a person is injured on your premises, you can be held accountable for their medical costs.
Personal & Advertising Injury - If you harm people reputation with provoking comments or accidentally infringe on their right, you can be accountable for compensating them. The General Liability Insurance addresses this.
Professional Liability - As a professional in your area of work, you have the duty to provide standards of service plus care to your customers. Failure to do so, you could be liable for them.
Cyber Liability - If you store sensitive information concerning your clients or customers and that information is stolen in the data breach; you could be liable to those whose info was stolen for not providing enough cyber security. Cyber liability insurance addresses this form of liability.
Workers Compensation - As an employer, you are liable for providing safe work space for your workers. This type of liability is addressed by workers compensation insurance for physical injuries as well as employment practices liability insurance for cases of alleged harassment and discrimination.
Commercial Auto Liability - Business auto liability insurance helps cover the financial responsibility if you or an employee is at fault in an accident and people are injured or their property is damaged.

Business Property Versus Commercial Liability

Business liability insurance vs. commercial property insurance: In most cases, a liability claim is directly paid out by an insurance policy. Other times, when you do not think you are at fault, for example, you may be sued in the claim. However, the good news is that many liability policies provide coverage for the costs of such lawsuits as long as it is over a covered event.

Business Liability Insurance vs. Commercial Property Insurance (What's The Difference?)