Commercial Property Insurance in Texas

What is commercial property insurance?

Purchasing business property requires a substantial investment, regardless of the purchase type or size. That investment should be protected. One way businesses in Texas can help protect their property is by purchasing commercial property insurance.

Commercial property insurance encompasses various commercial insurance policies that help protect physical assets. Policies may offer coverage for many different assets kept at a business’ location.

What businesses in Texas is business property insurance for?

Many Texas businesses should have business property insurance, as many businesses own substantial assets. Coverage is generally available for buildings, equipment, supplies, tools, inventory and more.

Sometimes businesses are required to purchase insurance for certain assets, most commonly buildings and equipment. When businesses finance or lease assets, lenders often stipulate that coverage is in place to protect the lender’s financial stake in the financed asset.

What types of coverage are available through business property insurance policies?

Business property insurance policies each dictate exactly what they do and don’t cover. It’s not uncommon for businesses to get several policies in order to insure different assets.

In broad terms, most business property policies fall into one of three main coverage categories:

How are business property and inland marine insurance policies different?

Both business property and inland marine insurance policies can include coverage for equipment (most common), inventory, tools and supplies. The two coverages differ in where they provide protection.

Business property policies often limit their protection to only when the insured items are at a business’s facility. Protection frequently doesn’t extend when items are taken beyond a business’ premises (e.g. to a worksite, customer location, or between business locations).

Inland marine policies often help fill this coverage gap. Inland marine normally provides protection when the items are being moved between locations, whether those are business’ owned, customer or other locations.

Builders’ risk coverage is a third protection that’s sometimes needed to protect equipment, supplies and tools. This coverage normally provides protection when items are at a worksite, which both business property and inland marine typically exclude.

An insurance agent who’s knowledgeable about business property policies will be well-versed in these others, too. They can help businesses ensure all of their assets are properly protected during different times/places.

Should owners of home businesses purchase a commercial property policy?

Entrepreneurs who have home businesses usually don’t need a full-fledged business property policy, although there are certain situations where a commercial policy should be purchased.

Entrepreneurs who don’t have significant business assets, such as a writer who only has a computer and mouse, might not need to worry about insuring their work equipment. In other cases, enough business property coverage might be available as an optional feature through a homeowners insurance policy.

If coverage for business assets is needed, and not available through a homeowners policy, then a business property policy might indeed be necessary. This is something that a knowledgeable insurance agent can assist with.