Commercial Property Insurance

We can put commercial property insurance in place for vacant properties, we just need to provide some further information to the insurers and we may be a little more restricted on how many insurers are willing to provide a quote.

Vacant commercial property insurance can be a little harder to obtain that your regular commercial buildings insurance. 

As a result of vacant property’s increased risks, premiums and/or excesses are generally increased.

In addition, it is important for property owners to inform their broker/insurer if there is a change in tenants.

Tattoo parlours, for example, are notoriously difficult to insure due to the moral risk / associations with bikie gangs, even if the tenant does not belong to a bikie gang.

The cost of commercial property insurance will vary depending on a number of factors, including the value of your property, the location of your business and the type of coverage you need. You may be able to save some money by bundling your commercial property insurance with other types of business insurance, such as liability insurance. Contact Priority today to discuss the needs for your business and we’ll let you know how we can help.

The reason why commercial property insurance policies have a number of optional sections is because they are written under a business package policy.

What this means is that every section can be either added or not depending on what cover you need.

For example, some commercial property owners require their tenant to be responsible for glass cover so don’t typically need to to include this.

Another common example is if you’re a landlord, you generally don’t need theft cover unless you provided the property furnished.

This gives property owners and occupiers the flexibility of tailoring their insurance and only paying for what they need.

The insurers need to get a good understanding of the property so that they know what they are insuring and what risks are present. 

Some of the information that insurers will ask for is:

• Address and age of the property
• The construction details of the property for example, brick walls and steel roof 
• Who or what business is occupying the property
• What security and fire protection is at the premises 
• Are there any hazardous materials being stored at the property 
• What is the total value being insured 

Some insurers may request further information depending on the answers to the above questions.

The truth is, a lot of commercial property owners ask the same question. 

The property should be insured for a replacement value. This means a value to rebuild the property on a new for old basis. 

Not insuring for what you purchased it for. 

When you take out a commercial buildings insurance policy there is an under-insurance clause that can reduce your claim settlement by the same amount if you don’t insure for replacement value. 

Speak to your Broker about how to establish a fair value. We have tools and calculators that we can use to guide you through the process. 

Your Public Liability insurance as a property owner is different to your standard liability policy. 

A standard liability insurance covers the business activities that you are engaging in. A property owners liability will only cover your liability as the owner of a property. 

This means that if an injury occurred due to your negligence as a property owner then you are covered. 

For example, if you didn’t repair some internal stairs and a customer fell through them causing injury, this would be covered under your liability as a property owner.

In some cases, if you also operate a business you can simply add “property owner” to your business activities and your current policy will extend to cover this as well. 

As long as the entities are the same or have a common interest or Directorship and subject to the insurers acceptance, this is done quite regularly.

The tenants occupation will always be asked by an insurer when you are putting a commercial property insurance policy in place. 

This is required so that the insurer understands the risk that they are taking on when insuring your property. 

For example, a simple Accountants office will be priced far cheaper than a property that uses welding equipment or stores hazardous chemicals. 

This is because the risk of damage being caused to the commercial property increases and when ever the risk increases usually the premium does as well.

If your commercial property is part of a Strata or Community Title Scheme you need to take out a Strata policy. 

Although the cover is similar, there are a number of additional covers required for a strata title property.

Strata titled property are often regulated and governed in most states so it needs to be done correctly. 

We can also assist you with commercial strata insurance.