Commercial Property
Buildings, contents, and income after fire, theft, or storms.
Questions
- Do importers need cargo insurance?
Yes — if losing a shipment would hurt. The ocean carrier is not your insurer: under COGSA, carrier liability is capped at $500 per package unless a higher value was declared, and unless you bought on CIF terms, nobody is obligated to insure your goods but you. Ocean cargo insurance replaces that recovery lottery with your own policy.
- Gear-only insurance for photographers — what covers my equipment?
Gear-only insurance is an inland marine equipment floater — often sold as a "camera policy" — first-party coverage that follows your equipment wherever you take it. It exists because homeowners policies cap business equipment around $2,500 and a full business policy is more than some shooters want. The terms that matter: scheduled vs blanket, valuation, and theft conditions.
- What insurance does a landlord need?
It depends on the property and how it's rented. A dwelling rented long term needs a landlord (dwelling-fire) policy — not homeowners — with loss-of-rents coverage for the income a covered loss interrupts. Commercial buildings need commercial property plus lessor's risk liability. The most expensive mistake is leaving a homeowners policy on a house that has become a rental.
- What is business property insurance?
Business property insurance (commercial property insurance — same product) pays to repair or replace the physical things your business owns or is responsible for: building, equipment, inventory, furnishings. What the definition hides is that three policy choices — replacement cost vs actual cash value, named-peril vs special form, and coinsurance — decide what a claim actually pays.