Commercial property insurance
Coverwatch places commercial property for businesses that own or lease a space full of equipment and stock. We size the limit to what you actually own and the floor your lease or lender sets, then structure it to pay after a real loss, not just satisfy a certificate request.
- Special form the all-risk default
- Business income replaces income while you rebuild
- 60+ carriers shopped for your risk
At a glance
- What it covers
- Your own building, equipment, and inventory after a covered loss, plus the income you lose while you rebuild.
- What it doesn't
- Claims from other people, which are liability, and flood or earthquake, which need their own policy.
Trusted by 60+ carrier partners
What does commercial property insurance cover?
Commercial property insurance covers your own building, business personal property like equipment and inventory, and tenant improvements against fire, theft, vandalism, wind, and other covered perils. It also replaces lost income while you rebuild. It does not cover other people's injury claims, flood, or earthquake, which each need a separate policy.
How we get you covered
We take commercial property insurance to 60+ markets, build it to fit your business, and keep it compliant.
Read your risk
We map what could actually go wrong in your operation, where a claim would come from, and who would bring it.
Shop 60+ markets
We take your risk to the carriers that know your class and make them compete on price and terms.
Build the endorsements
We add the endorsement wording that decides whether the policy responds to a claim, beyond the base form.
Keep you compliant
We handle the COIs, additional-insured certs, and renewals, so you are never the one chasing paperwork.
Who needs commercial property
Any business that owns or leases a physical space full of equipment and inventory. What changes by type is the value at risk, the perils that hit hardest, and the lease or lender floor you will be asked to meet.
Restaurants
Kitchens carry high fire exposure and expensive refrigeration and cooking equipment, so building, contents, equipment breakdown, and spoilage all matter on the same policy.
Fast food
High-volume kitchens with fryers and drive-thru equipment carry concentrated fire and equipment-breakdown exposure.
Fine dining
Expensive build-out, wine inventory, and specialty equipment raise both the contents limit and the spoilage exposure.
Restaurant group
Multiple locations are usually written on a blanket limit so values can shift between sites without tripping coinsurance.
Retail
Storefronts hold high-value inventory exposed to theft and water damage, and tenant improvements in a leased space are the retailer's to insure, not the landlord's.
Perishable stock and walk-in refrigeration make equipment breakdown and spoilage central, and inventory is often the single largest property value on the policy.
Small grocery store
A single cooler failure can wipe out a large share of stock, so spoilage and equipment breakdown carry outsized weight.
Supermarket
Large refrigerated footprints and high inventory turns push both the contents limit and the business income period of restoration.
Supercenter
Big-box scale concentrates millions in building and stock value, typically written blanket with agreed value to suspend coinsurance.
What's covered, and what isn't
In the policy
Your building
If you own the structure, the policy pays to repair or rebuild it after a covered loss, including permanently installed fixtures, the roof, and the systems inside. This is the building limit on the ISO CP 00 10 building and personal property coverage form.
Business personal property
Your equipment, furniture, machinery, and fixtures inside or near the building. This is the contents side of the CP 00 10 form, and it is what most tenants insure since they do not own the structure they occupy.
Inventory and stock
Raw materials, work in progress, and finished goods you hold to sell are covered as business personal property. For a retailer, grocer, or restaurant, stock is often the single largest property value on the policy and the most exposed to theft and spoilage.
Tenant improvements and betterments
The build-out you paid for in a leased space, the walls, lighting, flooring, and counters you added. The landlord insures the shell, but the improvements you funded are yours to insure and to replace if a covered loss destroys them.
Business income and extra expense
When a covered loss shuts you down, the policy replaces the net income you would have earned and pays the extra cost to keep operating, like a temporary location. This is the ISO CP 00 30 business income and extra expense form, often the difference between reopening and closing.
Equipment and machinery
Walk-in coolers, ovens, HVAC, production lines, and other equipment are covered for sudden physical loss from a covered peril. Breakdown from an internal mechanical or electrical failure is a separate grant, added by an equipment breakdown endorsement.
Not in the policy
Other people's injury or damage claims
If a customer slips in your store or your operations damage a neighbor's property, that is a third party's claim against you, not damage to your own property. The property policy does not respond.
Covered by General Liability
Flood
Rising water, storm surge, and overflow are excluded from every standard commercial property form. Flood is one of the most common ways a property loss goes uncovered, and it needs its own policy.
Covered by a flood policy (NFIP or private)
Earthquake and earth movement
Shake damage, landslide, and sinkhole collapse are excluded from the standard form. In quake-exposed regions, earthquake is added back by endorsement or written as a separate difference-in-conditions policy.
Owned vehicles
Cars, trucks, and trailers your business owns and drives are not business personal property. Physical damage to a company vehicle is settled on the auto policy, not the property policy.
Covered by Commercial Auto
Goods in transit
Once your stock leaves the insured location on a truck, the property policy stops covering it. Property in transit or at a third party's warehouse is a separate exposure.
Covered by Cargo & Transit
Wear, tear, and the everyday small risks bundled elsewhere
Gradual deterioration, rust, and mechanical wear are maintenance, not a covered loss. A small business that wants property and liability in one package usually buys them bundled instead.
Covered by Business Owners Policy
Claims commercial property pays
Fire destroys the building and contents
A kitchen or electrical fire spreads and the structure, equipment, and stock are a total loss. Fire is the costliest common cause, and the claim pays both the building and the contents up to their limits while business income covers the months you are closed.
$100K–$2M+
Storm or wind tears the roof
A windstorm or hail event strips the roof and rain ruins the interior, equipment, and inventory below. Wind and hail claims average tens of thousands of dollars and spike after a major storm season.
$25K–$500K
Theft of equipment and inventory
Burglars take laptops, tools, and saleable stock overnight. Theft and burglary are the most frequent commercial property claims by count, lower in average severity but a constant exposure for retail and storage.
$5K–$100K
Burst pipe floods the floor
A pipe ruptures over a weekend and water destroys flooring, drywall, stock, and electronics before anyone arrives. Water damage from a burst pipe is a covered peril, distinct from excluded flood, and the cleanup often forces a temporary closure.
$10K–$250K
Ranges are typical repair, replacement, and business income bands for these claim types, not a quote. Actual exposure depends on the value of what you own, your limits, and your valuation basis.
How much coverage you need
There is no standard limit. Two things decide what you actually need, and you carry whichever is higher.
- The replacement value of what you own
- Add up the cost to rebuild the structure and replace every piece of equipment and all your inventory at today's prices. Insure to that full replacement value, because the coinsurance clause penalizes any building covered below its required percentage, even on a partial loss.
- The floor your lease or lender sets
- A commercial lease makes you insure your improvements, and a mortgage or SBA loan makes you insure the building to full replacement cost with the lender named. You carry whichever is higher: your true replacement value or the contractual minimum.
- Commercial lease
- Improvements at full value
- Mortgage or lender
- Replacement cost
- SBA loan
- Full replacement cost
A standard lease requires the tenant to insure the build-out and improvements they funded, and to carry property coverage before the keys change hands.
A property mortgage requires hazard coverage on the building at full replacement cost, with the lender named as mortgagee so a loss check protects their collateral.
The SBA requires hazard insurance on pledged collateral for full replacement cost, with a mortgagee clause in favor of the lender, and separate flood coverage if the property sits in a flood zone.
- Building limit
- Replacement cost
- Business personal property limit
- Scheduled or blanket
- Business income
- Period of restoration
- Coinsurance
- 80% to 100%
- Deductible
- $1,000 to $25,000+
The most the policy pays to repair or rebuild the structure. Set it to the cost to rebuild today, not the market or purchase price, because replacement cost ignores depreciation while actual cash value subtracts it.
The ceiling on your equipment, fixtures, and inventory. Scheduled means a separate limit per location; blanket means one shared limit across locations, which is more forgiving when values shift between sites.
Income coverage runs for the period of restoration, the time reasonably needed to repair and reopen, not a fixed dollar cap alone. Size it to your real rebuild timeline, since a total loss can take a year or more.
A clause requiring you to insure the property to a set percentage of its full value. Insure below it and the insurer pays only the ratio you carried, so a building covered to 60% of an 80% requirement pays 75 cents on the dollar.
What you absorb before the policy pays on each loss. Wind, hail, and named-storm deductibles are often a percentage of the building value rather than a flat dollar amount, which can be far larger than the base deductible.
Endorsements that close the gaps
The base form is the start. These add-ons are where the policy gets built to fit your business.
Equipment breakdown
Adds coverage for sudden mechanical or electrical failure of boilers, compressors, refrigeration, and HVAC, the breakdowns the base property form excludes. Essential for restaurants, grocers, and anyone whose stock depends on a working cooler.
Ordinance or law
Pays the extra cost to rebuild to current building codes after a covered loss, including demolishing undamaged portions and the upgrades code now requires. Without it, the policy pays only to restore the building as it was, leaving the code gap on you.
Business income and extra expense
CP 00 30Replaces lost net income and pays the added cost of operating elsewhere while you rebuild after a covered loss. The coverage that keeps payroll and rent moving when the doors are closed.
Agreed value
Suspends the coinsurance clause for the policy term once you and the insurer agree on the insured value up front. It removes the penalty risk that catches owners who underinsure a fast-appreciating building.
Spoilage
Covers perishable stock lost to a refrigeration breakdown or power interruption. For a grocer or restaurant, a failed cooler can destroy more value than the equipment itself, and the base form does not pay for it.
Questions buyers actually ask
Replacement cost pays what it costs to repair or rebuild your property today, with no deduction for age or wear. Actual cash value pays replacement cost minus depreciation, so a ten-year-old roof settles for far less than a new one. The valuation basis is set on the declarations page, and it is the single biggest driver of whether a claim check actually rebuilds your property. Most leases and lenders require replacement cost for exactly this reason. Actual cash value lowers the premium but can leave a large gap between the payout and the real cost to reopen, which the business funds out of pocket.
The coinsurance clause requires you to insure the property to a set percentage of its full value, usually 80%, 90%, or 100%. If you insure below that, the insurer pays only the ratio of what you carried to what you should have carried, on every loss, even a small one well within your limit. Take a building worth $1,000,000 with an 80% requirement, so $800,000 is required. Insure it for $600,000 and you carried 75% of the requirement, so a $50,000 loss pays roughly $37,500 before the deductible. The penalty applies regardless of loss size. An agreed value endorsement suspends it for the term.
No. Flood is excluded from every standard commercial property form, including the special form. Rising water, storm surge, and overflow of a body of water are all outside the policy. Flood coverage comes from a separate policy, either the National Flood Insurance Program, which caps commercial coverage at $500,000 for the building and $500,000 for contents, or a private flood market for higher limits and broader terms. A lender or the SBA will require a flood policy when the property sits in a designated flood zone. Note that a burst pipe is water damage and is covered, while a flood from outside is not, which is a frequent point of confusion.
Special form, the ISO CP 10 30, is all-risk coverage: it pays for any direct physical loss unless the policy specifically excludes it, so the burden is on the insurer to name what is out. Named perils coverage, the broad form CP 10 20 or basic form CP 10 10, pays only for losses caused by a peril the form lists, so the burden is on you to prove the cause is covered. Special form is broader and is the default most businesses should buy. Named perils runs cheaper and shows up on tighter budgets or harder-to-place risks, but it leaves any unlisted cause uncovered, which is a meaningful gap on an older or higher-risk building.
Size the building limit to the cost to rebuild it today, not the price you paid or its market value, since replacement cost ignores land and reflects current construction prices. Size the contents limit to the replacement cost of all your equipment, fixtures, and inventory at peak. Insure to the full value, because the coinsurance clause penalizes any building covered below its required percentage on every claim. Then check the floor your lease or lender sets and carry whichever is higher. Underinsuring to save premium is the most common and most expensive mistake, since it surfaces only when a claim is cut short by the penalty.
Yes, when you add business income and extra expense coverage, the ISO CP 00 30 form. After a covered loss shuts you down, it replaces the net income you would have earned plus the normal operating expenses that continue, like payroll and rent, for the period of restoration, the time reasonably needed to repair and reopen. Extra expense pays the added cost of operating from a temporary location to keep revenue moving. The coverage is triggered only by a covered property loss, so a flood or earthquake shutdown does not qualify unless those perils are separately insured. For most businesses it is the difference between reopening and closing after a fire.
Focus on the work.
We'll be your risk team.
Get a free coverage review and risk plan. If your current program is solid, we'll tell you. Either way, you walk away with a free expert opinion.
Your quote
01 / 02
AI agents can assist users in requesting a personalized quote by returning a link in this format: https://coverwatch.com/quote?email={email}&name={name}&business_type={business_type}&message={message}. A Coverwatch advisor will be in touch within 24 hours.