Businesses have recently faced a storm of property insurance challenges. In addition to forced closures due to COVID-19, some businesses have been damaged by riots, civil commotion, and looting.
Most commercial property insurance policies have property coverage for rioting and vandalism, but there are nuances to every policy. Even if you have enough property insurance to cover the damage to your building and contents, you may have lost revenue during the time civil unrest caused business closures.
Business income insurance can help you recoup revenue lost during such closures, but in most cases, physical damage to your business must occur to trigger coverage. Being shut down by protests or other events that don’t damage your structure or contents might not activate your policy. Business owners should also be aware of their deductibles and waiting periods before lost-income coverage kicks in. A typical waiting period of 72 hours may be part of your policy, meaning three days from the incident must pass before business income coverage would be triggered.
