Business insurance
Commercial property insurance
Building, stock, tenant improvements and the income you lose while the place is shut — which is the part most policies are short on, and the part that decides whether a business reopens.
Commercial property splits into what you own and what you lose. What you own is the building if you own it, your contents and stock if you rent, and — critically for tenants — the improvements and betterments you paid to install in somebody else's premises.
What you lose is business income: the profit that stops and the payroll and rent that do not. In practice this is the coverage that decides whether a business survives a serious loss, and it is the one most often bought at a limit and a period that bear no relation to how long a New York City rebuild actually takes.
Coinsurance, and the trap inside it
Most commercial property policies contain a coinsurance clause, commonly at eighty or ninety per cent. It means you have agreed to insure to at least that share of the full replacement value, and if you have not, every claim — including small partial ones — is reduced by the same proportion you were short.
This is the single most punishing clause in commercial insurance and it operates quietly. A business insured at sixty per cent of value with an eighty per cent coinsurance clause has a $40,000 fire claim reduced to $30,000, and finds out about the arrangement at that moment. Values need reviewing annually, not once at inception, and agreed value options are available on many policies specifically to switch the clause off.
Tenant improvements, the number nobody sets
If you fitted out a leased shop or office — the counter, the flooring, the partitions, the electrical and the ductwork — that investment is yours to insure, even though it is physically part of a building somebody else owns. The landlord's policy does not cover it and your lease very likely makes you responsible for it.
For a restaurant or a clinic, improvements are frequently the largest single number on the policy, and they are routinely omitted entirely because the business does not think of them as property. If you spent $120,000 fitting out premises, that is $120,000 of uninsured exposure until somebody writes it on the schedule.
Business income and the period of restoration
Business income cover pays for the period of restoration — the time it should reasonably take to repair or replace — subject to your limit. The mistake is buying a limit sized to three or six months when permitting, demolition and rebuilding on a hundred-year-old Queens building routinely runs past a year.
Two extensions are worth asking for by name. Extended period of indemnity continues cover after you reopen, while customers come back, which they do not do instantly. And civil authority or dependent property cover responds when your own premises are fine but the street is closed or a key supplier has burned down — on a dense commercial strip that is a live risk rather than a theoretical one.
Replacement cost and the exclusions
Insist on replacement cost rather than actual cash value wherever it is available. Actual cash value depreciates everything, and a ten-year-old commercial kitchen valued that way is worth very little against what replacing it costs.
The exclusions are the familiar ones and they matter more commercially: flood, always, needing a separate policy; earth movement; wear and gradual deterioration; and equipment breakdown, which is an endorsement here as it is on a house. For a business whose refrigeration or HVAC is essential, equipment breakdown with spoilage cover is not optional.
Flood is not in your homeowners policy. Flood is not in your homeowners policy and never has been. Every standard homeowners and renters form excludes it, and it is excluded whether or not you are in a mapped flood zone. Cover comes separately, from the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer, and the NFIP's standard waiting period is thirty days — which makes flood the one product where ringing us the week the forecast turns is already too late.
Included as standard
How we handle this line
Values reviewed annually
Because coinsurance punishes a stale number on every claim, including small ones, and construction costs have not stood still.
Tenant improvements scheduled
The fit-out you paid for in premises you do not own — frequently the biggest number and the one most often missing.
Twelve months of business income
Quoted as standard, with extended period of indemnity, because a Queens rebuild does not fit into six months.
Civil authority and dependent property
For a closed street or a supplier's loss. On a dense commercial strip this is a real exposure.
Equipment breakdown with spoilage
For any business whose refrigeration or HVAC is the business. Excluded as standard and inexpensive to restore.
Flood quoted separately
Because it is excluded here exactly as it is on a house, and low-lying commercial ground in Queens is genuinely mapped.
When to ring us
Signs this is worth a conversation
- Your property values have not been reviewed in three years or more.
- You lease your premises and your improvements are not on the schedule.
- Your business income limit assumes a six-month rebuild.
- Your policy is written at actual cash value.
- Your refrigeration is essential and you have no equipment breakdown cover.
- You are on low ground near the creek or the waterfront with no flood policy.
Commercial property — what it typically costs
- Typical annual premium for a small commercial building or a tenant's contents and improvements in this area.$1,200 – $5,400
This is a typical premium range for this area. It is not a quote, and it is not our price. We do not set premiums: a carrier files its rates with the Department of Financial Services and our commission is already inside the filed rate, so the same policy from the same carrier costs the same through any producer in New York. What genuinely moves your own number is which carrier writes it, the limits and deductibles you choose, and the facts on your record — which is what we would go through with you before anything is quoted.
Questions we are actually asked
Commercial property — frequently asked
What is coinsurance and why does it matter?
It is a clause requiring you to insure to a set share of full replacement value, commonly eighty or ninety per cent. If you are under, every claim is reduced in the same proportion — including small partial claims. It is the most punishing clause in commercial property and it operates without anybody mentioning it until a loss.
Who insures the fit-out in leased premises?
You do, in almost every case, and your lease usually says so explicitly. Improvements and betterments are your property for insurance purposes even though they are physically part of the landlord's building. For restaurants and clinics it is frequently the largest exposure on the policy.
How much business income cover do I need?
Enough for how long a rebuild genuinely takes here, which for an older Queens building is usually closer to twelve months than six once permitting is counted — plus an extended period of indemnity for the time it takes customers to return after you reopen.
How much is commercial property insurance in Queens?
Typically $1,200 to $5,400 a year for a small commercial building, or for a tenant's contents and improvements, depending on values, construction, occupancy and protection. Restaurants and trades sit above that range.
Related cover
Usually considered alongside this
Business insurance
The businessowners policy that covers most small Queens businesses properly, and the four risks it is famous for leaving out.
$800 – $2,800
Flood insurance
Excluded from every homeowners policy ever written, mapped across a good deal of Queens, and subject to a thirty-day wait that makes late buying useless.
$700 – $2,600
Food businesses
Spoilage, the fryer, the delivery moped and the liquor liability that a general policy quietly excludes.
$2,200 – $7,800
Commercial umbrella
The extra layer that contracts increasingly demand, sitting above your liability, your auto and usually your employers liability.
$900 – $4,500Bring the declarations page and we will read it with you
Ask us what it would cost
Send or bring the summary pages of what you already have — those two sheets are where most of the useful conversation is. We will tell you what we would place it with and what that would cost, what we are paid for doing it, and whether you should move at all. Quite often the answer is that your current policy is priced fairly and you should keep it, and that is an answer we give in writing like any other.