From yurts to skyscrapers: if someone pays to be in it, we can insure it.

General liability

Injury and damage anywhere you still control — parking, walkways, stairwells, roofs, common areas — and work you send a contractor to do.

Without it — Owning the building is enough to be sued over it, whoever operates from it.

Lessor’s risk liability

Liability for a building you own and a tenant operates from.

Without it — You are named in a tenant’s accident whether or not it was your fault.

Workers compensation

Any on-site staff — a manager, a maintenance person, a caretaker — and the uninsured contractor who becomes your employee for claim purposes.

Without it — A handyman with no policy of his own is charged to the owner who hired him, and owners find this out afterwards.

Building and structure

The property at rebuilding cost, with the coinsurance clause understood before a claim.

Without it — A limit set on market value is a partial claim paid in part.

Loss of rents

Rental income while the building cannot be occupied, for a realistic rebuilding period.

Without it — Twelve months of lost rent on a debt-financed building is the loss that ends ownership.

Equipment breakdown

Boilers, HVAC, lifts and electrical plant: the systems a landlord owns and maintains.

Without it — A lift or chiller failing is excluded by property as an internal cause.

Umbrella

Excess limits, which lenders and institutional tenants generally require by name.

Without it — A primary limit is exhausted by one serious injury on a common stair.

Commercial earthquake

Shake damage to the structure, with a deductible set as a percentage of the building value rather than a dollar figure.

Without it — Every commercial property form excludes earth movement, so a building with no quake limit is simply uninsured for it.

Commercial flood

Rising water and storm surge: the NFIP to its commercial maximum, and private or excess flood above it.

Without it — Excluded by the property policy, and a lender on a mapped zone requires it whatever you think of the odds.

Vacant property

Coverage that keeps working once a building is empty between tenants, during a repositioning, or while it sits on the market.

Without it — Standard forms suspend vandalism, water damage, theft and glass once a building is vacant past a stated period, usually 60 days.

Vacant land

Liability for land you own with nothing on it: trespassers, dumping, an attractive nuisance, a boundary tree that comes down.

Without it — Owning empty land is still owning premises, and it is the parcel most often left off a schedule entirely.

Environmental and pollution, where the site calls for it

Contamination you inherited or a tenant caused: a dry cleaner, a fuel tank, a former industrial use.

Without it — Excluded from property and liability alike. Worth buying on the sites with that history rather than as a matter of course.

What does “from yurts to skyscrapers” actually mean here?

That the class of building is rarely the reason we cannot help. We place single rental houses, glamping and cabin sites, mixed-use blocks with retail below and apartments above, warehouses, self-storage, mobile home parks, and institutional-scale multifamily. What changes between them is the market and the questions, not whether coverage exists. The properties that genuinely need work are the ones with an occupancy, condition or claims problem — vacancy, an old roof, aluminum wiring, a habitability suit — and those are worth talking about early rather than at renewal.

How is a commercial landlord policy priced?

On the building, the tenancy and the location, in that order. Square footage and construction set the base. A sprinklered concrete building and an unsprinklered joisted-masonry one are different risks before anyone discusses tenants. Then who occupies it: restaurants, bars, machine shops, chemical users and anything with heavy public foot traffic rate above professional offices. Then location for wind, wildfire, flood and crime. Note the tenant part is not fixed — re-letting a unit to a different trade changes your risk, and it is worth telling us at the time.

What should my leases require of tenants?

Specified limits rather than "adequate insurance", additional insured status naming you and any lender, a waiver of subrogation, and evidence renewed annually rather than once at signing. The most common failure is not a badly drafted lease, it is a well-drafted one nobody enforces: the certificate is collected on day one, the tenant’s policy lapses in year three, and the first anyone knows is the claim. Diarise the renewals.

What to check on a tenant certificate

Should I require renters insurance from residential tenants?

Yes, and put it in the lease with a limit rather than leaving it optional. Two things happen when you do. The tenant’s own liability coverage responds first when their guest is hurt, their dog bites someone or their unattended pan floods the unit below, which keeps the claim off your policy and off your loss history, and your loss history is what prices your renewal.

Coverage for habitational property

I own the buildings through separate LLCs. How does that work?

It works, and it has to be set up correctly or it undoes itself. Each entity that owns a property should be a named insured, not just mentioned, because an entity that is not named has no claim to make. A schedule across one policy is usually cheaper and simpler than separate policies, and it keeps a single umbrella over all of them. Tell us the ownership structure as it actually is, including any entity added recently, since a property bought in a new LLC and added to the old policy is the classic uninsured building.

Does anything change if a unit sits empty?

Yes, and quickly. Commercial property forms suspend or reduce major coverages once a building is vacant beyond a stated period, typically 60 days, with vandalism, water damage, theft and glass the first to go, and a percentage reduction on anything still covered. Partial vacancy in a multi-tenant building is usually fine; a wholly empty building is not. Tell us before the period runs, not after.

Coverage while a building is empty