Is fire legal liability the same as damage to premises rented to you?

Effectively, yes. Fire legal liability is the older name, from when the coverage answered fire alone. Current general liability forms call the limit Damage To Premises Rented To You, and it still reaches fire for long-term tenancies.

Does it cover my own equipment and improvements?

No. It pays for damage to the landlord’s property that you are liable for. Your contents and the improvements you paid for need property insurance, often a business owner’s policy.

My lease says tenant’s legal liability. Is that this?

Usually. Some leases mean this general liability limit, others mean a broader property coverage for damage to the premises. Send the clause to your agent with the figure it names and ask which it is asking for.

Can you check the insurance requirements I was sent?

Yes. Paste them into our free COI Requirements Decoder, pick your type of business, and it explains each requirement, flags what is often missing and lists the lines to quote, without the text leaving your browser. One button then asks a licensed agent to quote what it found.

A young restaurant owner in a black chef jacket standing after hours in his empty rented dining room looking at a smoke-stained wall beside the kitchen pass, a fire extinguisher on the floor

What is "damage to premises rented to you", and is my limit high enough for my lease?

It is the part of your general liability that pays for damage you cause to the space you rent, with its own limit separate from the each-occurrence limit. On the standard form it covers fire damage to the premises while you rent them, and other damage only for rentals of seven days or fewer. If your lease names a figure, compare it to the "Damage to rented premises" line on your certificate.

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Who pays when the rented space is damaged

What happened	Your damage to premises rented limit	Your property policy	The landlord’s property policy
A fire you caused damages the building	Yes, up to that limit, if you are liable	Your contents and improvements	The building, then may try to recover from you
Water from your equipment damages the space, long-term lease	Not on the standard form; only fire for longer rentals	Your contents and improvements	The building, subject to any mutual waiver
Damage in a hall you rented for two days	Yes, up to that limit, if you are liable	Your own equipment	The building
The building is damaged by something you did not cause	No; you are not liable	Your contents, plus business income	The building

A fire you caused damages the building
Your damage to premises rented limit
Yes, up to that limit, if you are liable
Your property policy
Your contents and improvements
The landlord’s property policy
The building, then may try to recover from you
Water from your equipment damages the space, long-term lease
Your damage to premises rented limit
Not on the standard form; only fire for longer rentals
Your property policy
Your contents and improvements
The landlord’s property policy
The building, subject to any mutual waiver
Damage in a hall you rented for two days
Your damage to premises rented limit
Yes, up to that limit, if you are liable
Your property policy
Your own equipment
The landlord’s property policy
The building
The building is damaged by something you did not cause
Your damage to premises rented limit
No; you are not liable
Your property policy
Your contents, plus business income
The landlord’s property policy
The building

A mutual waiver of subrogation in the lease can stop the landlord’s insurer from recovering from you at all.

The detail

Under CG 00 01 04 13, the property damage exclusions c. through n. do not apply to damage by fire to premises while rented to you or temporarily occupied by you with permission of the owner, and a separate limit applies.
ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 (specimen)
The exclusion for property you rent does not apply, other than for damage by fire, to premises including their contents rented to you for a period of seven or fewer consecutive days.
ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 (specimen)
The Damage To Premises Rented To You Limit is the most the policy will pay under Coverage A for property damage to any one premises while rented to you, or for damage by fire while rented to you or temporarily occupied by you with permission of the owner.
ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 (specimen)
The ACORD 25 prints this limit as "Damage to rented premises (Ea occurrence)" in the general liability section.
ACORD 25 Certificate of Liability Insurance (2016/03), reproduced in ISO endorsements reproduced in Risk & Insurance Education Alliance, "Certificates of Insurance and Additional Insureds" course materials (2019)
Damage to premises rented limits of $100,000 are common on small business policies, and many commercial leases ask for $300,000 or more.
Kevin Kelsey, agency placement experience

What this means for you

Read the number in the lease. If it says $300,000 or $500,000 and your certificate shows $100,000, the certificate will be rejected. Ask your agent whether the limit can be raised on your policy.
It is mostly fire. For a long-term lease the standard wording reaches fire damage, not every kind of damage. A lease that makes you responsible for all damage to the premises can promise more than this limit covers.
Short rentals are broader. A venue or hall rented for seven days or fewer gets the wider coverage, which is why venues check this line closely.
Look for the mutual waiver. Most commercial leases have each side waive recovery for losses its own property insurance pays, which can matter more than the limit itself.

Go deeper on any of these

Need this handled?

Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.