A restaurant downstairs changes the price of the flats upstairs.
Cover for buildings combining commercial and residential tenancies, where the ground-floor use drives the rate for everything above it and neither a habitational nor a commercial policy fits alone.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What mixed-use property businesses actually need.
General liability
The shared parts both halves of the building use — entrances, stairs, parking, refuse areas — where a retail customer and a resident meet.
Without it — Mixed use means public footfall through a residential building, and that boundary is where the claims land.
Whole-building property
One property policy over commercial and residential parts together.
Without it — Splitting a building across two policies creates the argument at the boundary.
Lessor’s risk liability
Liability across common areas serving both kinds of tenant.
Without it — Shared stairs and entrances belong to the landlord.
Loss of rents, both streams
Commercial and residential rent, which recover on different timescales.
Without it — A commercial unit can take far longer to re-let than a flat.
Ground-floor operational exposure
The specific risk of what trades below — cooking, alcohol, chemicals, footfall.
Without it — A restaurant fire reaches the residents, and the residents are the severity.
What our mixed-use property clients ask us.
Why does the commercial tenant matter so much?
Because the fire starts downstairs and the injuries are upstairs. A commercial kitchen, a dry cleaner, a nail salon or a bar under occupied flats combines an ignition source with people asleep above it, and that is a severity profile insurers price carefully. Restaurants are the common sticking point: some habitational markets decline any building with cooking below residential, so the ground-floor tenant can determine which insurers will look at the whole building.
Can I insure it as one building?
Yes, and you generally should. Splitting a mixed-use building across a commercial policy and a habitational one leaves the boundary — the structure, the roof, the shared services, the common stairs — as a question for two insurers to argue about after a loss. One policy over the whole building with the tenancy mix disclosed is cleaner and usually cheaper than two.
What about the residential tenants’ protections?
They apply in full, and they are the part a commercially-minded owner underestimates. Habitability standards, notice requirements, deposit rules and fair housing law govern the residential units regardless of what the rest of the building does, and those produce claims that property cover does not answer. A mixed-use owner needs the same third-party employment practices thinking as a pure apartment owner.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.