In the library · Commercial insurance
Commercial insurance
Nineteen articles on the questions a Texas business actually gets stuck on — a refused certificate, a comp audit, a percentage deductible that is not what it sounds like, a coinsurance entry nobody explained, a symbol on a vehicle schedule nobody read out. Each one links up to the page that sells its cover; if you would rather start there, the commercial lines are here.
19 articles, written by Dale Moon, owner and licensed Texas insurance agent. Sources are named at the foot of every article with the date they were last checked.
- Basic, Broad and Special 11 min read Basic vs. Broad vs. Special Form Commercial Property Insurance: What Changes at Claim Time Two quotes both say commercial property insurance. The causes-of-loss form attached to each one decides which question an adjuster starts with — and that is a bigger difference than the premium.
- BPP inventory and limits 11 min read Business Personal Property Inventory: How to Set a Commercial Insurance Limit "How much are your contents worth?" is a one-line question with a multi-page answer. The number most owners give is the one they can remember, which is reliably smaller than the one they own.
- What changes the cost 12 min read What Changes Commercial Auto Insurance Cost in Texas? A Quote and Renewal Factor Guide There is no defensible single price for Texas commercial auto, and the useful question is not what it costs. It is whether the two things you are comparing are the same risk on the same terms — because usually they are not.
- Covered-auto symbols 11 min read Commercial Auto Symbols 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9: How to Read the Covered-Auto Codes The numbers beside each coverage on a business auto declarations page are shorthand for which vehicles that coverage applies to. Read across the row, not down the page — and read the definition out of your own form, not a chart.
- Landlord and tenant 12 min read Commercial Landlord vs. Tenant Insurance in Texas: Who Covers What? "Who pays the insurance?" is three questions wearing one coat: who owns the property, who is named on the policy, and who reimburses the cost. A lease can answer the third without touching the first two.
- Coinsurance and the penalty 10 min read Commercial Property Coinsurance: The Formula, the Penalty, and Three Worked Examples Coinsurance does not test whether your limit is bigger than the loss. It tests how much insurance you were carrying before the loss happened — and a partial claim is where that difference shows up.
- Hired and non-owned auto 11 min read Hired and Non-Owned Auto in Texas: Employee Cars, Rentals, and Business Liability Four vehicles, four different answers. Hired and non-owned auto is not blanket protection for every car the business does not own — and the question you are really asking decides which part of the policy has anything to say.
- Texas requirements 13 min read Texas Commercial Vehicle Insurance Requirements: Ordinary Vehicles vs. Regulated Motor Carriers Texas does not impose one liability limit on every business vehicle. There is an ordinary floor, and there is a separate world of regulated-operation rules — and which one you are in is decided by facts about the operation, not by the word commercial.
- Vacant and unoccupied 11 min read Vacant vs. Unoccupied Commercial Property: What Owners Should Check The tenant handed back the keys, the lights are still on, and a new lease is two months away. Whether that building is now vacant is a question your policy answers, not the dictionary.
- What counts as commercial 12 min read What Is Considered a Commercial Vehicle in Texas? Insurance vs. TxDMV and FMCSA The question has no single answer because five different systems are asking it, each for its own reason. A light pickup can be commercial to one and ordinary to the rest — and the right first question is not what, but commercial for which system.
- Bar insurance cost 10 min read What Does Bar Insurance Cost in Texas? Build the Submission Underwriters Price A wine bar, a sports bar and a 2 a.m. nightclub can post the same sales and present three different submissions. Here is what actually decides the number.
- Hotel insurance cost 12 min read How Much Does Hotel Insurance Cost in Texas? Build the Quote Packet First Three 70-room properties can produce three entirely different submissions. Rather than guess at a range, build the packet that lets insurers evaluate the same hotel on the same facts.
- Restaurant insurance cost 11 min read What Does Restaurant Insurance Cost in Texas? The 15 Inputs Behind a Quote You want a number and every page you have opened gives you a national average. Here is what actually produces the number, and how to tell whether two quotes describe the same restaurant.
- Restaurant power outage 11 min read The Power Is Out at Your Houston Restaurant. What Happens Next? The walk-in is warming and somebody is going to ask whether insurance covers it. That is not one question. It is five, and they have different triggers.
- Bar security and bouncers 10 min read Hiring Bouncers in Texas: An Insurance Checklist for Bar Owners Hiring a security company does not make every security allegation somebody else's problem. Here is what to verify before the first shift — and what your own policies still have to answer.
- Certificates and endorsements 9 min read Why Your Certificate of Insurance Got Rejected — and How to Fix It A general contractor or a City department has bounced your certificate and nobody has said what is wrong with it. Here are the six reasons it happens, in the order they occur.
- Wind and hail deductibles 10 min read Your 2% Hail Deductible Is Not 2% of the Claim The percentage applies to the insured value of the building, not the size of the claim. Most owners find that out at claim time, which is the worst possible moment.
- Subscribe or not 9 min read Workers' Comp or Non-Subscriber? A Houston Employer's Decision Texas lets most private employers decline workers' compensation. Whether you should is rarely decided by the premium — it is usually decided by a contract you have already signed.
- Staffing agencies 9 min read Workers' Comp for Houston Staffing and Temp Agencies You are the employer of record, so the comp exposure follows every placement into every client site — and the client controls the working conditions you are being rated on.
If you are ready
When the certificate is due tomorrow or the audit already landed, an independent agency can compare the markets that write your class and tell you what the contract actually requires before you buy cover you do not need.