Even the biggest, technically advanced companies make mistakes from time to time.
After all, they’re still only human (although robots and AI can make mistakes too!)
The difference, however, between a strong business owner and a less-than-ideal leader is how you handle mistakes when they’ve been made.
Depending on the error or mistake that’s occurred, it could be pretty detrimental to your business. This is why things like commercial liability insurance are so important.
But what actually is commercial liability insurance? What does it cover, and – perhaps more importantly – what doesn’t it cover?
What is commercial liability insurance?
There are a huge number of opportunities for damage, injury, or risks to occur while running a business. As the business owner, you’ll be accountable for these and responsible for the aftermath.
Say one of your staff drops hot coffee on a customer in your café, or you cause damage to a client’s building. Perhaps a product you’ve designed has ended up injuring a child. What happens then?
Though none of these incidents are great to think about, they can happen. However, with commercial liability insurance from www.kbdinsurance.com, you can protect yourself and your business’s assets.
Often referred to as CGL (commercial general liability insurance), this insurance covers the costs when your business is held responsible for damage to property belonging to someone else or injury to another person.
Policies tend to cover unintentional and even indirect damage.
Why do I need commercial liability insurance?
Everyone likes to see the good in other people. But the reality isn’t always like that.
Where your company is deemed at fault, CGL can cover physical damage to a third party – whether that’s an object, property, or person.
And people can easily take advantage of this – so long as they have a way to prove you were at fault.
Everything from a person tripping on a wire while visiting your office for an interview to a burst pipe flooding the basement months after installation can get you pulled into a claim.
Because nobody wants to pay for medical bills or house refurbishments for someone else’s error.
And that’s exactly why you need commercial liability insurance.
What’s covered in CGL?
There are two types of coverage for commercial liability: Occurrence and claims-made.
If you get out of occurrence insurance, this policy will cover any damage that occurs when your policy is in place. Even if the claim comes later.
On the other hand, claims-made insurance means both the damage and the claim have to be within your policy period.
What’s not covered?
CGL insurance covers mainly physical harm or damage. Professional liability isn’t covered, where perhaps you’ve offered the wrong advice or provided bad service. Neither is a cyber liability that can help your business recover from cyberattacks.
If your staff revolt and decide to sue the company for bad management, directors and board members also aren’t covered under CGL, but different types of insurance are available for these occurrences.
The most important thing to remember about commercial liability insurance is even if you think something wasn’t your fault, there’s still a chance you’ll have to fight your case. So, it’s better to be prepared rather than add stress to the situation in the future.
