Properly providing property and liability insurance for commercial real estate has become an increasingly complex task.
New York and the Northeastern United States are full of commercial structures that are fifty to one hundred years old. This creates underwriting challenges not intrinsic to newer construction. Old buildings are subject to cumulative wear and tear, complicating the underwriting of property insurance. Furthermore asbestos, mold, lead, and improper ventilation, the “sick building issues”, complicate the underwriting of liability insurance.
The New York State Labor Law, which imposes strict liability on commercial property owners, for certain causes of worker injury requires an astute knowledge of contract risk management, contractual risk transfers, and how complex liability policies do or don’t provide the required coverage.
Properly providing commercial property insurance requires an astute understanding of insurance to value, coinsurance, agreed valuations, ordinance or law exposures, internal and external perils, and the flood and earthquake risks.