A single question decides which insurance applies: whose property was damaged? If it's the company's own – that's property insurance. If it's someone else's, and the company caused the damage – that's liability insurance. The formula is simple, but real life likes to reach across the line.
- Property insurance: the company's own building, machinery, and stock – that's the subject here, on vagyon.biz.
- Liability insurance: damage the company causes to someone else – that's the territory of felelosseg.biz.
- A single loss event often involves both policies – which is why the two need to be aligned with each other.
The formula, illustrated
The company's warehouse lets in water and its own stock gets soaked: that's property damage – the company's property insurance pays. The company's water pipe floods the neighbouring firm's office: that's damage caused to someone else – if the company is legally liable for the damage, that liability is typically covered by its liability insurance; whether liability exists and how far the cover extends is decided by the law and the policy wording. A fire breaks out in the workshop: the company's machinery is a property matter, the neighbouring building damaged by the spreading fire is a liability matter. In a rented hall, damage caused by the tenant's fault is likewise a liability question – owed to the landlord.
Why is it easy to mix these up?
Because everyday language says the same thing about both: “the insurer pays.” Yet the two policies' logic points in opposite directions: property insurance looks inward (it protects the company's own assets), liability insurance looks outward (it answers for damage the company causes to others). Neither replaces the other: not even the best liability insurance will pay for the company's own machinery that burned down – and the reverse is equally true. Broad protection for the company needs both directions, with their content aligned to each other.
Typical cases in the grey zone
A rented property: damage caused in the rented building is a liability question towards the landlord – the company's own equipment is a property question: who insures what. Service centres and workshops: customers' equipment taken in for work isn't the company's property – damage to it is a liability matter with its own separate cover: the workshop article. A shop in an apartment building: a shared-riser dispute and damage to neighbours is a two-way story: business premises in an apartment building. At the site survey, we look at both sides together – the detailed liability topics live on felelosseg.biz.
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