A ground-floor shop in a residential block, an office on the third floor of an office building: the company’s assets live inside a larger building structure. The building’s policy and the company’s policy are two separate worlds – knowing the boundary between them is worth its weight in gold at claim time.
- The building’s own policy typically protects the shared parts of the building – not the company’s furnishings, stock or tenant’s fit-out.
- The company needs cover for its own asset groups – plus clarity on the boundary zone (the parts of the building within its own unit).
- A claim often involves two insurers: the building’s and the company’s – good documentation matters twice as much.
What does the building’s policy protect?
Condominium and office-building policies typically protect the building as a whole – the structure, common areas, shared building services; the exact scope varies by building, and ownership of the parts within a given unit (finishes, partition walls, doors and windows) depends on the terms. The tarsashaz.biz site covers this topic in detail from the building’s side. From the company’s point of view, the question runs the other way: what is it that the building’s policy definitely does not cover? The answer: the company’s furnishings, stock, and tenant’s fit-out – in other words, the real values tied to running the business.
The company’s own territory
The company’s cover is the familiar trio: furnishings, stock, and, for a rented unit, the tenant’s fit-out – plus the glass question (storefront, shop window: who owns it and who insures it – the glass article). Burglary-cover requirements (bars, an alarm) are typically most relevant for ground-floor units: the burglary article. Water damage is a particularly common claim type here: the upstairs neighbour, the stack pipe, the shared plumbing – the source of the claim is often in the building, but the company suffers the loss.
When two insurers are involved
Water leaks from the stack pipe into the shop: part of the repair is the building’s policy, the ruined stock is the company’s – two notifications, two claims, referring to each other. In cases like this, documentation needs double the care (photos, a report, notifying the joint representative), and the liability angle can come into play too (towards the insurer of the party at fault). If the case gets stuck between the insurers, this is exactly where the broker’s help is useful: stuck or disputed claims.
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