Does Your Property Insurance Cover Vandalism at Your Business?

According to the Small Business Administration, one act of vandalism can cost an average of $3,370. As a business owner, you pay for this damage in several ways. A break-in or reported act of vandalism can cause businesses to lose customers out of fear. The repairs can be costly for businesses to cover.

While business owners have property insurance, it’s important to know what is covered when it comes to vandalism, and what the owner is responsible for.

More Than Just Aesthetics

When we think of vandalism, we tend to think of broken windows or graffiti covering buildings. However, a vandalized building can have so much more of an effect than just aesthetics.

  • Broken vehicles or machines can cause a business to come to a standstill. A broken machine cannot track orders, broken computers do not allow employees to complete their jobs. Damage like this may force your business out of your location while repairs happen. This may cause production to slow or even stop.
  • If additional space is needed, costs can increase with additional rent, supplies, not to mention the repairs necessary to bring the original building back to normal.
  • Sales are lost when customers stop appearing. Once news of a break-in hits the community, fear can pass through the business’s customer base. This can cause customers to refrain from visiting the business out of fear of personal safety, potentially decreasing sales and ultimately cash flow.
  • While we tend to think of physical vandalism, it’s also possible that crime can happen to technology as well. If your business is hit by a cyberattack, this can cost downtime to production. This can also include loss of sale – not to mention the need for an increase in security for all of your technology.

In worst-case scenarios, a cyberattack can leave your tech incredibly vulnerable to repeat problems like pop-ups, an increase of junk emails, slower systems, and much more. It can also produce a security breach for customer or account data, leaving businesses vulnerable to losing more and more customers due to a lack of trust.

What is Covered Under Property Insurance?

Insurance coverage for property damage and loss does not cover all types of vandalism or graffiti. Property insurance will cover losses including damage to:

  • Storefronts
  • Interior damage caused by vandalism
  • Broken windows
  • Graffiti
  • Debris removal

Businesses may also have coverage under their policies for losses if they are forced to close for clean up purposes. Income that is lost during the closings may be covered – this is known as dependent properties or contingent business extensions of coverage.

When looking at purchasing commercial property policies, it is important to consider the following while you shop for the right coverage and while processing a claim.

  1. Look at all policy options. Check all coverage and exclusions. A professional can help you make sure that all needed coverage is included in your policy and that nothing will be excluded especially vandalism claims.

  2. When necessary, track all damage, including expenses incurred from the damage or any loss of income. Insurance companies require detailed proof of loss at the beginning of a claim. Be sure to track all damage thoroughly. To make things easier to collect, consider creating a unique accounting code to log specific losses due to insured damages.

  3. Keep damage to a minimum. Try to reduce the amount of damage as much as possible. This means boarding up doors and windows quickly. Consider calling in a professional team like Roth Companies that can take over the board up process.

At Roth Companies, our board up process will do exactly that – board up any broken windows or doors to prevent additional damage or theft to your building. This service will keep your property safe until the Roth Companies can begin the cleanup and restoration process.

Call 800-874-3473 Roth Companies and Roth Construction Company services water, fire, smoke damage restoration and remediation for Cleveland, Elyria, Akron, Canton, Sandusky, Youngstown, OH, Ohio areasOur team will help get your business back on track and get you up and running again as quickly as possible with as little interruption to your business as necessary. If you are in the Cleveland area, give us a call at the first sign of trouble.

Posted in Commercial Property, Emergency Board Up, Posts.