A person walks into a business, falls, and damages his expensive watch. Is the business responsible for that loss? This is a common example of a general liability insurance claim. In many cases, business owners need to have this type of financial protection in place to limit any type of loss they have just by opening their doors. Take a closer look at when damaged property may be covered on your policy.
Does General Liability Insurance Cover Property Damage?
General liability insurance aims to help business owners avoid the financial burden of paying for losses their customers, clients or third-party visitors experience. There is the expectation that your business will be safe for a person to walk into and use.
Yet, problems can happen many times over, even as you try to avoid them. Proving that there is negligence happening is more complex, however.
Let’s say that someone does suffer a loss on your property. Will your insurance help you? In most cases, the answer is yes.
If the person is able to file a general liability insurance claim for the incident, then any losses he or she had during that period may have coverage. For example, if someone enters the property and slips on a wet floor, he or she may damage their watch, a laptop, or any other item they are carrying with them. If the claim applies to any injuries they suffer, it may cover the property damage, too.
Proving Negligence Is Complex
That’s not to say that anyone can file a claim though. What if the person walking in tripped over a table because he was not paying attention to where he was going? What if there was a clearly marked wet floor sign and someone was working on cleaning it up? The good news is that the individual has to prove that the business was negligent in the situation. That may not be as easy as it seems.
In a situation like this, your first step is to contact your insurance agent. Report the claim. Then, an adjuster will work with the person filing the claim to determine what happened and what type of loss they suffered. It is best to try to refrain from providing any promises to the individual, though. Let the agent handle all of these inquiries for you instead. It can help alleviate the frustrations involved.