Warehouse Insurance
A warehouse business needs an insurance policy that includes coverage for property damage, potential liabilities, and more.
Written by
Christine Lacagnina has written thousands of insurance-based articles for TrustedChoice.com by authoring consumable, understandable content.
Warehouse owners store goods for customers and collect rent as compensation. However, many potential risks come along with owning a warehouse. Lawsuits can arise, property damage or theft can occur, or business operations can be suspended due to unforeseen incidents. Without the right warehouse insurance coverage in place, you could end up paying for these losses out of your own pocket.
Luckily, an independent insurance agent can help you find the right business insurance for warehouses. They'll get you matched to a policy that considers every aspect of your business's operations. But first, here's a closer look at warehouse insurance and why it's necessary.
What Is Warehouse Insurance?
Protecting your buildings and what’s inside them is one of the most important goals for any warehouse owner. Warehouse insurance, simply put, is a set of coverages that are designed to protect you from liability, property damage, and other claims that may arise. The exact type and amount of warehouse legal liability insurance and other types of coverage you need depend on the type of structure you own, the kind of items you store inside, and the way you handle those items.
Your warehouse insurance cost can depend on a few different factors, possibly including if your warehouse is equipped with sprinklers or an alarm system or if any of the property stored inside is highly flammable. All of these variables can play a role in causing damage to the goods you store and protect.
Save on Business Insurance
Our independent agents shop around to find you the best coverage.
Why Warehouse Owners Need Property and Liability Coverage
While the purpose of your business is to store and protect other people’s property, your first step is to secure your own. With warehouse business property insurance, you can protect your buildings and their contents, your grounds, and other structures from damage due to fire, weather, smoke, theft, and other causes of loss. Business property insurance also protects office equipment, computers, furniture, tools, and equipment.
How Liability Insurance Helps Protect Your Warehouse Business
Like any other business, you may also need commercial general liability coverage or warehouse liability insurance to protect anyone on your premises from accidents, injuries, and property damage caused by your negligence or hazards on your property. Liability insurance for warehouses can help reimburse your business for lawsuits stemming from customer or other third-party claims of bodily injury or personal property damage. Without the right coverage, your business could have to pay out-of-pocket for the cost of a lawsuit.
Warehouse liability claims can come from a number of sources, including:
- Theft
- Fire
- Flood
- Temperature variations
- Roof collapses
- Missing items
- Shipping and handling errors
- Improper facility maintenance
- Infestations
If your negligence as the owner leads to any one of these circumstances, you could be held liable and be sued. That's why having the right liability protection for your warehouse business is critical. Additionally, some insurance companies offer warehouse legal liability insurance (also sometimes referred to as bailee’s coverage), a policy specifically designed to protect warehouse customers.
Additional Warehouse Insurance Coverages to Consider
You may want to consider a few additional business insurance policies for your warehouse, depending on your business's operations and its exposures. These may include:
- Workers' compensation: Covers expenses related to incidents of employee injury or illness related to job duties or the work environment.
- Employment practices liability insurance: Covers costs related to employee lawsuits filed against your business for claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harassment, and others.
- Cyber liability insurance: Covers costs related to data breaches or cyber-attacks against your business.
- Crime insurance: Covers incidents of employee dishonesty as well as any acts of crime against your business.
- Business interruption insurance: Covers losses that can be incurred during temporary business shutdowns due to covered disasters such as fires.
- Commercial vehicle insurance: Covers liability and other incidents involving company vehicles.
An independent insurance agent can help you build the right warehouse insurance policy for your unique business.
Here's How an Independent Insurance Agent Can Help
Independent insurance agents have access to multiple companies that sell warehouse insurance. They can shop and compare policies and pull quotes for you. Ultimately, they'll get you matched to the policy that offers the right blend of coverage and cost.