Does Insurance Cover Riots?
For the past week, the rioting nationwide brought destruction to many businesses and properties. Those who don’t have an insurance policy surely are not covered. On the other hand, you may think that you’re not covered during riots even if you have insurance. This would be very far off from the truth though.
If you have a business owner’s insurance policy or commercial property insurance, the damages incurred to your property is going to be covered. As for what’s going to be covered, you need to take a look at your policy. While some insurance policies can cover the property damage and the looting or destruction of goods, some even offer money for the days you couldn’t operate your business.
However, depending on your insurance policy—the loss of income may not be covered fully. Insurance companies generally cover three days worth of loss of income for a week. To see more details on loss of income coverage, take a look at your policy.
The loss of income here is a bit tricky because not all business owner’s insurance policies cover it. For the loss of income to be covered, the policyholder generally needs to have a standard business policy. Since every claim is going to be evaluated in its own terms and set of facts, there isn’t a single way to calculate the coverage amount.
Vandalism, Theft and Riot Coverage Amount
Just like any other insurance claim, there will be an evaluation. If you have a broken storefront glass and some items that were looted, the coverage will be less than another store with serious structural damages such as a fire. With that said, the insurance companies may treat the claim as putting together a new business or just offer a certain amount for repairs.
Although most things are going to be covered by the insurance, certain damages due to inattention may not. If there were something around your store that needed fixing before the riot, it most certainly won’t be covered by insurance.
Before you make any claims, we suggest tracking the damages, loss of income, and expenses. You may be required to do these things before knocking on the door of the insurance company. In either way scenario, you should set up a separate accounting code to track the insured losses.
