General Liability Insurance in California

WHAT IS GENERAL LIABILITY INSURANCE?

Commercial  General Liability helps protect your business from claims of bodily injury and property damage. These kinds of claims can come up during normal business operations. Without coverage, you would have to pay for damages out of pocket.

 WHAT DOES GENERAL LIABILITY INSURANCE COVER?

General liability insurance helps cover your costs to respond to a claim that your business caused property damage or bodily injury. It can help pay for:

• A customer or client’s medical expenses if they slip and fall in your business.
• Repair costs to fix a wall that your employee accidentally damaged while working at a customer’s home.
• Legal costs to defend your business in a lawsuit.
• Judgments and settlements from a customer or client’s lawsuit

WHAT IS HAZARD INSURANCE?

Hazard insurance is coverage that protects a property owner against damage caused by fires, severe storms, hail/sleet, or other natural events. If the specific weather event is covered within the policy, the property owner will receive compensation to cover the cost of any damage incurred.

WHAT DOES HAZARD INSURANCE COVER?

As the term implies, hazard insurance will cover the property in the event of catastrophic damage or hazards. Those events may include, but are not limited to:

• Hail
• Damage from lightning
• Fire
• Explosions
• Water damage
• Civil unrest and riots
• Vandalism and theft
• Other Damage (eg: a tree crushing your roof)

WHY DOES THE SBA REQUIRE HAZARD INSURANCE FOR EIDL LOANS?  

The Small Business Administration is a lender. Just like any other lender, the SBA is trying to protect their loan’s collateral from unforeseen circumstances. For this reason, the Small Business Administration requires all borrowers to obtain hazard insurance within 12 months of getting approved for one of their loans. That includes all Economic Injury Disaster Loans. In addition, all borrowers are required to maintain coverage throughout the life of the loan.

A part of your Economic Injury Disaster Loan agreement is to provide additional information.

SBA LOAN REQUIREMENT 

Please see below the document we are requesting:

• Proof of Hazard Insurance: borrower must hold hazard insurance for the minimum 80% of business assets.

- Policy should state Business Personal Property/ Contents coverage

- Not liability, or only personal property coverage

Submitted Insurance Policy documents must confirm:

- What is covered under the policy and how much the policy is for.