Not wanting to muck up Dave's Business insurance/attitudes thread, this is a related thread for small, one man, rebuilding and in-home service businesses, with a shop on or at their residence. My shop is a large stand alone building next to my house. I carry commercial insurance to cover the shop building (separate from homeowners) all under an umbrella commercial liability policy. The policy sets me back just under 2K/yr. Over the years I've done a fair amount of shopping and switching carriers, but the bottom line is always that the coverage for the building alone is a huge percentage of my insurance bill. Since the building is considered a "commercial" building (even though its on residential real estate), the carriers require the replacement value of the building to be covered at a rate well beyond what I would need to rebuild the entire building, its jigs, machinery, replace client property, etc. So the property coverage is charged at a rate proportional to the excessive commercial replacement value, no matter who I talk to. The commercial liability which comes with the umbrella policy is much easier to swallow, in the $400 department. So those of you with shops on your property, as opposed to rented shop space, are you shelling out that kind of dough for "commercial" property insurance. I checked the insurance guys that PTG is affiliated with, but they couldn't deal with covering a "commercial" building. Homeowners policies, by the way, at least in MA, though they can cover at home businesses with a waiver, do not seem to be viable policies for a large stand alone commercially intended building. Jim Ialeggio -- Jim Ialeggio jim at grandpianosolutions.com (978) 425-9026 Shirley, MA
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