Tel: 619-259-5459
Competitive Edge Insurance
  • Construction
  • Business
    • Health and Wellness Insurance
    • Cyber Liability
    • Bonding
    • General Business Insurance
    • EIDL Insurance Requirements
  • Personal Lines
    • Auto Insurance
    • Boat Insurance
    • Homeowners Insurance
  • About Us
  • Resources
    • Articles and Insights
    • Trusted Advisors
  • Contact
  • Menu Menu
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Youtube

Tag Archive for: Building Owner

How Does a Building Owner Know if They Are Underinsured?

in News

As a building owner, the consequences of your building being underinsured can be detrimental. Even so, 75% of commercial buildings are currently underinsured. As a building owner or property investor, how can you make sure your building is adequately insured?

Today, we have Brenda Jo Robyn, founder of Competitive Edge Insurance, on camera to answer this question. What elements can you look at to identify if you’re underinsured? What steps can you take to stay adequately insured?

Let’s see what she has to say.

Elements That Can Show a Property is Underinsured

Picture this: You have a building, but don’t know the last time it was evaluated in terms of a replacement cost. The building has most likely had some renovations in the last five to 10 years.

This considered, what elements do you need to look at to see if your building is underinsured?

Increase in Building Costs

As many have well noticed, the average cost of buildings has gone up. In our community, where the Competitive Edge office is housed, prices have jumped from $275 a square foot to $325 a square foot.

When you’re insuring your building, it’s really important to take this shift into consideration. Moreover, consider appraising the building for the replacement to rebuild from the ground up (but more on this later).

Water Damage Claims

Secondly, most building owners have little or no protection for water damage claims. Hold on… Don’t roll your eyes yet!

While most building owners have fire on their radar, many don’t think about water. However, they should—considering over 44% of homeowners or property investors have experienced water damage inside the residence.

Water damage can cost a business owner anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. Today, we’re seeing more $50,000 to $75,000 claims being paid. And why is that? 

There are many ways this can happen. Imagine this scenario: A building owner goes away for the weekend, and there’s been a leak he or she doesn’t know about. Or, maybe it’s in a commercial building and a toilet is leaking into the floor below. Again, the owner is three to four days out, and all of a sudden now there’s mold. It may be in the walls and have to be remediated. It can be quite costly to repair that.

Regardless, many people have a mere $5,000 worth of water damage on their policy. It’s not enough.

What Can I Do to Make Sure My Building Is Properly Insured?

There’s one primary thing a building owner can and should do to ensure that their building is adequately insured.

Property Valuations

The first place Brenda Jo recommends starting is ensuring every building owner has a currently valued property.

Having a currently valued property looks at a replacement cost estimate, which no, it’s not intended to replace the original asset (unless it’s a reproduction), but the valuation is intended that the new building would be able to serve in the same purpose that the old building existed for.

Every building is unique. So, how do you calculate this cost estimate?

A building’s cost estimate is based on:

  • Similar designs
  • Construction standards
  • Quality of workmanship
  • Uniqueness or complexity (i.e. standard building vs. a super custom building)
  • Building age
  • Common elements
  • Current building codes
  • Hard construction costs (i.e. materials)
  • Soft construction costs (i.e. design plans, demolition costs)
  • Location (Is the building in the city or rural?)

Conducting an annual insurance review is also key, and takes little to no time.

It can be difficult to arrive at this figure yourself, which is why our team at Competitive Edge Insurance is here to help.

Now, we’ve talked about water… Let’s chat about protecting your building from fire. Read on to find out why you need fire insurance as a property investor.

https://compedgeins.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/How-Does-a-Building-Owner-Know-if-They-Are-Underinsured-2.png 628 1200 https://compedgeins.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/logoweb.png 2022-05-08 19:00:002024-01-02 17:57:56How Does a Building Owner Know if They Are Underinsured?

CATEGORIES

RECENT POSTS

  • Cyber Security Image by Anderson Piza at Envato Elements | Licensed
    6 Current Cyber Threats Companies Face: How to Stay Safe
  • Insurance Form Image by rfaizal707 at Envato ElementsEnvato Elements by rfaizal707
    Understanding the Hard Insurance Market and Its Impact on You
  • Black and White Photo of a man writing a contract
    EPLI: Does Your Construction Business Need It?

CONNECT WITH US

VIDEO POSTS

  • City view of commercial buildings, including skyscrapers surrounded by trees
    How to COPE in an Inflationary Environment
  • Coronado bridge aerial view
    Get to Know Our Founder: Her Rotary Involvement
  • Insurtech holographic image with man using ipad
    The Coverage Pitfalls of Insurtech
LET’S TALK

WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH YOU COULD BE SAVING ON YOUR INSURANCE COSTS?

WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH YOU COULD BE SAVING ON YOUR INSURANCE COSTS?

LET’S TALK

Connect With Us

Competitive Edge Insurance

LIC #0H31982

P: 619-259-5459
F: 619-377-0144

830 Orange Ave Suite L Coronado, CA 92118

Privacy Policy

Hours of Operation

Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM

Saturday Closed

Sunday Closed

© Copyright 2021- Competitive Edge Insurance

site design by digitalstoryteller.io

© Copyright 2021- Competitive Edge Insurance
site design by digitalstoryteller.io

Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy
Accept settings