What is Florida Garage Insurance?
If you sell, service, provide parking or storage facilities for automobiles, you need specialized coverage for your business. Damage to a customer’s car or property, or accidents, such as a customer slip and fall, can result in expensive judgments against your business. A Garage Policy will cover these and other risks, as well as expenses associated with any legal action taken against your business.
Who does a Garage Policy cover?
A garage policy provides coverage for automobile and trailer dealers and includes their general liability exposures, as well as commercial vehicle protection. Both auto and trailer dealers who are franchised, as in the case of new cars, or non-franchised, as in the case of used cars, require a Garage Policy. Some insurers use a similar form if you are in the business of servicing autos. Such establishments include repair shops, body shops, service stations, storage garages, public parking facilities, and tow truck operators. Other insurers use general liability and business automobile forms for these types of businesses. The coverage is similar, but the form used is specific to their company. Your agent can help you with the details to ensure that all of your exposures are properly covered.
What are some coverages provided by a Florida Garage Policy?
Basic coverages available in a Garage Policy may include:
- Garage Liability – insures bodily injury and property damage losses resulting from garage operations.
- Garagekeepers Liability – provides coverage for damage to a customer’s automobile that is being serviced, repaired or stored at the garage (commonly referred to as “in the care, custody, and control” of the garage). Usually without this coverage, these types of losses will be excluded.
- Physical Damage – provides comprehensive and collision coverage for automobiles. If you are a dealer, autos held for sale are insured by the total amount of values being held for sale rather than scheduling each individual automobile. A dealer can also select if coverage applies to new, used, or demonstrator automobiles and the interest covered (owned, financed, or consignment).
What are some additional coverages provided by a Florida Garage Policy?
There are a number of additional coverages available for consideration:
- Building and Personal Property – covers business equipment such as tools and computers.
- Business Income and Extra Expense – protects you from loss of business income, if you cannot continue your operations due to a covered loss. Extra Expense coverage provides money for specified types of additional expenses, such as increased rent, resulting from the renovation of your property due to a covered loss.
- Crime and Fidelity – coverage for the loss of money, securities, or inventory resulting from employee acts of dishonesty, embezzlement, forgery, robbery, or burglary.
Dealers have an option for reporting the total value of automobiles held for sale and covered by comprehensive and collision. This can be either monthly or quarterly.
- Broadened Coverage – provides coverage for additional liabilities, such as personal and advertising injury, host liquor, fire legal, incidental medical malpractice, and non-owned watercraft.
- False Pretense – covers an automobile that has been acquired from a seller who does not own the automobile legally.
- Dealers Driveaway Collision – protects an automobile while it is driven or or transported from the point of purchase to the final destination.
There are two additional options available for Garagekeepers insurance:
- Direct Excess – provides coverage when the insured is not legally liable for the loss to a customer’s auto. This coverage applies in excess of the amount that a customer collects from his own insurance company.
- Direct Primary – provides Garagekeepers coverage for losses to business, regardless of liability or the ability of the customer to collect from his own insurance company.
Does a Florida Garage Policy have deductibles?
There are deductible options available for garage coverage. Deductibles are most commonly used for automobile comprehensive and collision policies.
This is a general description of a Garage Policy. It is not an explanation of your personal insurance policy. You must refer to your own individual policy to determine its coverage, definitions, limits, conditions, and requirements.