Do You Need General Liability Insurance if You Have No On-Site Customers?

If you don't have customers come to your place of business, don't ignore commercial general liability insurance. Even without customers on-site, you still have liability risks, and you still probably need the coverage for other places.

People Will Still Come To Your Business

Even if you don't think you'll ever have a customer come to your business — not even once — there are still other people that could come to you and get injured. These might be maintenance workers, neighbors, salespeople, or contractors. If they trip on your rug or get burned by your coffee, they could still potentially file a lawsuit against you even though they're not customers. If you don't have liability insurance, you could find yourself personally on the hook.

You May Have Liability to Your Neighbors

There are several ways you could potentially injure or cause property damage to your neighbors. This might include leaving something on a walkway, having a deliveryman break a glass door, or you accidentally causing a flood or fire. When you're renting a space, the landlord may have insurance on the building, but that insurance generally only covers the landlord's negligence. If you caused damage to the building, the landlord's insurance company could hold you liable for what it had to pay. The same thing goes for your neighbors' property or medical insurance policies.

You Need Coverage When You're Out and About

Few people work in true isolation. You might need to go out to meet customers, visit vendors, attend trade conferences, or even run business errands. Virtually everyone might accidentally cause a trip and fall injury or have a chance of knocking over someone's expensive laptop. You may not think of these risks, since most people's homeowners' or renters' insurance would kick in for claims that aren't small enough to pay out of pocket. But you need business insurance to cover things that happen at work.

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