Peeling Back the Onion with Parking Lots

My retailer called me up last month with a quick question on one of the policies that we write for him.  The insured was adding a new property to an already large schedule and wanted to know if the parking lots were still going to be covered since they were one foot below the flood plain.  It turns out that there would be no problem with the parking lot being below the flood plain…if the parking lots were covered!  You know that brief moment of panic where you think you have the perfect placement only to find a gaping hole in it?  At first, it doesn’t seem like parking lots not being covered wouldn’t be a big deal.  But thinking about the different scenarios makes you realize that an earthquake can destroy a parking lot quickly and a flood has the possibility of washing it away.

Luckily, we were able to endorse the policy to include ‘parking lots’ in the definition of other property covered and add a sublimit that is sufficient to cover the parking lots.

You probably already know that parking lots are excluded in the standard ISO form, but your major clients are probably not 'standard'.  The key is to make sure you understand your client's needs and ask for coverages that are free for the asking before coverage is placed, but very expensive if left uncovered for your insured to foot the bill when a loss happens.