Guides
Signs, glass and outdoor property: what commercial property covers
Signs, storefront glass, fences, trees and parking lots sit at the edges of a commercial property policy. Where the ISO CP 00 10 limits fall and who pays.
A standard commercial property policy treats signs, glass and outdoor property as special cases, and each one carries a limit or a condition that surprises owners at claim time. In the ISO building and personal property form CP 00 10 (10 12 edition), an outdoor sign is covered but capped at $2,500 per sign per occurrence, building glass is covered with a few conditions, and fences, antennas, trees and shrubs get only $1,000 of protection against five named perils. Paved lots, sidewalks and retaining walls are not covered at all.
Policy language varies. This guide follows the ISO text because most commercial policies are built on it, but many carriers use older editions, manuscript wording or a businessowners policy with its own limits. Read your declarations and forms.
Outdoor signs: covered, but capped
An attached sign is part of the building (the building definition includes "fixtures, including outdoor fixtures"). A freestanding pylon or monument sign is Your Business Personal Property if it sits in the open within 100 feet of the building or premises. Either way, the Limits of Insurance section of CP 00 10 10 12 says the most the carrier will pay for outdoor signs, "whether or not the sign is attached to a building," is $2,500 per sign in any one occurrence.
That figure was written for a plain painted sign. It does not fit a lighted cabinet sign, an LED message board or a 30-foot pylon, any of which can cost many times $2,500 to replace. Older ISO editions and some carrier forms handle signs differently, treating detached signs as property not covered or insuring them for a short list of named perils, so confirm which edition you hold.
Three practical points:
- The cap is per sign, per occurrence. A storm that takes down three signs is three $2,500 limits, but a $22,000 sign is still a $2,500 claim.
- The causes of loss form still decides the peril. Under the special form the sign is covered against direct physical loss unless excluded. Under the basic or broad form, a sign is covered only for the listed perils. See basic, broad and special causes of loss forms: what each covers.
- Electrical failure is a different coverage. The special form excludes damage from artificially generated electrical energy and mechanical breakdown. A transformer burning out inside a lit sign is an equipment breakdown insurance: what it covers that property insurance does not question, not a property question.
If the sign is worth more than the cap, ask for an outdoor sign endorsement or a scheduled limit written to the sign's replacement cost, and ask whether it is valued at replacement cost or actual cash value. The ISO businessowners program treats outdoor signs through its own endorsement and limits, so a BOP buyer should confirm on the declarations whether signs are covered and for how much.
Fences, antennas, trees and the Outdoor Property extension
CP 00 10 lists, under Property Not Covered, the following property while outside of buildings: fences; radio and television antennas, including satellite dishes, and their lead-in wiring, masts and towers; and trees, shrubs and plants other than "stock" or plants that are part of a vegetated roof. The Outdoor Property extension then gives a little of it back, with these terms:
| Term | What the form says |
|---|---|
| Property | Outdoor fences, antennas (including satellite dishes), trees, shrubs and plants, plus debris removal expense |
| Causes of loss | Fire, lightning, explosion, riot or civil commotion, or aircraft, and only if they are Covered Causes of Loss |
| Limit | $1,000 per occurrence, not more than $250 for any one tree, shrub or plant |
| Coinsurance | Does not apply to the extension |
Wind, hail, falling trees, vehicles and vandalism are not on that list. A fence blown flat in a windstorm or a parking-lot light pole knocked over by a truck is not paid under this extension. Separately, the form excludes bridges, roadways, walks, patios and other paved surfaces, retaining walls that are not part of a building, bulkheads, piers, wharves and docks, and underground pipes, flues and drains. For a landlord with a large lot, a pylon and a monument sign, that is a real exposure. Ask about endorsements that restore specific items, and about inland marine insurance for tools, equipment and goods in transit for outdoor equipment.
Debris removal follows the same logic: the form does not pay to remove debris of property that is Property Not Covered, including property addressed under the Outdoor Property extension. See commercial property insurance: what it covers and what it doesn't for how the debris removal additional coverage works for everything else.
A hypothetical example
Say a retailer rents a corner unit. The tenant owns an illuminated wall sign (replacement cost $9,000) and a freestanding monument sign at the road ($15,000). The landlord owns the parking lot and the landscaping.
| Item | Loss event | Standard CP 00 10 result |
|---|---|---|
| Illuminated wall sign | Fire spreads from a neighboring unit | Covered peril, but paid to the $2,500 per-sign limit, less the deductible |
| Monument sign | Pickup truck backs into it | Depends on the causes of loss form and on whether it is scheduled; the $2,500 cap still applies |
| Landscaping | Windstorm uproots trees | Not paid under the extension, which excludes wind |
| Parking lot | Fire damages the pavement | Paved surfaces are Property Not Covered |
The figures are invented to show the mechanics. In this example the tenant is out roughly $18,000 on the signs alone, because both exceed the cap, and the landlord carries the paving and landscaping risk. That conversation belongs in the lease; see insurance requirements in commercial leases.
Glass
Building glass is part of the building. On an owner's policy it is insured under the building limit and rated into the building. Glass gets particular handling in four places:
- Valuation.
CP 00 10values glass at the cost of replacement with safety-glazing material if the law requires it. A broken pane replaced with tempered or laminated glass is paid at that cost, which can be higher than the old pane. - Temporary protection. The Glass extension in the special form,
CP 10 30, pays expenses to put up temporary plates or board up openings if glass repair or replacement is delayed. It also pays to remove or replace obstructions when repairing building glass, but not window displays. It does not increase the limit. - Glass inside other limitations. The special form restricts certain property to losses caused by the "specified causes of loss" or building glass breakage, so glass breakage can trigger coverage for property that would otherwise be limited. The fragile-articles limitation expressly does not apply to glass, and the pollutant exclusion does not apply to damage to glass caused by chemicals applied to it.
- Vacancy. When a building has been vacant for more than 60 consecutive days, the form stops paying for vandalism, sprinkler leakage (unless the system was protected against freezing), building glass breakage, water damage, theft and attempted theft. Other covered losses are reduced by 15%. The form defines a building owned by the insured as vacant unless at least 31% of its square footage is rented and used by tenants or by the owner for customary operations. A tenant's space is vacant when it lacks enough business personal property to conduct customary operations. vacant building insurance and the vacancy clause covers that rule in full.
On a named-peril form, glass is covered when a listed peril breaks it: windstorm, hail, vandalism, riot, a vehicle or an explosion, for example. Check whether your form lists glass breakage as its own peril.
Who insures the glass in a leased space
In a multi-tenant building, the lease decides. Many leases make the tenant responsible for storefront and interior glass, and the landlord's insurance may exclude it or recover its loss from the tenant. If you are the tenant and your lease puts glass on you, your own policy has to cover it. ISO's tenant endorsements CP 14 01 (scheduled building property) and CP 14 02 (unscheduled building property), updated in 2017, let a tenant insure certain landlord-owned building property, and Chris Boggs of the Big "I" Virtual University reported in IA Magazine in October 2017 that ISO withdrew its former glass endorsement, CP 14 70, in favor of them. CP 14 01 includes building glass in its definition of building property. CP 14 02 requires a separate glass limit. A tenant's own improvements and betterments are a separate item with their own valuation rules.
Checking your policy
Before renewal, walk through this list with your broker:
- List every sign by type, location, replacement cost and who owns it (you or the landlord).
- Compare each against the per-sign limit on the declarations and ask for a higher limit or a scheduled item if it falls short.
- Confirm which causes of loss form applies to outdoor property. Wind is the commonest loss.
- Ask what the policy says about the parking lot, sidewalks, fences, light poles and landscaping, and who is responsible under the lease.
- Confirm the glass deductible, who insures the storefront, and what the vacancy provision means for the building.
- Check that the commercial property exclusions: what the standard policy won't pay you read are the exclusions in your edition of the forms.
Key takeaways
- In
CP 00 10 10 12, outdoor signs are covered up to $2,500 per sign per occurrence, whether or not attached to the building. Valuable or lighted signs need a higher limit or a separate endorsement. - Fences, antennas, trees, shrubs and plants outside buildings are Property Not Covered, except under an extension that pays $1,000 ($250 per plant) for fire, lightning, explosion, riot or civil commotion, or aircraft. Wind and vehicles are not on the list.
- Paved surfaces, retaining walls, piers and underground pipes are excluded from the base form, so ownership under the lease matters.
- Glass is valued at safety-glazing replacement cost where the law requires it, and building glass breakage stops being covered once a building is vacant for more than 60 days.
- In a lease, the glass and sign obligations decide whose policy has to respond.