Does Business Property Insurance Cover A Collapsed Roof?

Each year, all property kinds experience some form of harm. Whether the harm is immediate or accumulates over time, it can rapidly become problematic. This is especially true when examining occurrences of commercial roof collapse. It may appear that a property owner would know quickly if their roof has fallen, but this is not the case.

Roof collapses often occur over time, and roofs are not likely to come apart suddenly. Most roof collapses happen when a roof exhibits indicators of deterioration or aging. Chronic suffering may indicate imminent collapse even if a business roof is still affixed to the building's structure. In light of this, is roof collapse covered by commercial property insurance?

Commercial property insurance protects damage to the building and its contents, including the roof, from specific perils and hazards. If the roof is damaged by hail or a tree falls on it, roof-related claims should be covered by insurance. However, when it comes to roof collapse occurrences, coverage ultimately depends on the reason for the collapse and if the property owner is aware of conditions that could cause a collapse.

Specific causes of roof collapse are specifically excluded from coverage, especially when the collapse results in total property destruction. Ultimately, the majority of property insurance policies exclude the total or partial collapse of a structure owing to a sudden fall or cave-in, loss of structural integrity, or any type of cracking, bulging, sagging, bending, tilting, settling, shrinkage, or expansion. However, there are a few outliers.

Damages are covered if the collapse results in a covered cause of loss at the location. Roofing collapse damage may also be covered by extra coverage or policy endorsements, such as unknown building degradation, bug or vermin damage, or the use of substandard materials if the collapse occurs after the completion of construction. A roof collapse may also be covered if it was caused by a covered cause of loss, such as the breaking of the building's glass, the weight of rain or snow on the roof, or the weight of property on the roof.

However, supplemental coverage for roof collapse events does not apply to any structure or portion of a structure that is at imminent risk of collapsing or to any portion of the property that is still standing, including the roof. This holds true regardless of cracking, sagging, bending, settling, shrinkage, or expansion. Ultimately, it must be sudden for a roof collapse to be fully covered by a commercial property insurance policy.