ACE Division Rolls Out Vacant Building and Land Insurance Products

With more than 10 million commercial and residential properties unoccupied in the United States, exposing owners to a host of potential exposures, ACE Commercial Risk Services has launched Vacant Building and Vacant Land insurance products focused on small businesses.

The new products include specific options for small-business owners that were previously unavailable, the company said in a statement, including the ability to consider replacement cost and special cause of loss for qualified properties.

“Insurance coverage for vacant property is typically excluded from traditional business owner policies, and many owners wrongly assume their existing policies will provide coverage should a property become vacant,” David Charlton, division president for property/casualty and micro-business at ACE Commercial Risk Services, said in the statement.

Lack of vacancy coverage “has left property owners vulnerable and financially liable in the event of third-party bodily injury on site, even if access to the premises was unauthorized or unknown to the owner,” he added.

Key features and limits available in the ACE Commercial Risk Services Vacant Building and Vacant Land products include:

Vacant Building:

Up to $5,000,000 in total property values; general liability limits of up to $1,000,000 per occurrence and up to $3,000,000 in the aggregate.
Ability to consider special form cause of loss and replacement cost coverage.
No length of vacancy restrictions.
Ability to consider locations undergoing renovation.
Shorter policy terms of three, six or nine months also available.

Vacant Land:

General liability limits of up to $1,000,000 per occurrence and up to $3,000,000 in the aggregate.
No length of vacancy restrictions.
Shorter policy terms of three, six or nine months also available.
Ability to consider an exposure of two lakes or ponds on premises

ACE Commercial Risk Services said it will continue to launch new products for small businesses (with 20 or fewer employees) in the fourth quarter of 2014 and through 2015.