Who asks a commissary kitchen for what
| Who | What they usually want to see |
|---|---|
| Landlords & commercial leases | General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation |
| Banks, lenders & SBA loans | Property or auto physical damage with the lender as loss payee, and liability proof at closing and every renewal |
| Cities, counties & permits | General liability, auto and workers' compensation at the limits in the permit or contract |
Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.
How to check what you already have
- General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
- Property section. Limits for building, business personal property and tenant improvements against replacement cost, the coinsurance percentage, the deductible, and whether flood and earthquake are excluded (they usually are).
- Business income. The limit or actual-loss-sustained wording, the waiting period, the period of restoration and whether extra expense is included.
- Equipment breakdown. The limit, the covered equipment, spoilage and business income under breakdown, and the deductible.
- Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
- Umbrella schedule of underlying insurance. Each primary policy listed with the limits the umbrella expects; a gap between the two is uninsured.
- Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
- Business owner's policy declarations. Liability limits on the first page, then the property section: building (if you own), business personal property, business income and the named extras such as spoilage, equipment breakdown or employee dishonesty. Confirm the property values are current.
- Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
- Crime declarations. Employee theft, forgery, funds-transfer fraud and social engineering each have their own limit; third-party coverage if you work in clients' premises.
- Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
What usually goes wrong for commissary and shared kitchens
- Tenant operators with no insurance of their own, which makes the commissary the only insured party in the building.
- Shared equipment damaged by one tenant and claimed against the facility.
- Tenant improvements insured by nobody, because the lease says one thing and the policy another.
- Property values set when the doors opened and never raised.
- Owners' policies that assume the manager is insured and a manager's policy that assumes the reverse.
- A workers' compensation estimate set low in January and settled with a large audit bill in the spring.
What underwriters will ask a commissary kitchen
- Number of tenant operators and how their insurance is verified, equipment values, hours of operation, and the licence agreement's terms
- Square footage, whether you own or lease, the building's age and sprinklers
- Replacement cost of the equipment, fixtures and stock on site
- Units and associations under management, trust-account controls and whether you employ on-site staff
- Payroll by class of work, headcount and turnover
- Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection
Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.
Renewal timing
Workers' compensation is audited on actual payroll and liability on sales, so a busy year ends with a bill unless the estimates were kept honest; pay-as-you-go billing through your payroll company removes most of that. Renewal autopilot starts the comparison sixty days out, prefilled from the wallet.