Commercial Auto Insurance

Commercial auto insurance covers vehicles owned, leased, or operated by your apartment business. This includes maintenance trucks, utility vehicles, golf carts used on large properties, tenant shuttle vans, and any other vehicles titled to or regularly used by the business. The policy provides both liability coverage for bodily injury and property damage caused by your vehicles and physical damage coverage for the vehicles themselves.

Liability coverage pays for injuries and property damage your vehicles cause to others. This includes medical expenses for injured parties, property repair costs, legal defense fees, and court judgments. Physical damage coverage, which includes collision and comprehensive, pays to repair or replace your own vehicles after an accident, theft, vandalism, or weather-related damage.

Commercial auto policies also provide coverage for hired and non-owned vehicles. Hired auto coverage applies to vehicles your business rents or borrows, while non-owned auto coverage applies when employees use their personal vehicles for business purposes, such as a property manager driving their own car to pick up supplies for the building.

Any apartment property that owns vehicles needs commercial auto insurance, both as a legal requirement and a financial safeguard. Personal auto insurance does not cover vehicles used for business purposes, and using a personal policy for a business vehicle can result in claim denial.

Even apartment properties that do not own vehicles often have auto liability exposure. When a maintenance worker drives their personal car to pick up parts, or a property manager uses their own vehicle to show units at different locations, the apartment business can be held vicariously liable for any accidents that occur during those trips. Hired and non-owned auto coverage addresses this exposure.

Auto accidents involving commercial vehicles can result in significant liability claims, particularly if the vehicle is larger, such as a maintenance truck or shuttle van. Medical costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering awards in serious injury cases routinely exceed $500,000. Commercial auto insurance ensures these costs do not fall directly on the apartment business.