My husband loves to work on cars. Right now, our convertible is sitting in our garage on jack stands because he started his new project this weekend.
Do you work on cars in your garage at home? Do you ever work on anyone else's cars? If you're working on a friend's car as a favor or for fun, you're probably covered, but if you're working on other cars for pay, you might not be covered.
Under the standard homeowners policy, if you use a part of your home for business purposes, you do not void property coverage for damage to your home; this includes using an attached garage to fix the cars of others for pay. You may have limited or no coverage for the tools you're using to work on those cars, however, and your homeowners policy won't provide you general liability coverage or coverage for damage to the other person's car while in your care. For these coverages, you would need a commercial policy.
If you have a detached garage or other outbuilding that you use to repair the cars of others for pay (or for any other business purpose), your homeowners policy does not cover that detached garage or outbuilding for property damage. A standard homeowners policy automatically includes coverage for Other Structures at 10%, but excludes any Other Structure which is used in whole or in part for business purposes.
If you're using a detached garage to work on the cars of others for pay or have a shed where you store work equipment, you're not covered under your homeowners policy, and that's a big hole in coverage! Increasing Other Structures coverage under your homeowners policy won't provide this coverage either. The way to fix this problem is by use of a commercial property or business owners policy.
Give us a call today to discuss your coverage needs!