If your facility relies on mechanical or electrical equipment, you may need more than property insurance to protect your club. Equipment breakdown coverage (EBC) helps cover the cost to repair or replace damaged equipment, along with labor, loss of business income and other necessary expenses incurred due to a covered incident.
Does your commercial property insurance cover your equipment?
Your standard property insurance program may cover damages from a covered external cause of loss, such as a fire. EBC protects your fitness equipment, as well as electric panels, computers and communication equipment, motors, air conditioning units and refrigeration units, from covered internal incidents such as power surges, electrical shorts, motor burnout or even operator error. Keep in mind normal wear and tear, along with corrosion or erosion, are not considered to be accidental causes.
While an electrical panel is a very basic piece of equipment, could your facility operate without electricity? What if your club’s electrical panel has a mechanical breakdown due to electrical arcing or a power surge? There may not be coverage for electrical panel repair or replacement, business income lost during the equipment breakdown, or the extra expense incurred to get your business restored to normal operations. EBC also protects your business from expenses incurred due to these losses.
EBC not only pays for the repair of your damaged equipment, it also helps with other expenses you may incur to get your fitness facility back up and running. By insuring your equipment against mechanical breakdown, you can greatly reduce your worry when a loss does occur. Talk to your independent insurance agent to make sure your club’s equipment has adequate protection.
This loss control information is advisory only. The author assumes no responsibility for management or control of loss control activities. Not all exposures are identified in this article.
Jayson Scott has 15 years of experience as a commercial lines underwriter at The Cincinnati Insurance Company. Since 2014, he has supported Cincinnati’s growing Fitness, Sports & Recreation program, initially as the program’s dedicated specialist and now as national program director. For more information, contact Jay at Jayson_Scott@cinfin.com or 513.603.5885. Please visit cinfin.com/fitness-sports for more information.
