Does Builders Risk Cover Business Interruption?
NAIC defines business interruption as lost income resulting from property damage to a business facility.
The ISO builders risk specimen excludes consequential loss, while Oregon describes optional soft-cost coverage for selected costs after covered damage. A construction delay can cause financing, lease, or income effects that are not automatically paid by a property policy. Check the endorsement’s named expenses, covered physical-loss trigger, time deductible, maximum period, and limit. Ask whether a separate commercial property policy is needed once the building is occupied. Once the building is occupied, a commercial property policy may offer business-income coverage after a covered loss, subject to its own trigger and waiting period. That is different from a construction delay endorsement. Ask which policy responds before and after handover, whether the project must suffer direct physical damage, and how the coverage period, limit, and scheduled income are calculated.
