Commercial industry

Furniture Store Insurance

A furniture store is a showroom, a warehouse, and a delivery crew. The inventory is bulky, easy to scratch, and expensive to replace as a full room. The file is property on two occupancies, inland marine or bailee on goods in the truck, commercial auto for the box trucks, and general liability for a floor people are invited to sit on. A specialty-retail BOP written for a gift shop will not survive the warehouse or the delivery claim.

We place independent furniture and home-furnishings stores, including shops that also sell floor coverings or mattresses. If you manufacture in the back, that is a light-manufacturing add — see manufacturing and tell us the split. If you only design and send orders to a factory, you may be closer to interior decorating / professional. This page is the dealer with stock on the floor.

Showroom and warehouse values are often understated because owners think in cost and carriers think in replacement. We schedule both locations and we ask about a off-site storage unit that everyone forgot. Water in a warehouse and a sprinkler discharge on upholstery are the property claims. Ordinance-or-law matters on older masonry showrooms downtown.

Delivery is where furniture accounts get hurt. Scratch and dent in the customer’s house, a damaged hardwood floor, a driver who is not on the auto policy, and a independent “gig” crew that was never certificated. We want commercial auto on the box trucks, hired and non-owned if you use personal vehicles, and a written rule about contract drivers. Inland marine covers the load. Completed-operations covers assembly and wall-anchoring of a dresser — a real claim after a tip-over.

If you offer design services, professional liability is a short extra conversation. Cyber matters if you take large deposits and hold delivery addresses. Washington warehouse and drivers stay with L&I; we place stop-gap and competitive-state WC. We do not replace L&I.

Specialty retail, wholesale, and flooring contractors are the related pages. A store that also installs hard-surface flooring should see the flooring-contractor page for that book. The showroom stays here.

Risks we actually schedule

  • Warehouse or showroom water and fire on a undervalued inventory.
  • Delivery damage in a customer’s home and a crew that was never on the auto policy.
  • Tip-over or assembly completed-operations after a room is set.
  • A second storage location that was never on the statement of values.

Frequently asked questions

Our warehouse is three miles from the showroom. One policy?

Usually, with both locations scheduled. A warehouse that is not on the policy is uninsured property, not a technicality.

We use contract delivery drivers. Are we covered?

Not on their personal auto, and not automatically on yours. We want their certificates and hired/non-owned on your form. A gig crew you do not control is still your customer’s claim.

Does GL cover a dresser that tips after we assemble it?

That is products and completed operations — usually on the same GL, if the class and the form grant it. Tell us you assemble and wall-anchor. A pure “sales only” application will not help you later.