The Property Insurance Market Is a Problem Right Now
If you’ve been shopping for commercial property coverage in Florida lately, you already know — the market is a mess. Several carriers have left the state entirely or gone under over the past few years. The ones still writing commercial policies have gotten much more selective, and the premiums have followed.
Carriers want to know the building’s age, roof condition and age, wind mitigation features, distance from the coast. A newer structure with a recent roof that meets current Florida Building Code tends to move through underwriting without much drama. An older building in a coastal area is a harder conversation, and sometimes the answer is just that coverage options are limited and expensive.
One thing that catches people off guard: if your landlord carries the building’s property insurance, you still need your own policy for everything inside. The espresso machines, grinders, refrigerators, seating, leasehold improvements, all of it. A landlord’s policy isn’t going to pay to replace your $18,000 La Marzocco.
Humidity and Equipment
Florida’s humidity does things to commercial equipment that owners from drier markets don’t anticipate. Refrigeration compressors run harder. Gaskets fail faster. Electrical connections inside machines that cycle constantly in a humid environment corrode over time — slowly, invisibly, until something dies on you at 7am on a Saturday.
Equipment breakdown coverage handles mechanical and electrical failures that standard commercial property won’t pay for. A machine that fails from an internal motor burnout or a power surge isn’t a property claim — it’s an equipment breakdown claim, and without that coverage, the repair or replacement comes out of pocket. For a shop where a couple of machines account for most of the day’s revenue, skipping it to save on the premium is a bad trade.
Mold follows water, and water finds ways in — storm damage, a slow roof leak, a plumbing failure behind the wall. Standard commercial property policies often sublimit or exclude mold. Something to look at before you sign rather than after you have a problem.
Named Storm Deductibles and Business Interruption
Named storm deductibles are the thing Florida cafe owners most often don’t fully understand until they have a hurricane claim. They’re standard on commercial property policies here, and they work differently than your regular deductible — typically calculated as a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat dollar amount. That percentage can end up being a lot more money than it sounds, and it catches people off guard.
Business interruption pays your lost revenue and fixed expenses when a covered event forces you to close. Rent doesn’t pause because you had a hurricane. The piece that’s specific to Florida is contractor availability — after a major event in coastal markets, the wait for repairs can stretch a lot longer than expected, and a policy with a narrow coverage window may run out before the shop is back open.
Flood is a separate issue from all of this. Standard commercial property doesn’t cover water coming in from outside — storm surge, floodwaters, rain-driven flooding in low-lying areas. Parts of Miami, coastal communities around Tampa Bay, plenty of other areas across the state have real flood exposure even outside of hurricane season. Coverage for it comes from a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood carrier, and it has to be a deliberate decision.
Workers’ Compensation
Florida requires workers’ comp for non-construction businesses with four or more employees. Most states set that threshold at one or two, so a three-person operation technically doesn’t have a state mandate here.
Don’t take that as permission to skip it. One serious burn from a steam wand without workers’ comp coverage can cost more than years of premium. The threshold is a legal minimum, not guidance on what’s financially sensible.
If You’re Serving Alcohol
Florida’s dram shop statute (§768.125) is narrower than most people expect. A business that sells alcohol generally isn’t liable for injuries caused by an intoxicated adult customer under that law — the liability sits with the drinker, with narrow exceptions for serving minors or someone known to be habitually addicted. Compared to the Illinois Dram Shop Act, which makes the seller strictly liable regardless of fault, Florida is meaningfully less aggressive on this specific question.
But the standard general liability exclusion for alcohol-related claims is a policy provision, not something state law changes. Liquor liability still needs to be added separately regardless of how limited the statutory exposure is. And a DBPR license through Florida’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco is required before anything gets poured.