Separate property-manager E&O from the owner’s policy
The search term hides a second question: which policy answers a claim about how you managed a property, and which one answers a loss to the property itself. One underwriter draws that line in writing. McGowan's property managers professional-liability application asks about the management company's own E&O insurance, whether commercial general liability is in place on every managed property, whether the manager is an additional insured on each property owner's CGL policy, and whether the manager is required to procure or maintain insurance for managed properties.[1]
Related: Property management insurance guide
On the building side, Travelers' current real-estate coverage page for owners and managers lists general liability, property, commercial auto, umbrella, workers' compensation, business income rental value, equipment breakdown, and cyber among the available lines. That page is one carrier's product description. It does not establish that all of those lines are automatically included, or whether the property and rental-value coverage in a specific account belongs to the manager or to the building owner. Settle that question account by account before you assume a loss has a home.[6]
Related: Commercial property insurance guide
Cover the company's premises and daily operations
Start with the property your company itself owns or occupies. Travelers says the property portion of its business owner's policy can protect business property you own, lease, or rent, and can include business income and extra expense after a covered loss. Ask the underwriter which of those pieces are quoted for you rather than assuming the package arrives complete.[5]
Umbrella belongs on the same worksheet as a separate ask. Travelers lists umbrella among the lines on its real-estate coverage page for owners and managers, so request it as its own quoted option and state the underlying limits you want it to sit above.[6]
Coverage questions in this guide
A shared record keeps related coverage questions in one place.
- Property manager errors and omissions (E&O)
Hiscox describes professional liability, also called E&O, as coverage for claims against a property management business that provides professional services.[4]
Review: Read the proposal's definition of professional services against your management duties before you compare price.
- General liability and business property
Travelers describes its business owner's policy as a small-business package that combines general liability and commercial property for eligible small businesses, including the commercial-real-estate class named on the page.[5]
Review: Confirm eligibility for your operation first; the page does not establish that every property management company qualifies or that every listed option is included.
- Fidelity and crime
Travelers describes fidelity and crime insurance as protection against fraudulent or dishonest acts, including employee dishonesty and theft, loss of money and securities, forgery or alteration, funds-transfer fraud, computer fraud, and social-engineering fraud.[7]
Review: Ask whether the issued form reaches money you hold for a client owner, and which insuring agreements are actually included.
- Cyber
The FTC's small-business guide says a business should compare first-party and third-party cyber coverage. Travelers lists cyber among the lines on its real-estate coverage page for owners and managers.[8][6]
Review: List which first-party response costs and third-party claim costs the proposal names, and at what sublimit.
Compare the professional services the E&O proposal actually covers
Hiscox's two property-manager examples are a wrongful-eviction suit and a tenant-discrimination claim, and the page says its policy may cover defense costs, settlements, or judgments subject to its terms. Both examples are hypothetical and carrier-specific. The page does not establish that every E&O policy covers wrongful eviction, discrimination, or a claim arising from any management act.[4]
McGowan's current property-managers page describes a claims-made E&O offering and lists program features that include failure to place or maintain insurance, bookkeeping services, cyber first-party coverage, fair-housing coverage, owned-property management, and optional consequential bodily-injury or property-damage coverage. The page states availability in the United States except Alaska and Hawaii. These are one program's features, some of them optional or limited, not a market-wide definition of E&O.[3]
The same carrier's application asks how you screen tenants, how you handle evictions, what repair authority you hold, and whether you place insurance for clients. Those questions are a useful map of where management decisions turn into claims.[2]
- Definition of professional services: read it against the duties named in your management contracts, because McGowan's public page does not reproduce the complete policy wording.[3]
- Claims-made dates: McGowan's offering is claims-made, so get the retroactive date and the reporting terms in the proposal, not in conversation.[3]
- Defense treatment: ask whether defense costs sit inside or outside the limit. The Hiscox page says defense costs, settlements, or judgments may be covered subject to its terms and does not establish defense outside the limit.[4]
- Exclusions, sublimits, and eligibility rules: McGowan's public page does not reproduce them, so compare those in the proposals rather than across product pages.[3]
- Optional extensions: consequential bodily-injury or property-damage coverage is listed as optional on McGowan's page. Confirm whether it was actually quoted for you.[3]
Treat client money and data as separate risks
Part of this exposure can sit inside an E&O program and part of it outside. McGowan lists bookkeeping services and cyber first-party coverage among its property-managers program features, so ask which of those features your proposal includes before you decide how much standalone crime or cyber limit to buy.[3]
| Loss scenario | What to confirm before you rely on one policy |
|---|---|
| An employee diverts rent or owner funds | Travelers lists employee dishonesty and theft and loss of money and securities among fidelity and crime claims. Ask whether the issued form reaches money you hold for a client owner. |
| A fake owner email redirects a wire | Travelers lists funds-transfer fraud, computer fraud, and social-engineering fraud. The FTC identifies business-email impersonation as a business risk and recommends independently confirming wire-transfer requests, so ask which verification steps the policy expects. |
| Ransomware locks your management software | The FTC lists data recovery, cyberextortion, lost income, and forensic services among first-party cyber examples. Compare sublimits and which incident services are included. |
| Tenant or applicant data is exposed | The FTC lists customer notification among first-party examples and payments to affected people, claims expenses, litigation, regulatory inquiries, settlements, damages, and judgments among third-party examples. Confirm which side of that split each quoted limit sits on. |
Travelers fidelity and crime page, the FTC small-business cybersecurity guide, and the McGowan property-managers program page.[7][8][3]
Match vehicles and employee injuries to the real work
Inspections, showings, and turnovers put staff on the road in whatever vehicle is available that day. Two questions follow from that: whose vehicle it was, and who pays if the person driving it is hurt on the job.
- Commercial auto, including hired and non-owned vehicles
Travelers lists commercial auto among the lines on its real-estate coverage page for owners and managers, and its description specifically includes liability caused by an employee using a personal vehicle for business purposes. Its business owner's policy page separately lists optional protection for rented, hired, or personally owned non-owned vehicles used for work.[6][5]
Review: Write down who owns each vehicle used for site visits, then confirm the quoted option matches that mix rather than assuming personal auto policies respond.
- Workers' compensation
The Texas Department of Insurance says workers' compensation can pay medical care and some lost income for employees hurt or made ill by their work. The U.S. Department of Labor directs private-company employees injured on the job to their state workers' compensation board, which puts the obligation under state rules rather than a single national private-employer requirement.[10][9]
Review: Confirm your state board's rule and the payroll you would report before you treat this line as optional.
Texas shows how much the answer moves by state. The Texas Department of Insurance says Texas does not require most private employers to carry workers' compensation, although government contracts can require coverage for employees on the project and some contractors can require it of subcontractors or independent contractors. That is a Texas rule, and it shows how a contract can create the obligation even where the state does not.[10]
Give each carrier the same complete submission
Two carriers can only be compared if they saw the same file. McGowan's property managers professional-liability application asks for owners, employees, independent contractors, experience, subcontractor insurance, revenue and units by residential and commercial property type, the five largest managed properties and ownership interest, written-contract terms, CGL and additional-insured practices, tenant screening and eviction procedures, repair authority, insurance-placement duties, current policy details, requested limits and deductibles, and five years of claims, known circumstances, and loss runs. Assemble that once and reuse it.[2]
- Legal entities and owners, years of experience, employee and independent-contractor counts, and whether subcontractors carry their own insurance.[2]
- Revenue and managed units split between residential and commercial property, plus the five largest managed properties and any ownership interest you hold in them.[2]
- Written management contract terms, and your practice on client CGL and additional-insured status.[2]
- Whether commercial general liability is in place on every managed property, whether you are an additional insured on each owner's CGL, and whether you must procure or maintain insurance for those properties.[1]
- Tenant screening and eviction procedures, repair authority, and insurance-placement duties, described as you actually perform them.[2]
- Who drives to site visits and in what vehicle. Travelers' business owner's policy page lists optional protection for rented, hired, or personally owned non-owned vehicles used for work, so the answer changes which option you request.[5]
- Current policy details, the limits and deductibles you want quoted, and five years of claims, known circumstances, and loss runs.[2]
Property Covered is a property insurance marketplace operated by Switchboard Risk Technologies Inc., a licensed insurance producer, with access to more than 400 carriers and market options. Property managers can use it to compare available carrier terms once that submission file is ready. Licensed support is available by phone at (888) 693-8980. Carriers make the final eligibility, pricing, binding, policy, and claims decisions.
Related: How Property Covered works
A Property Covered quote request is free, carries no purchase obligation, and records your details for licensed follow-up. You can also call (888) 693-8980 for licensed support.
Related: Start a quote request
Sources
- 1.McGowan Program Administrators, Property Managers Professional Liability Insurance Application (questions 19 through 23)
- 2.McGowan Program Administrators, Property Managers Professional Liability Insurance Application (questions 8 through 36)
- 3.McGowan Program Administrators, Property Managers Insurance product page
- 4.Hiscox, Property Management Insurance Professional & General Liability
- 5.Travelers, Business Owner's Policy (BOP Insurance)
- 6.Travelers, Real Estate Owners Insurance Coverages
- 7.Travelers, Fidelity & Crime Insurance
- 8.Federal Trade Commission, Cybersecurity for Small Business
- 9.U.S. Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation topic page
- 10.Texas Department of Insurance, Workers' compensation insurance guide
Common questions
Two sets of decisions sit side by side. Hiscox describes professional liability, also called E&O, as coverage for claims against a property management business that provides professional services. For the operating side, Travelers describes its business owner's policy as a small-business package combining general liability and commercial property, and its real-estate page for owners and managers lists general liability, property, commercial auto, umbrella, workers' compensation, business income rental value, equipment breakdown, and cyber among available lines. What you can actually buy depends on your operations and each carrier's rules, since neither page establishes that every listed line is automatically included or that every property management company qualifies. [4][5][6]
No. Travelers' business owner's policy combines general liability with commercial property for the company's own operations and business property. Hiscox's professional liability product answers claims against a property management business that provides professional services, with wrongful eviction and tenant discrimination as its two property-manager examples, and it says defense costs, settlements, or judgments may be covered subject to its terms. [5][4]
McGowan's application treats those as separate items: it asks about the management company's own E&O insurance, whether commercial general liability is in place on every managed property, whether the manager is an additional insured on each owner's CGL policy, and whether the manager must procure or maintain insurance for the managed properties. Those questions show how one underwriter evaluates the relationship. They do not establish a universal contract requirement or prove that additional-insured status supplies every protection your firm needs. [1]
Do not assume it does. Travelers places employee dishonesty and theft, loss of money and securities, forgery or alteration, funds-transfer fraud, computer fraud, and social-engineering fraud in the fidelity and crime category, and its page does not say one policy includes every listed agreement or establish coverage for a particular owner's funds without the issued terms. The FTC identifies business-email impersonation as a business risk and recommends independently confirming wire-transfer requests, and its guidance does not establish that any policy automatically covers client funds or social engineering. [7][8]
The answer comes from your state. The U.S. Department of Labor directs private-company employees injured on the job to their state workers' compensation board. Texas shows how far the rule can move: the Texas Department of Insurance says workers' compensation can pay medical care and some lost income for employees hurt or made ill by their work, and that Texas does not require most private employers to carry it, although government contracts can require coverage for employees on the project and some contractors can require it of subcontractors or independent contractors. That is Texas only, and neither source decides whether a specific worker is an employee or an independent contractor. [9][10]
McGowan's property managers application asks for owners, employees, independent contractors, experience, subcontractor insurance, revenue and units by residential and commercial property type, the five largest managed properties and ownership interest, written-contract terms, CGL and additional-insured practices, tenant screening and eviction procedures, repair authority, insurance-placement duties, current policy details, requested limits and deductibles, and five years of claims, known circumstances, and loss runs. It is one carrier's older form, so a current application or a different underwriter may request other information. [2]
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