{"id":2610,"date":"2016-06-14T19:23:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T19:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gillespieinsuranceservices.com\/?p=2610"},"modified":"2025-04-17T12:49:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T12:49:45","slug":"insuring-a-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/business-insurance\/insuring-a-cave\/","title":{"rendered":"Insuring A Cave"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caves have been a part of human existence ever since the beginning.\u00a0 Our Neanderthal ancestors lived in them and drew pictures in them. Today, bomb shelters aside, we mainly use them for more recreational purposes.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Lately wineries have been incorporating caves into their operations.\u00a0 Since wine requires a cool 55 degrees or for aging, and caves are naturally cooler than their above-ground storage counterparts, caves make a great place to store wine.<\/span><\/p>\n

As an insurance agent who insures wineries, I have been asked the question, \u201cWill you insure my cave?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And, as usual, the answer is usually more complex than a simple yes or no.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the liability side of things, your cave is insured.\u00a0 What this means that if your cave causes bodily injury or property damage to a third party (someone other than you or your employee), you are covered. Neither the Farm Liability or General Liability coverage forms \u2013 one of the two most likely policies to insure your property that has a cave on it \u2013 has an exclusion for damage that occurs because of a cave, or a collapse of a cave, or a cave-in of a cave.\u00a0 So sit back and relax; you are covered.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the property side of things, it\u2019s a little different.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the cave itself: you can\u2019t actually insure a cave.\u00a0 A cave is a hole in the ground, so there is nothing tangible to insure.\u00a0 And just to make sure there\u2019s no coverage, the standard property policy expressly excludes land, underground pipes, flues or drains, as well as the cost of excavation from the definition of \u201ccovered property.\u201d\u00a0 Ouch.<\/span><\/p>\n

What about the wine you\u2019re storing in your cave?\u00a0 With a standard commercial property policy, it\u2019s hard to say.\u00a0 According to the standard commercial property policy, your business personal property is covered when it\u2019s located 1) in or on your building described in the Declarations, or 2) in the open or in a vehicle within 100 feet of your premise.\u00a0 It is difficult to say without a shadow of a doubt that your stuff inside the cave would be covered because technically, being in a cave is neither in or on a building nor in the open or in a vehicle.<\/span><\/p>\n

So far I haven\u2019t delivered any good news to winery that\u2019s storing a bunch of wine in a cave.\u00a0 Let\u2019s end that.\u00a0 Good news begins now:<\/span><\/p>\n

With a few endorsement and usage of different policy forms, the parts of the cave that make up the structure of it (the door, interior framework, etc.) as well as the contents inside the cave can be insured.<\/span><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t bore you with insurance jargon or details of that nature, but I will say that the CP 14 10 Endorsement and Inland Marine can fix the problems above.\u00a0 These two forms fill in the gaps that the standard insurance policies leave you lacking. \u00a0The rates will be higher than a normal building or business personal property policy, but not cost-prohibitively high.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause, and yes, winery owner, we can insure your cave\u2026 and the stuff inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caves have been a part of human existence ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,21,17,7,4,11],"tags":[2,22,16,18,5,10],"class_list":["post-2610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-insurance","category-farm-agriculture","category-general-liability","category-liability-insurance","category-property-insurance","category-wineries","tag-business-insurance","tag-farm-agriculture","tag-general-liability","tag-liability-insurance","tag-property-insurance","tag-wineries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44645,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2610\/revisions\/44645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finfrockweb.com\/gis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}