Property Damage
Property damage, in an insurance policy, means physical injury to, destruction of, or loss of use of tangible property belonging to someone else, and it's one of the two core categories of harm a general liability policy is built to cover, the other being bodily injury. It covers things like a contractor's crew cracking a client's floor tile or a delivery driver backing into a loading dock. The Allen Thomas Group makes sure clients understand exactly what counts as property damage under their policy, since that definition drives which claims actually get paid.
What Counts as Property Damage
Under a standard general liability policy, property damage generally includes:
- Physical damage to tangible property owned by someone else
- Loss of use of undamaged property caused by a covered event
It typically does not extend to damage to the insured business's own work or product, which is addressed separately by products and completed operations coverage, and it generally doesn't cover purely intangible losses like corrupted data on its own, which falls into cyber liability territory instead.
Property Damage vs. Bodily Injury
| Category | What's Harmed | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Property Damage | Someone else's physical property | A cracked floor, flooded office, damaged inventory |
| Bodily Injury | A person's physical health or safety | A customer slipping and breaking an arm |
Why the Definition Matters for Coverage
Consider a plumber whose repair goes wrong and floods a client's server room, ruining the carpet and also corrupting stored data. The carpet damage is straightforward property damage and is covered. The data loss is a separate question entirely, often excluded or capped under standard general liability wording, which is why businesses handling sensitive equipment or data usually need to pair general liability with more specific coverage rather than assume one policy handles everything.
How The Allen Thomas Group Can Help You
We'll help you understand exactly how property damage affects your coverage and cost, then shop your policy across 15+ A-rated carriers to find the right fit.
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