March 5, 2025
It’s amazing how many real estate developers, investors, and operators I see without due diligence liability insurance.
This is your ‘walking around’ coverage.
Testing at a vacant site? Due diligence is required.
Looking at a new building? Due diligence is required.
The Risk
If you fall through a roof while inspecting a building, you won’t be covered for third-party property damage or injury unless your General Liability policy includes due diligence coverage.
This is especially ugly if you have a policy where coverage is only applicable to specified locations.
What To Do
Please talk to your broker or insurance team about this if you haven’t.
The policies are usually cheap (could be $2.5k-$5k minimum premium in many cases) or the exposure can sometimes be added to an existing GL policy (more likely for construction GL than operational GL).
Yes, some of these things (like site testing) can also be addressed contractually through indemnification, but that’s another discussion.
However you structure it, just make sure you have DD coverage.