A new restaurant’s insurance usually has to start on the day you get the keys, which is often months before the first ticket prints. The lease sets that date, because most landlords want a certificate showing general liability before they hand over the space, and the rest of the coverage stacks up behind it as the opening moves along: property when the range is delivered, workers’ comp before the first paid training shift, and business income once there’s revenue worth protecting.
What follows is the order most openings run in, with what to have at each step and who will ask to see it. The list of policies a restaurant carries once it’s open lives on insurance for restaurants, but this page is about timing, which is where it’s easiest to get wrong.
Key takeaways
- The lease, not your opening date, usually decides when coverage has to begin, so read its insurance clause before you pick a policy start date.
- During the build-out, each contractor’s insurance answers for their own work and crew, and yours answers for your business and your visitors.
- Property coverage should start before the first equipment delivery, at a limit that would replace it all at today’s prices.
- Staff on paid training shifts are usually employees, so workers’ comp, where your state requires it, belongs in place before training starts.
- Liquor liability, commercial auto and builder’s risk are separate kinds of insurance that Corgi doesn’t sell, and you may need them depending on how you’ll operate.
The timeline at a glance
| Step | What’s happening | What to have in place | Who usually asks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signing the lease | You take possession of the space | General liability, often with the landlord named as an additional insured | Your landlord |
| Build-out | Contractors work in your space | Your general liability, plus a certificate from each contractor | Your landlord, sometimes your lender |
| Equipment delivery | The range, fryers, walk-in and POS arrive | Property coverage for equipment, furniture and supplies | An equipment lessor or lender, if you financed |
| Hiring and training | Staff go on payroll before you open | Workers’ comp, as your state requires | Your state |
| Opening week | Opening stock arrives and guests come in | Business income, and limits checked against the lease | Nobody but you |
Read the last column from top to bottom and you’ll see that every step has someone outside the business asking for proof, except the final one, which is exactly why business income is the easiest coverage to leave for later and then forget.
The lease sets your start date
It’s tempting to pick a policy start date by counting back from the grand opening. That’s the wrong anchor.
A restaurant lease usually has two dates that matter here. The possession date is when you get the keys and your contractors can start work, while the rent commencement date is when rent actually begins, and that second date is often set months later so you aren’t paying full rent on a space with no hood and no plumbing. The insurance obligation usually follows possession, though, since that’s the day the space becomes yours to look after, and a landlord who hears that an inspector tripped over loose conduit in month two of construction will expect your general liability to answer for it.
The clause itself tends to ask for the same handful of things. General liability at stated limits, often $1 million per occurrence and $2 million in total for the year. The landlord named as an additional insured. A waiver of subrogation. And property coverage on the improvements you build, which in a restaurant can be among the costliest things in the room once the hood, the walk-in and the grease trap are in. You prove all of it with a certificate of insurance, and the property manager will hold that certificate up against the lease and check it line by line.
So bring the lease to the quote. Matching the limits and endorsements to the actual clause on day one takes a few minutes, yet it saves you the slower job of fixing a certificate the landlord has already sent back. The guide to insurance requirements in a commercial lease goes through each clause in turn.
Opening dates slip, too: the hood installer runs three weeks behind, a health inspection needs a second visit, and each delay keeps the space full of your equipment and other people’s workers, who arrive every morning to a room that, on paper, is entirely your responsibility.
Who covers what during the build-out
Each contractor’s general liability typically answers for damage and injuries their own work causes, and each contractor’s workers’ comp covers their own crew, while your policy covers neither of those. What your general liability does answer for is your business and the people you invite in: the equipment rep measuring for the dish machine, the landlord’s agent on a walk-through, the chef you’re interviewing at a folding table in an empty dining room.
So the most useful thing you can do during construction costs nothing: ask every contractor for a certificate before they start, naming you, and the landlord if the lease requires it, as an additional insured on their general liability, and check the dates on it.
Builder’s risk is the other policy you’ll hear about. It covers the construction project itself, and Corgi doesn’t offer it, but on a large build-out the lease or the construction contract usually says who has to buy it, so find that sentence before the general contractor shows up with a dumpster.
The improvements you pay for, like the hood system, a walk-in cooler, a built-in bar or new flooring, are a different question again. Many leases make the tenant responsible for insuring them, and commercial property coverage can include improvements you’ve made to a space you rent. Insurers often call these improvements and betterments, so use that phrase when you list them for a quote.
When the equipment arrives
What exactly are you insuring when the first delivery truck backs up to the door? More than you’d think to write down.
Commercial property insurance typically covers your business personal property at your location, subject to the policy’s terms, limits and exclusions: the range and fryers, refrigeration, smallwares, furniture, the point-of-sale system and, later on, your food and beverage stock. But a kitchen fills up over weeks, one pallet at a time, and a limit you picked while the room was still empty tends to be too low by the time the walk-in is full and the bar is stocked.
Three details deserve a second look in a kitchen:
- Leased equipment. If you lease the dish machine or the espresso machine, the lease often makes you responsible for insuring it. Include it in your property limit, and check whether the lessor wants to be named on the policy.
- Breakdown and spoilage. Many property policies limit or exclude mechanical breakdown and spoiled food unless that coverage is added, so ask whether your property policy covers either before you stock the cooler.
- Valuation. With replacement cost coverage, set the limit from what each piece would cost new today, even if you bought it used at auction. Replacement cost vs. actual cash value explains why that difference shows up after a claim.
Training shifts are payroll
Put workers’ comp in place before paid training starts, because the night before opening is too late.
Cooks and servers in training are on payroll, and training week is when they first meet the fryer, the slicer and a wet walk-in floor, which lines up uncomfortably well with OSHA’s restaurant safety eTool, since it lists burns, cuts, slips and strains among the hazards across cooking, food prep and serving work. Those risks don’t wait for the doors to open. If anything, they’re at their worst while people are still learning where everything is.
Workers’ comp is set by state law, and each state draws its own line on which employers must carry it, who counts as an employee and whether part-time staff are included, so check your own rules through the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of state workers’ compensation agencies before anyone clocks in.
Workers’ comp is priced from estimated payroll and the job class of each role, and a premium audit later compares that estimate with what you actually paid, so update it when the staffing plan changes instead of finding out at audit. If you already have a policy with Corgi, workers’ comp can be added to it without a new application, and hiring your first employee has the full checklist.
The week before opening day
Here’s the list to run before the first guest walks in:
- Confirm that the policy start date is on or before the date the lease requires.
- Check your general liability limits and endorsements against the lease clause, line by line.
- Send the landlord a current certificate. With Corgi, it’s available the day you buy, and you can download it or send it from your account.
- Raise your property limit to take in opening stock: food, beverage, paper goods and cleaning supplies.
- Add business income coverage, which can help replace lost income and pay continuing bills like rent and payroll when covered damage, such as a kitchen fire, forces you to close. It starts after a waiting period and runs for the period of restoration, up to your limit.
- Brief your managers on what to do when a customer is hurt, and keep incident report forms at the host stand.
See what general liability costs for your business
About five minutes, all online. Your certificate is ready the day you buy.
If you’ll serve alcohol, deliver or run a truck
Corgi doesn’t offer any of the coverage below, so you’d buy it separately.
Alcohol is the big one. Many general liability policies exclude or limit claims that come from selling or serving alcohol, so a restaurant with a bar usually needs separate liquor liability insurance, and the licensing side involves more than one agency: the SBA’s licensing guide names both the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau and local alcohol beverage control boards as issuers. Ask your licensing authority whether it wants proof of coverage.
Delivery is the easy one to overlook, though it’s the one most likely to put an employee behind the wheel on your behalf. The NAIC notes that commercial auto policies may include provisions for non-owned vehicles, including employees’ cars driven for company business, which matters because a driver’s personal auto policy may not cover delivery runs. If your business owns a truck or a catering van, that vehicle needs commercial auto of its own, and food truck insurance walks through how the kitchen and the vehicle split.
Catering off-site brings its own paperwork, since event venues often ask to be named as an additional insured for the date, so ask before you sign the venue contract.
Frequently asked questions
When should a new restaurant buy insurance?
Usually on or before the date your lease says coverage must start, which is often the day you take possession of the space. Property coverage should be active before equipment is delivered and workers’ comp before the first paid shift, but waiting until opening day for any of it can leave months of build-out with no coverage at all.
Does general liability cover a food poisoning claim?
It can. General liability usually includes products-completed operations coverage, which can respond to claims that food you served made someone sick, subject to the policy’s terms, limits and exclusions. Temperature logs and a clean health inspection record also make a claim easier to defend.
Can I get business income coverage before I have any sales?
Usually, yes. It’s written on your projections, since there’s no sales history yet. Know its limit, though: business income typically responds when covered damage stops a business that’s already operating, and income lost because a fire pushed back an opening you haven’t had yet is usually a builder’s risk question, which Corgi doesn’t offer.
