Business Insurance in Houston, Texas

What business insurance covers for a Houston business

Business insurance in Houston is a set of separate contracts, each answering a different question about what a business owns, who it employs and who it can injure.

Four policies a small Houston business commonly carries:

• General liability, for injury to outsiders or damage to others’ property
• Commercial property, for the building, stock, equipment and fit-out
• Workers compensation, for an employee hurt on the job
• Commercial auto, for a vehicle titled to the business or used to carry goods for pay

A business owners policy, or BOP, packages general liability and commercial property together. Professional liability and umbrella coverage go on top when a Houston lease or client contract names a limit.

Which county a Houston business rates in

Houston sits mostly in Harris County, and the city limits also reach into Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, per the City of Houston.

Property is rated by location, and the county and the distance to the coast are the first inputs.

Wind coverage then splits on a line inside one county. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association catastrophe area under Texas Insurance Code ch. 2210 takes in the part of Harris County east of Highway 146, so two Houston locations can sit in different windstorm markets.

Give the address of every location; each is rated on its own.

What Houston storms and flooding do to commercial property

Flood is excluded from every commercial property policy, so a flooded Houston warehouse is covered by a flood policy or by nothing.

The National Weather Service Houston/Galveston forecast office issues the flash flood, tropical storm and hurricane warnings covering Harris County, and the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.

Three coverages a Houston owner confirms before June:

• Flood, through the National Flood Insurance Program, which writes non-residential buildings and contents after a 30-day wait
• Business interruption, which pays lost income while the building is unusable
• The wind and hail deductible, often a percentage of the building limit rather than a flat amount

Workers compensation for a Houston employer

Workers compensation is elective for most private employers in Texas, and Texas Labor Code §406.002 lets an employer elect coverage except where other law requires it.

A Houston employer that declines becomes a non-subscriber, on a filing calendar rather than a one-time form:

• Texas Labor Code §406.004 sets the written notice to the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation, and 28 TAC §110.103(b)(1) makes it annual, between February 1 and April 30
• Texas Labor Code §406.005 sets the notice to each new hire and the posting at every Houston location
• Texas Labor Code §406.033(a) strips three defenses, and §406.033(d) still makes the injured employee prove negligence

Aulona Insurance Group places the coverage for employers who elect it. The election belongs to the business and its counsel.

What Aulona Insurance Group places for Houston businesses

Aulona Insurance Group places seven commercial lines for Houston businesses under Texas Agency License #3481412, with insurers it represents.

Lines available:

• Business owners policy
• General liability
• Commercial property
• Workers compensation
• Professional liability
• Umbrella and excess liability
• Commercial auto

Commercial auto matters in a city that runs on vans, and the agency writes it next to the package.

Luka Cenaj, the agency’s licensed principal, walks through the operation on a recorded call before anything is quoted.

The size band and the Houston classes that fit it

Aulona Insurance Group’s small-business program has hard eligibility limits, and a Houston account that clears them places easily.

Inside the band:

• Annual gross revenue under $5 million, and total W-2 payroll under $5 million
• Workers compensation runs through its own market and is not limited by the revenue and payroll figures above
• Loss history under $20,000, with no more than two incidents in the past three years
• No prior carrier cancellation and no bankruptcy filing

The classes that place most readily in Houston are food and beverage, professional services, personal care, technology services and retail. Construction trades, auto service and anything hauling hazardous material bring more underwriting questions.

New businesses are accepted. Each Houston address needs its own BOP, and a BOP caps at $5 million of total insured value per location, which a single warehouse of stock can reach on its own.

Where Aulona Insurance Group is not the right fit

Aulona Insurance Group cannot place every Houston business, and the classes below are out before the size band matters.

Houston operations with no market here:

• Towing operators, gas stations and auto dealerships
• Roofing and siding, a no-market problem rather than a pricing one
• Night clubs, hospitals and physician practices, and cannabis businesses
• Used-goods dealers, non-durable goods wholesalers, livestock and pet breeders

Revenue, payroll, loss history, a prior cancellation and a bankruptcy filing are the size tests above. Life, health, Medicare and disability are not written at all.

What moves the price of a Houston business policy

The premium on a Houston commercial policy is set by the insurer, not by Aulona Insurance Group, and no figure appears on this site.

What the rating worksheet asks a Houston account for:

• The class code, which is why a bakery and a chemical-handling shop price nothing alike
• Annual revenue on the liability lines, and W-2 payroll on workers compensation
• Claim history, including the size of past losses and the number of them
• Limits, deductibles, and any additional insured or waiver endorsement a contract forces
• The building: age, construction, sprinklers, roof, and the flood zone at the address

Harris County wind and water reach a Houston rate through the property, not through the owner.

Working with Aulona Insurance Group from Houston

Aulona Insurance Group works from one office, in Plano, and serves Houston by phone. No visit to Houston or to Plano is part of placing coverage.

A commercial placement runs by phone:

1. Request a callback on the contact page, leaving a name, a number and the type of business.
2. Take the call from Luka Cenaj with the payroll, the vehicles, the flood zone at each location and any contract naming a limit to hand.
3. Let Aulona Insurance Group take the submission to the markets the agency holds appointments with.

Nothing is quoted or bound without that call, which can run in Albanian.