Commercial Auto Insurance for Real Estate and Property Managers
Property management is a mobile business, even when the portfolio looks static on a map. Leasing agents crisscross neighborhoods for showings, maintenance techs haul ladders and parts between sites, and construction managers visit jobsites carrying drawings and change orders. A single fender bender, a stolen van, or a contractor’s employee injured while loading tools can turn a routine day into hours of claims handling, tenants waiting for repairs, and a budget hit that lingers for quarters. Commercial auto insurance sits at the center of that risk. Handled well, it keeps operations moving and claims from metastasizing. Handled poorly, it creates coverage gaps that surface only when the stakes are highest.
This guide takes a practical look at how commercial auto coverage works for real estate owners and property managers, the decisions that matter, and the edge cases that trip teams up. The specifics vary by state and insurer, but the patterns hold.
Where the exposures come from
A mid‑size management firm might operate with a small fleet: two pickup trucks for maintenance, a cargo van for turns, and several employees who drive their own cars to show units or inspect properties. A larger owner‑operator might add box trucks for appliances and materials, golf carts on campus, and site trucks for new development. The risks start with the obvious, like at‑fault collisions on public roads, and extend into less intuitive territory: a property management company can be held liable for a leasing agent who causes a crash in a personal car while on the clock. Even parking lot mishaps bleed into premises liability, auto liability, or both, depending on the circumstances.
Consider three routine scenarios:
A maintenance tech rear‑ends a rideshare vehicle while driving the company van with a ladder rack. There’s bodily injury to the other driver, property damage, and alleged soft‑tissue injuries for two passengers. The company’s auto liability and medical payments coverages come into play, and the physical damage coverage on the van matters if repairs exceed a deductible.
A leasing agent, running late to a showing, sideswipes a parked car in her own sedan. Her personal auto insurer pays up to the policy limits, then seeks contribution from the employer. If the management company doesn’t carry hired and non‑owned auto coverage, it may write a check from operating cash or rely on an umbrella that might exclude non‑owned autos.
A catalytic converter theft sidelines the only cargo van that fits an appliance dolly. The loss itself may be manageable, but the downtime costs weeks of deferred work orders. Without rental reimbursement or a contingency plan, a minor theft becomes a service level problem.
The lesson is simple: vehicles you own, vehicles you rent, and vehicles your people use but you don’t own all create liability exposures for the business. Different coverage parts address each bucket.
Policy types that matter in property operations
Commercial auto isn’t one thing. It’s a bundle of coverages you assemble around your fleet and your use cases. For real estate and property management, a handful of components come up again and again.
Auto liability is the backbone. When your vehicle causes bodily injury or property damage to others, this responds. Most firms carry limits of 1 million per occurrence, sometimes with split commercial vehicle insurance coverage limits, sometimes combined single limits. The right number depends on your risk tolerance, the size of your operation, and whether you carry an umbrella or excess policy. If you operate in dense urban areas, run box trucks, or have drivers on the road for long stretches, higher limits are easier to justify. Plaintiffs’ attorneys look at assets, revenue, and insurance tower when they decide how hard to push.
Physical damage divides into collision and comprehensive. Collision addresses impact with another vehicle or object. Comprehensive covers fire, theft, vandalism, hail, falling objects, and animal strikes. Deductibles in the 500 to 2,500 range are typical. If you wrap your van with vinyl graphics, ask whether customizations, ladder racks, and interior shelving are included in the vehicle’s stated value or need to be specifically scheduled. Many claims bog down because the adjuster sees a base-model van while the contractor sees a rolling workshop worth much more.
Hired and non‑owned auto liability (HNOA) fills the gap when employees use their own vehicles for company business or you rent or borrow vehicles. In property management, HNOA is not optional. Think of every time an assistant property manager swings by a hardware store, or a superintendent drives between buildings in his pickup titled in his name. If you ever send staff to pick up a short‑term rental from a truck yard for a move‑in blitz, that’s hired auto exposure. HNOA typically does not cover physical damage to the employee’s car, only your company’s liability to third parties.
Medical payments and personal injury protection vary by state law. They can cover medical expenses for occupants of your vehicle regardless of fault, which helps resolve minor injuries quickly and humanely. Where available, these coverages are relatively inexpensive and speed up small claims.
Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage protects your drivers and passengers when the at‑fault party lacks adequate limits. If your vehicles spend time on city streets or highways where minimum limits are common, UM/UIM is a backstop worth real attention. Treat it as protection for your own people.
Rental reimbursement and loss of use coverage can be a difference maker for small fleets. If a catalytic converter theft, vandalism, or crash takes your only cargo van out of service, can you rent a comparable vehicle? What daily limit will make you whole, and for how many days? Pricing is modest compared with the operating friction of rescheduling turns and vendor coordination for lack of wheels.
Towing and roadside assistance coverage sounds minor until a breakdown blocks a gated community entrance or a low‑clearance garage swallows a box truck. Check limits and whether winching, extrication, and specialty tows are included. Apartments and office garages create their own towing realities.
Drive Other Car (DOC) coverage for executives occasionally matters for owner‑operators who rely on company vehicles for personal use and do not maintain a personal auto policy. It’s niche, but in family‑owned real estate businesses it surfaces more than brokers expect.
Finally, an umbrella or excess liability policy that clearly sits over auto liability is common in portfolios of any scale. Many carriers will write a 5 to 25 million umbrella with auto included, but endorsements can exclude HNOA or limit coverage in surprising ways. Read those schedules with a pencil in hand.
Owned, leased, rented, and borrowed: titling and control matter
How the vehicle is titled and who controls it drives the coverage needed. A van titled to the property management LLC belongs on the commercial auto schedule. If the same van is leased from a dealership, the lessor will require specific liability limits and proof of physical damage with the lessor named as loss payee. Borrowed vehicles introduce a soft spot: if you borrow a truck from one property to help another, you may vary coverage mid‑day without realizing it, especially if the owner entity and the management entity buy insurance separately. If your structure includes property‑level LLCs that own vehicles while a central management company operates them, coordinate schedules and Named Insureds carefully. Claims get messy when the titled owner is not named on the policy paying for the loss.
Short‑term rentals change the equation again. Most rental agreements push liability to the renter’s policy. Hired auto liability on your policy should catch third‑party claims, but the rental company will still ask who pays for dents and glass. Some carriers offer hired auto physical damage coverage, which is cleaner than relying on rental counter products that change with each transaction. If you never rent, remove that coverage. If you sometimes rent when a unit turns heavy, consider it.
Drivers, MVRs, and the human layer
Insurance attaches to vehicles, but losses attach to people. Driver screening in property management tends to be informal until a claim forces the issue. A mature program starts with job descriptions that require a valid license for roles that drive, plus a review of motor vehicle records (MVRs) at hire and at least annually thereafter for anyone driving on company business. Some teams place drivers into risk tiers based on points or violations and restrict high‑risk drivers from certain vehicles.
Age and experience matter too. Insurers often balk at drivers under 21 on medium trucks or under 25 in any vehicle. If your maintenance department hires apprentices or summer help, set rules early. An incident with an inexperienced employee in a 10,000 GVWR box truck can spike loss ratios and premiums for years.

Training doesn’t have to be elaborate. A one‑page safety policy, ride‑alongs with experienced techs, and concrete rules like no phones while moving, safe backing procedures, and ladder rack checks go a long way. Backing claims are common in tight apartment lots. A five‑minute walk‑around before leaving a loading zone prevents many of them.
Vehicles that look like equipment: golf carts, UTVs, and yard trucks
On large campuses, golf carts, UTVs, and small yard trucks shuttle staff and gear all day. They blur the lines between auto and general liability. If they never leave private property, some firms rely on their general liability or a specialized endorsement. If they cross a public road, many carriers require scheduling on the auto policy. Ask how your carrier treats Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, low‑speed vehicles, or carts with modified speed governors. An injury on a cart can be serious even at low speeds, and claim handlers will look for the nearest policy frame to place it in.
The contract trap: additional insureds and rental riders
Real estate work leans on vendors, and vendor agreements push risk around like chess pieces. If you require an HVAC vendor to name your company as an additional insured on its auto policy, expect reciprocal requests. When a GC asks you to add them as additional insured for auto, make sure your carrier will do so and that it’s appropriate. Standard commercial auto policies can add additional insured status by endorsement, but many carriers limit when and how. Your umbrella may require underlying policies to name the same parties. If a claim involves a subcontractor’s truck at your jobsite and a tenant’s property is damaged, the clarity of these endorsements determines how fast the claim resolves and which tower pays first.
Rental yard contracts present their own traps. Waivers, damage responsibility, and permitted drivers change by vendor. If you rely on hired auto physical damage from your own policy, decline the rental counter’s coverage consistently and document that decision, or you will juggle competing subrogation claims later.
Limits, deductibles, and what the loss runs tell you
Premium pressure is a real budget concern, especially when a soft rental market squeezes margins. The temptation is to buy lower limits or increase deductibles. Both can be sound choices, but make them deliberately. Pull three to five years of loss runs and look at the pattern. If your worst auto liability claim is 150,000 and you carry 1 million limits with a 5 million umbrella, limit reduction doesn’t buy much because courts can still anchor to the tower. On the physical damage side, if you average two glass claims and one minor collision each year, increasing the comprehensive deductible from 500 to 1,000 might save more than it costs while leaving your balance sheet largely unexposed.
For fleets with aging vehicles, actual cash value can trigger hard conversations when a total loss valuation lands far below the perceived replacement cost. If your operations depend on upfitted vans that are expensive to replace, explore stated amount or agreed value options with careful documentation of upfits. The premium increment may be worth the certainty.
State lines, filings, and radius realities
If your properties straddle state lines, your auto policy must travel too. Some states require filings like MCS‑90 for vehicles that meet federal motor carrier definitions. Most property managers won’t trigger those thresholds, but moving heavy goods between states or towing equipment can surprise you. Even without filings, pay attention to radius of operations underwriting questions. If you state a 50‑mile radius and your techs routinely drive 120 miles to a remote property, your rating and classification may be off. Insurers discover radius creep after a claim or an audit, and the premium adjustment can be retroactive.
Claims: from phone call to resolution
The first 24 hours after an incident shape the entire claim. Establish a simple, repeatable process. Encourage drivers to call a central number as soon as they are safe, and to take photos of the scene, opposing plates and VINs, and any damage. Details fade fast. If a third party appears injured, err on the side of reporting to the carrier immediately, even if the damage seems minor. Soft‑tissue claims can blossom two weeks later, and early contact from the insurer helps.
Repair network selection is more than convenience. For vans with upfits, a body shop unfamiliar with ladder racks and bulkheads can delay repairs waiting on parts or bracket templates. If your fleet is small, designate preferred shops that know your build specs. Negotiate rates in peacetime. When a stolen converter takes out a van, having a go‑to shop saves days.
Watch for subrogation opportunities when your driver is not at fault. Recoveries reduce your net loss, which affects future premiums. Some carriers are vigorous about subrogation, others less so. Provide police reports and photos quickly to fuel that effort.
The non‑owned minefield: mileage reimbursements and gray areas
Many property managers pay mileage reimbursements to employees using personal vehicles. That’s normal and efficient, but it doesn’t eliminate liability for accidents during business use. Personal auto policies vary widely. Some exclude business use beyond incidental errands, and many carry low limits. When a catastrophic loss occurs, plaintiffs’ counsel will name the driver and the employer. HNOA coverage will defend the business, but it does not fix the employee’s personal insurance gap. Clear policies help. Limit business driving by personal vehicles to specific tasks, encourage adequate personal auto limits, and consider verifying proof of insurance annually. If business use is routine, provide a company vehicle or a true car allowance that is conditioned on maintaining certain limits and naming the company as an additional interest where allowed. Even then, your HNOA remains the backstop.
Integrating auto with your broader risk program
Commercial auto rarely lives alone. Workers’ compensation steps in when an employee is injured while driving for work, regardless of fault. General liability may respond to loading and unloading incidents, especially on premises. Property policies may cover tools and equipment stored in vehicles overnight, but many exclude theft from vehicles without signs of forced entry or outside certain hours. Without coordination, claims ping‑pong between carriers.
Umbrella and excess policies are the glue across these lines, but alignment matters. If your umbrella sits over general liability and auto but requires 1 million underlying limits for both, a state‑mandated reduction in UM/UIM limits can create a gap. If you attach an excess auto policy from a different insurer, confirm defense follows form and that HNOA is explicitly included. On a bad day, the wrong word in a schedule costs seven figures.
Renewal strategy: underwriting what you can control
Underwriters price frequency more than severity in small fleets. One large loss is often treated as a blip. Five minor backing claims in a year look like a pattern. Tackle the patterns you can control. Garage vehicles inside when possible, or create well‑lit, camera‑covered parking where converters are harder to cut. Install simple backup alarms or cameras in older vans that lack them. Wraps and prominent branding deter some thefts but increase visibility in claims. Decide if the marketing value outweighs the attention in your markets.
Refresh driver rosters and MVRs ahead of renewal. Remove former employees from the schedule, correct garaging addresses, and update vehicle condition and upfits. Share any training steps you implemented. A slender narrative with two or three tangible risk improvements can soften an underwriter’s stance more than a thick safety manual that no one uses.
Real pricing and market trends
Rates for commercial auto have trended upward for years, driven by repair costs, medical inflation, and nuclear verdicts in some jurisdictions. For property managers, year‑over‑year increases of 8 to 15 percent are common even with clean loss runs. In tougher markets or after a poor claims year, 20 percent is not rare. Shopping the market can help, but carriers coordinate more than people think. If your drivers and vehicles haven’t changed, expect similar pricing bands across major markets. The leverage lives in loss control, accurate exposure data, and packaging. Carriers that write your property and liability may sharpen a pencil on auto to win or retain the total account, but only within their actuaries’ rails.
Deductible buybacks and large deductibles often commercial van insurance make sense only at scale. For a half‑dozen vehicles, the administrative friction is real. For fleets of 30 or more, a self‑insured retention or deductible program can align incentives and drop pure premium costs, provided you manage claims actively.
Edge cases that deserve a second look
Seasonal hires using personal trucks during student move‑in. The surge lasts three weeks, but the exposure is intense. Consider temporary hired and non‑owned auto endorsements that match the season and tighten instructions: no trailers, no roof‑rack loads, documentation of personal insurance.
Vehicles stored at job trailers on development sites. Theft spikes at active construction, and many policies limit coverage when a vehicle is left unattended at a jobsite overnight. Ask about storage conditions, immobilizers, or lot security to keep coverage intact.
Pools of tools and small equipment in vans. Property policies often require scheduling higher‑value items and excluding mysterious disappearance. A theft from a van may be an auto claim for the glass and a property claim for the tools. Decide which deductible you prefer and coordinate with your broker on claim strategy before the event.
Interchange between owner entities. If a property‑level LLC owns a truck but the management company’s employees drive it, the Named Insureds and additional insureds on auto and umbrella policies should reflect that reality. A certificate alone does not fix misaligned insured structures.
What good looks like in practice
A regional property management firm with 3,500 units and eight light service vehicles kept claims tame for years by doing five unglamorous things. They screened drivers and rechecked MVRs yearly. They standardized van upfits with secure interior racks and backup cameras. They added HNOA at a 1 million limit and raised their umbrella to 10 million when they expanded into a downtown portfolio with tighter streets. They picked two body shops that could handle racks and heavy doors, and they wrote a two‑page incident protocol that every supervisor could recite. When a not‑at‑fault crash sent two employees to urgent care, UM coverage responded, the adjuster already knew the shop, and the rental reimbursement kicked in for eight days. The claim still took time, but it didn’t derail operations.
On the other side, a small owner with two pickups and no HNOA faced a seven‑figure demand after a leasing agent in a personal car hit a motorcyclist while rushing to a showing. The agent’s personal policy carried state minimum limits. The employer’s general liability did not apply, the umbrella excluded non‑owned autos, and the business wrote checks for defense before negotiating a painful settlement. The premium savings from skipping HNOA evaporated in an afternoon.
Building your playbook
Commercial auto insurance for real estate and property managers isn’t about exotic endorsements or perfect foresight. It’s about matching coverage to how you actually operate, then tightening the loose ends that claims exploit. Start with a clean schedule of vehicles and drivers. Decide which risks you retain with deductibles and which you transfer with limits. Treat HNOA as mandatory unless every single business mile happens in your own titled vehicles. Align auto with umbrella, workers’ compensation, and property so the handoffs during claims are smooth. Spend modestly on practical loss control that fits your fleet rather than chasing technology you won’t use.
Most important, revisit the program whenever your operations change. New development, a push into student housing, or a maintenance insourcing decision shifts your risk profile. The best programs evolve in step with the business, not after a claim teaches the lesson for you.
If you put the work in up front, auto losses become manageable incidents instead of existential threats. Your teams get back on the road, tenants get their hot water, and the business keeps its focus where it belongs: on the properties and the people who live and work in them.
LV Premier Insurance Broker
8275 S Eastern Ave Suite 113, Las Vegas, NV 89123
(702) 848-1166
Website: https://lvpremierinsurance.com
FAQ About Commercial Auto Insurance Las Vegas
What are the requirements for commercial auto insurance in Nevada?
In Nevada, businesses must carry at least the state’s minimum liability limits for commercial vehicles: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 bodily injury per accident, and $20,000 property damage. Some industries—such as trucking or hazardous materials transport—are required by federal and state regulations to carry significantly higher limits, often starting at $750,000 or more depending on the vehicle type and cargo.
How much does commercial auto insurance cost in Nevada?
The cost of commercial auto insurance in Nevada typically ranges from $100–$300 per month for standard business vehicles, but can exceed $1,000 per month for higher-risk vehicles such as heavy trucks or vehicles used for transport. Premiums vary based on factors like driving history, vehicle types, business use, claims history, and Nevada’s regional traffic patterns.
What is the average cost of commercial auto insurance nationally?
National averages show commercial auto insurance costing around $147–$250 per month for most small businesses, based on data from major carriers. Costs increase for businesses with multiple vehicles, specialty equipment, or high-mileage operations. Factors such as coverage limits, industry risk, and driver history heavily influence the final premium.
What is the best company for commercial auto insurance?
While many national insurers offer strong commercial auto policies, Nevada businesses often benefit from working with a knowledgeable local agency. LV Premier Insurance is a top local choice in Las Vegas, helping business owners compare multiple carriers to secure competitive rates and customized coverage. Their commercial auto programs are tailored to Nevada businesses and include liability, collision, comprehensive, uninsured motorist, medical payments, and fleet solutions.