Originally Posted by
TriBiker19
The biggest thing to remember for a business is that there are different requirements based on who you're talking to. As a tax person, I wouldn't qualify his business in a garage that is also used to house a non-business vehicle as a business location. IRS states that the area needs to be regularly and exclusively used for business. So that workshop building custom widgets you set up in your guest bedroom might qualify as a business for the taxing authority because you profited $2 in 2019, but it's not a "business property." Same with the garage.
I know nothing about insurance. So I'm not going to offer an opinion on what would qualify as a business. But just a heads up to anyone that has a "business". Tax and licensing isn't everything. You almost have to change your song based on who you're talking to.
I hope this all works out for the OP.
A lot of the environment is changing, with the internet, eBay, CL, etc.
The policy in VA is from 1991, and in general "other structures" are excluded if used "at any time for any business," but that's the language, and interpretations can vary, and often do, in a favorable light for the homeowner. There's are differences that are generally discussed on a case-by-case basis, as far as buildings.
Personal Property, same thing. Many people have as many tools as many shops, for bikes/car/motorcycles, etc, but they're not in business. Generally, the benefit of the doubt is given to the insured, but when it isn't, there are almost always other factors being considered, besides business being conducted. I've had flippers brag to me about making $20K a year flipping bikes, but they have condo coverage only, not a single bit of commercial coverage. Yeah, that would be a problem when 40 bikes burn up that were all on CL....
Where money is involved, people do things. Sometimes not so honest things. One good rule of thumb is: Constant, long-term selling or servicing for a fee is not a hobby, it's a business. One reason I never charge labor on any bike I work on, and never will. (That, and liability) Sporadic selling, impulse buying and selling, well, that describes us.
When a person is revealed to have "done things" in representing/misrepresenting the risk they want to insure, the arguments they present are often adolescent, and pertain to everything but the facts, when the time comes to own up. They are actually quite funny in many cases, and often begin with, "but....."
The entitlement mentality that permeates our culture extends to insurance, of course. Human nature dictates that when you pay something, you want something, unless you are that part of our society that pays nothing but still wants something (and gets it). But insurance is not the government, unless you live in Florida. It's close, there.