Restaurant Cooking Hood Not Business Personal Property

The insured is a restaurant. They rent space to run their business. When they rented the space, it had already been a restaurant and was fitted with a kitchen. The cooking surface had an exhaust hood over it.

A fire broke out and damaged the cooking hood requiring that it will need replacement. The hood was already installed in the kitchen when the insured rented the space. The tenant since renting the space has had the hood serviced and cleaned at the tenant's expense.

Is the hood covered under their business personal property policy (CP 10 30)?

Ohio Subscriber

It is our opinion that this hood would be considered part of the building and not the insured's business personal property. The hood would not even be considered the insured's improvements and betterments because the CP 00 10 requires those to be acquired or made at the tenant's own expense, which was not the case here. This hood was already a part of the building when the insured moved in.