Liability Insurance

Liability insurance is often a requirement on any jobsite. Some contractors are able to perform work without it but that limits the amount of jobs that you can obtain.Bidding on a job is not a problem but as soon as you are awarded the bid most likely you will be required to produce a certificate of insurance to verify insurance coverage. This requirement is typically requested from home owners and is always requested from business owners and big property owners.

Most often the minimum insurance required is 1 million per occurrence with an aggregate of 2 million. On top of this many of your clients will request an excess policy with limits up to 5 million. The cost of this insurance varies on the type of policy you purchase, the specific work that you perform and the type of work your sub contractors perform for you.

· At DurAmerica Brokerage before any quotes are submitted, you will discuss your specific business needs with one of our construction insurance specialists who will help you keep the cost low.

· Next we will submit your information to various insurance companies in order to produce the most competitive quotes with the best coverages available.

· Then we will compile these quotes for you with 9 monthly payments and keep your deposit as low as possible, especially if you are a new business and need help with the deposit.

Contractors Insurance Policy Coverages

Insurance companies are financial institutions.  Accordingly they are rated by institutions like Standard & Poor and a firm called AM Best. These firms rate Insurance companies every year, they give ratings of A++, A+, A, A-, B+, etc. the rating of insurance companies is very important because it tells you the strength and stability of an insurance company.  Besides its strength and stability it is an important tool when comparing prices because typically a quote from an A++ insurance company has better coverage’s and therefore a higher premium. A quote from a C carrier will be lower in price but it will also have much less coverage.

In a commercial general liability policy there is a lot of information to know and understand. There are coverages that are important to your business and if you understand them you can properly secure the financial future of your business to make sure that you stay in business for many years to come. We have listed these coverages below, if at any time you need help with any of these definitions, please feel free to contact one of our representatives and they will be happy to explain them in further detail.

General Liability Insurance Breakdown With Scenarios:

Bodily Injury

Physical harm to a person at your place of business, or an injury of a third party at your clients job site (ie. You installed a kitchen cabinet and after you left the cabinet fell off the wall and hurt someone)

Completed Operations/Products Liability

The finished work that you have completed (ie. You did plumbing work in a clients bathroom and after you finished the work the pipe leaked and caused damage to the apartment downstairs)

Personal Injury

Damage to the reputation or rights of a person or business due to slander, libel, copyright infringement, invasion or privacy, false arrest, wrongful eviction, etc. (ie. You were falsely evicted from your business location while a lease was in place)

Advertising Injury

Losses caused by your advertising (ie. You published an ad that stated that your work was much better than your competitor across the street and you named his company in the ad)

Medical Payments

Pays the medical expenses of a person injured on your premises up to an agreed amount in order to avoid a lawsuit. (i.e. Someone got injured at your place of business and was sent to the hospital, the policy pays the doctors bills in order to avoid a lawsuit)

Independent Contractors Liability

Most contractors believe that an independent contractor is only a subcontractor. That is a mistake, there are two types of independent contractors. The first is an employee of your own that you pay and file as a 1099, yes, insurance companies say that a 1099 employee is not an employee and is a subcontractor. This is very important because most insurance companies do not provide coverage for subcontractors, this means that if your 1099 employee causes a loss on the site it may not be covered.

The second type is a true subcontractor, a company that you have subbed out to a percentage of the jobsite (i.e. electricians, plumbers). Please remember that most insurance companies do not provide coverage for this but if you currently do have a policy that does cover this then there is still one additional coverage that you need to be made aware of. It is called Injury To Subcontractors. This endorsement is typically excluded from your policy even if you have coverage for subcontractors. This endorsement will cover a bodily injury claim from your subcontractors employees. If you currently hire subcontractors and do not have this coverage  you need to contact us immediately because this is a major claim waiting to happen.

General Liability Exclusions

As you can see general liability insurance covers a wide range of possible claims that can occur. There are exclusions on policies that can alter some of the coverages that we discussed above but the most important thing to remember is that it will not cover circumstances that can occur that can be covered with other policies. Some of these are listed below.

Injury to your employees: Workers Compensation

Vans or Trucks Owned & Operated By The Business: Commercial Auto

Professional Services: Professional Liability Insurance, Errors & Omissions

Wrongful Acts As An Office Or Executive: Directors & Officers Policy

Pollution: Environmental Liability

As you see we have made it our mission to educate our clients. DurAmerica Brokerage has helped thousands of businesses like yours to succeed to have piece of mind, that’s why it is important that you contact us today for a free no obligation review of your insurance needs. If you found this article useful please forward it to a friend or colleague.

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