What a liability claim looks like
Liability means being legally responsible for harm to someone else. A visitor trips over your extension cord, or a ladder falls onto a customer’s car. General liability can pay covered injury or property damage claims and provide a defense when someone makes a covered claim against your business.
It serves a different purpose from workers’ compensation for employee injuries, commercial auto for vehicle accidents and tools coverage for your own equipment. Having one of these policies does not mean you have the others.
Make sure the policy describes the work you actually do
Insurers group work into classifications, such as painting or carpentry, to describe and price the business. An exclusion removes a type of loss or work from coverage. An endorsement changes the policy, sometimes adding protection and sometimes restricting it.
For example, a policy suitable for interior painting may exclude roofing. Its dollar limit would not fix that exclusion if you start taking roof jobs. Tell us about your own crew’s duties, subcontracted work, structural changes, excavation, heights and the types of buildings you work on. We can then compare the policy wording with those jobs.
Protection during the job and after it is finished
Ongoing operations means work in progress. Completed operations concerns injury or damage arising from finished work. Both matter because a problem can become apparent after you leave the site.
The cost of redoing faulty work and the damage it causes to other property can be treated differently. General liability is not a promise to pay for every repair to your own work.
Understand the numbers before comparing quotes
The per-occurrence limit is the maximum available for one covered event. The aggregate is the total available for claims that count against that part of the policy during the applicable period. A policy showing $1 million per occurrence and a $2 million aggregate does not provide $2 million for each accident.
A deductible is an amount you may be responsible for under the policy. Ask whether defense costs reduce a limit, which aggregate applies and whether an endorsement changes these terms. The policy wording guide shows how claim payments use an aggregate over time.
Why your customer asks for insurance documents
A certificate summarizes insurance. An additional insured endorsement can give a customer specified protection under your policy for claims connected to your work. A customer may request that protection during construction and after completion, which can require different wording.
Send the insurance section of the contract with the project description. We can explain the requested limits and endorsements, check whether your policy can provide them and identify anything requiring insurer approval before a certificate is issued.
What determines the price
The premium, meaning the price of the policy, reflects your trade, job types, sales or payroll, subcontractor costs, claims and requested coverage. Start with your best realistic estimates. If the policy is auditable, the insurer later compares estimates with actual business records and may adjust the premium.
To compare options, use the same work description and estimates for each. We will review the annual cost, payment terms, limits and restrictions together, so a small deposit is not mistaken for a lower total price.
Common questions
Workers’ compensation is the coverage intended for employee work injuries and illnesses. General liability generally addresses injury or property damage claims from people outside your workforce, such as a customer or visitor. A business with employees commonly needs both.
A certificate reports insurance information. Changing its description does not change the policy. If a customer needs additional insured status or another coverage change, we check the actual endorsement that supplies it.