Contractors General Liability Insurance

What it may help with

Subject to the actual policy or bond form, its terms, limits, and exclusions.

• Claims that your operations injured a third party, such as a customer tripping over materials at a job site.
• Damage to someone else's property caused by your work, such as water damage to a finished ceiling after a plumbing repair, depending on policy wording.
• Products and completed operations exposure — claims that arise after a job is finished — where the policy includes it.
• Defense costs for covered claims, as described in the policy.

Keep in mind

• General liability is not a warranty. It generally does not pay to redo or repair your own faulty workmanship; many policies exclude 'your work' itself, while resulting damage to other property may be treated differently.
• Many policies contain exclusions or limitations for specific operations such as roofing, work above certain heights, residential new construction, or EIFS. These need to be reviewed against what you actually do.
• Injuries to your own employees are generally addressed by workers' compensation, not general liability.
• Additional insured, waiver of subrogation, and primary and noncontributory wording are separate endorsements that must be requested and approved.

Questions we'll review with you

• What percentage of your work is residential versus commercial?
• Do you perform any new construction, or only service, repair, and remodeling?
• Do you hire subcontractors, and do you collect their certificates?
• Do your contracts require specific limits or endorsements?