Landscaping Insurance
When your landscaping business does work for residential or commercial clientele, you will find that many are asking for you to carry insurance. These Landscaping Insurance requirements are getting to be higher and higher every year, and while these can cost you more money – they can be good for your business.
If your business does not have such requirements, or if you are wondering how it works, understanding these Landscaping Insurance options is a must do. When it comes to losses, insurance protects you financially when there is a claim, so you can stay in business while the company deals with it. So, make sure you understand what you are spending money on and ask questions when you are curious. Let’s look at some of the most common Landscaping Insurance coverage’s you can purchase.
Landscaping Insurance – General Liability
Most landscapers buy a General Liability Insurance policy more than any other type of commercial insurance policy for their business so it is best for you to understand just what it is and what it does. The General Liability policy is coverage that protects your business from a bodily injury or property damage that is the fault of you or your employees. While this is not a warranty on your work, it covers your business should you do work that causes an injury. A example of this would be if someone did yard work and dug a hole, and before filling it up someone came by and got injured. The insurance would pay to cover the injury and associated damages resulting from that injury.
Commonly, we will get asked to add additional insured’s, waivers of subrogation, and primary/non-contributory wording to your policy. Be aware these are endorsements that cost extra since we are adding additional coverage to the policy to include a 3rd party.
Some Tree Trimmers are required to carry Professional Liability – just make sure you do let your agent know if you need this. Very few liability carriers offer this and it is always an extra charge to add.
Landscaping Insurance – Workers Compensation
Depending on the state you reside in, if you have even one employee you are required to carry workers compensation – and if you are working for someone they may require you to carry it to reduce their workers compensation costs. Workers Compensation has two parts to it, the first covers your business from bodily injuries that happened to one of your employees while on the job. The second is the liability component to this and it covers your business should that employee that was injured sue do to unsafe workplace conditions that led to that injury. This is a good Landscaping Insurance coverage to have and you can be either excluded or included as an owner depending on the state you are located in.
Landscaping Insurance – Commercial Auto Insurance
Next you can have in the Landscaping Insurance package a commercial auto policy. As many personal auto policy carriers will exclude business use, you want this type of policy to cover your vehicle. A Commercial auto policy can include personal use as well.
Landscaping Insurance – Inland Marine Policy
The last big coverage most landscapers purchase in their Landscaping Insurance package is an Inland Marine policy. The inland marine policy covers your owned equipment for vandalism or theft. Typically we need a list of equipment over a certain value and then can insure those as scheduled equipment. Non Scheduled equipment if more expensive and is typically for smaller value tools.
When it comes to your Landscaping Insurance package make sure you ask questions. As we have written a good amount of this kind of insurance, we do understand the policies and can help you make a decision.