General Contractors & Construction Firms
Contractors provide a wide variety of essential services to consumers and other businesses. General contractors may find themselves patching a customer’s wall one day and digging a trench for a new plumbing system on an apartment building another day. Regardless of whether you are a general contractor or a specialty one, you can protect your business investment by making sure you’re carrying the appropriate levels of.
General Liability
General liability insurance is important for contractors because it protects your customers directly. This insurance grows with your company so that you are protected at all job sites or future business locations. This insurance provides you with protection against everyday risks and hazards, plus unexpected events that may arise in the future.
General Liability Insurance Includes:
- Premises Liability – Premises liability protects your customers and their property from harm while they’re on your business premises. Premises include remote jobsites that you may be performing work at. If a customer injures themselves at your work location and must be taken to the hospital for treatment for example, your premises liability coverage will pay those bills.
- Products Liability – When you sell products to your customers, your company is at risk of being sued if those products are found to be defective later. If, for example, you sell a certain type of plumbing pipe to a customer and that pipe is later found to be prone to bursting, it may cause flood damage in your customer’s home. Your products liability coverage can protect you by providing litigation defense funds, and paying settlements or judgments.
- Completed Operations – After you completed an agreed upon contracting service, problems may arise from that work in the future. If, for example, one of your employees makes a mistake when installing new electrical plugs and it causes a fire after the fact, your company may be sued for the damages. The completed operations portion of your general liability policy pays for those damages and any related legal defense fees and settlements.
Business Owners Policy
Commercial general liability protection can be included as part of a business owners policy, or BOP. A BOP focuses on protecting your tangible and intangible business assets, such as equipment, inventory and payroll. A BOP is customizable so that you only pay for just the insurance your contractor company needs. Examples of options include:
- Buildings and Contents
- Business Income and Extra Expense
- Electronic Data
- Newly Acquired or Constructed Buildings
- Employee Dishonesty Coverage
Business Auto
Contractors drive frequently as part of their routine business actions. Protect yourself from financial hardships that can be caused by auto accidents. A business auto insurance policy can protect passenger vehicles, work trucks, transport vehicles and other machinery. Depending upon your level of coverage, your auto insurance can pay for damages to your vehicles and equipment, load losses and bodily injuries among other things.
Workers Comp
When you have employees you are required by law to provide them with workers comp protection. If one of your contractor employees gets injured while performing his work duties, workers compensation will pay for his medical bills so that he doesn’t have to.
Commercial Umbrella
An umbrella policy provides your contracting company with extra protection. When your regular business insurance coverage reaches its maximum coverage limits, the umbrella policy can take care of the rest.