Contractor insurance is specialized coverage for small businesses that is custom built for your needs. There are many types of products that you can get for your business that includes protection from accidents, loss of income, stolen, lost, or damaged tools, or lawsuits. If you accidentally damage someone’s home while you are working on it, you will be covered if you have liability insurance. This will pay for the damage to the home.
Contractor products can be expensive, but it would be more expensive to pay for the loss into which you can run. The cost can have many factors that go into it. Some of these factors are your insurance needs, the number of employees that you have, prior claims history, and other factors. These prices can be as low as a thousand dollars for a million dollars’ worth of coverage.
There are many ways that you can save on coverage including comparing quotes from different agents, bundling up on different policies, implementing safety programs, classifying your workers correctly, joining a trade or industry association, paying your premium in full, and increasing your deductible. Doing each one of these things can save you a little on your policy, and if you combine them, you might save even more. Ask your agent to see what discounts they offer, as well.
You should also make sure that the product is good for the area in which you are working. You will need Arizona contractor insurance in Arizona, for example. You can’t have insurance from a neighboring state that will work for you in Arizona. Make sure that your agent knows where you are doing business.
You might want to know who needs contractor coverage – this is pretty simple. Anyone that does any type of contracting work from contractors and subcontractors to painters, carpenters, appliance technicians, drywall installers, landscapers, HVAC professionals, roofers, masons, and a host of people who may work on your home or business. These professionals will need insurance to cover their business.
Contractor coverage covers your business for many different problems. These problems can be anything from cost of claims and damage to your business to lawsuits. The type of insurance that you get will depend on the needs that your business has. The best type of insurance to start with would be a business owner’s policy, or BOP.
BOP insurance includes business liability, commercial property, and business interruption insurance: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/business-owners-policy.asp. There are a lot of things that are not included in your coverage, as well. These include floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. They also include radioactive fallouts, war, infectious diseases, government seizures, wrongful termination, and intentional and fraudulent acts.Â
There are other types of small business products that you can investigate. Some of these that you might consider are builder’s risk, commercial auto, commercial umbrella policies, contractor’s tools and equipment, equipment breakdown, and errors and omissions coverage. These can all help in several aspects of your company.
One example of the products that you can get is commercial auto coverage. This type will cover you for bodily injury, property damage, combined single limit, medical payment and personal injury protection, collision, comprehensive, and uninsured drivers. This type of coverage will help you when you have an accident with your commercial vehicle.
Here are some examples of when you would use your different coverages. If you have an employee that receives a laceration while on the job, you will use your worker’s compensation insurance to cover their care. If you accidentally damage your client’s furniture while painting the home, you will use general liability. If a fire destroys your building and all the equipment inside, you will use commercial property.
There are other examples, of course, so you need to be proactive and have the right type of coverage that will pay for the damage done. You want to make sure that you have a variety of types of coverage to ensure that you will be covered no matter what incident that happens. You don’t want to lose your business because you don’t have the right type of product.
There are many companies that can cover your needs. You can do a simple search on the internet to see what is available to you. See here for a list of top ten companies. Make sure that you check online reviews and the Better Business Bureau to make sure that the company is a reputable one.
Conclusion
There are many types of coverage that you can have if you have a small contracting business. One of these is liability, but there are so many more that you need. You need to make sure that you are covered in any possibility of damage. You don’t want to lose your business because something wasn’t covered.
You can get all your coverage needs covered by one agency. You will need to call different agencies to get quotes for what you need. Remember, the cheapest agency isn’t always the best one for your needs. Make sure that you take all your needs into consideration.