General Liability Insurance – Key Details
General Liability Insurance for Construction and Contracting Businesses: Key Details
As you consider your coverage needs, it’s helpful to know the kind of claims General Liability Insurance safeguards your contracting or construction business against — and what it doesn’t. Take a look at the types of third-party claims typically covered by General Liability Insurance for contractors, and be sure to ask your agent about the policies that fit your business needs.
Bodily Injury Claims
As professionals in a labor-intensive industry, builders and contractors know that no matter how careful a business is, accidents happen, especially when untrained visitors enter a worksite. With General Liability Insurance, though, you have the protection your small contracting or construction businesses needs against these all-too-common accidents and lawsuits.
In the event of an accident on your business premises, these policies pay for injuries where you are deemed to be negligent or a contributing factor to the injury. While General Liability covers injury – and illness related to your negligence – related expenses for third parties, your own employees’ on-the-job injuries are not covered under this policy. For the protection your employees need on the job, consider purchasing Workers’ Compensation Insurance as well.
Property Damage Claims
General Liability Insurance protects your contracting or construction business against the high cost of a lawsuit if someone alleges that your business damaged their property or that your business is responsible for their inability to use that property.
Completed Products Claims
General Liability Insurance policies can protect your construction or contracting business against claims related to the services you’ve completed and the products you’ve produced. So if, for example, your business inadvertently installs kitchen cabinetry with unstable shelving that ends up injuring the homeowner, your contracting company could be found liable. With the proper coverage, however, your legal expenses and any damages can be covered, up to your policy limits.
Personal and Advertising Injury Claims
If you advertise for your contracting or construction business, Personal and Advertising injury would protect you against claims that you inadvertently slandered or damaged someone’s reputation due to your content. Allegations that your contracting or construction business caused non-physical damages to another person or entity are all too common when competing with other businesses in the same industry.
Medical Expenses Claims
Should an accident happen on your business premises to someone who is not employed by your contracting or construction business, General Liability Insurance covers the expense of the injured person’s medical attention. Remember if someone is hurt on your property that you insist they seek medical assistance immediately. From an insurance standpoint, it’s better to compensate for immediate medical costs, such as a trip to the ER, rather than risk the liability for not attending to the situation right away. The important distinction between medical expense claims and General Liability claims is that medical expense claims can be no-fault, meaning the policy can pay claims under the medical expense coverage whether you as the insured are negligent or not.
For more information about our firm and the services we offer, send us a quick email or call our office. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
info@dgbrokers.com | 866-781-2378