From lawn mowing to trimming trees, your landscaping business is often exposed to significant risks. These risks may include third-party injuries and property damage claims.
Luckily, you can mitigate these risks with the right insurance for your business. Landscaping insurance can protect your business against the financial impact of covering these risks out-of-pocket.
In this article, we’ll highlight the importance of landscaping insurance and the coverage along with the potential costs.
What is Landscaping Insurance?
Landscaping insurance is commercial liability coverage that protects landscapers against property damage and bodily injury.
A general liability policy protects against third-party claims regarding a client's property or personal injury. It also uses various insurance policies to cover specific risks to the business itself. For example, workers compensation insurance, a requirement by most states, is included to cover workplace injury costs. Extra coverage, such as property insurance to protect your business premises and auto insurance for business vehicles, form part of a comprehensive landscape insurance policy.
Secondly, your credibility improves by having landscaping insurance. Clients prefer insured landscapers to shield themselves from unexpected costs.
Who Needs Landscaping Insurance?
Independent contractors and landscaping companies offering services such as lawn care, tree pruning, trimming, lawn gardening, and incidental hardscape services need landscaping insurance. By combining various types of insurance, business owners safeguard their business from financial losses from claims related to third-party injuries, property damage, and employee injury.
Clients are more likely to work with you if you are insured because they’re protected financially from a loss. Also, being insured raises your reputation, showing you adhere to a high standard of business practices.
Landscaping insurance protects your business from the following risks:
- Third-Party Injuries: The property owner or a passer-by can sustain injuries by tripping on equipment or being hit by flying or falling objects.
- Property Damage: Objects such as rocks and sticks thrown by mowers and trimmers can damage windows and walls. In addition, when pruning, falling branches might damage roofs or other parts of your client's property.
- Business property damage: Both buildings and equipment at your business premises are protected from damage.
Landscaping Insurance Coverage
Your landscaping company needs different types of insurance to mitigate operational risks. Some types of landscaping insurance policies include:
- General liability insurance: General liability insurance protects your business against third-party claims of bodily injury, property damage, and advertising injury. It covers the cost to investigate, defend, and settle claims. For instance, if your mower throws a rock that shatters your client’s window, general liability insurance will cover the cost to repair the damage.
- Workers’ compensation insurance: Workers’ compensation insurance helps provide benefits to employees who are injured or fall sick on the job. Benefits could include medical expenses and lost wages.
- Commercial auto insurance: This policy covers your commercial vehicles. Commercial auto policies won’t cover personal vehicles used on the job; you would need non-owned or hired auto insurance.
- Business equipment protection: Business equipment protection covers the accidental loss, damage, or theft of any equipment your business owns, rents, or borrows. You’ll need to provide your insurer with a list of all the equipment you want to cover with this policy.
- Commercial property insurance: Commercial property insurance covers your business's physical premises. It covers the physical structure that houses your business, the area around it, and any assets within.
In some instances, the landscaping insurance policies may exclude some losses from compensation. Intentional damage is an example that falls under an exclusion clause. If you damage client property maliciously or intentionally, the insurer will not pay.
How Much Does Landscaping Insurance Cost?
Your landscaping insurance costs will vary based on the amount of protection you need. Covering third-party risks alone will be cheaper but expose your business to other risks.
Generally, the cost is determined by the location, number of staff, coverage limit, nature of the job, and coverage period.
- Location: Liability insurance costs vary by state.
- Gross Sales: Costs may vary based on your business income.
- The number of staff: You’ll pay a higher workers' compensation insurance premium if you have a large number of employees and independent contractors.
- Nature of the job: The nature of landscaping work impacts the cost. For instance, tree trimming is a higher risk compared to lawn mowing.
- Coverage limits: You can expect to pay a higher insurance premium if you choose higher coverage limits.
On average, general insurance for landscapers costs $500 per year. However, the costs can increase or decrease as you include or exclude other types of coverage for your business. For landscaping, general liability limits are $1M per occurrence and $2M on aggregate per policy term.
How Quickly Can I Get a Certificate of Insurance?
A certificate of insurance is a document that outlines the crucial details of an insurance policy, such as the legal name and address of the insured, the insurer's name, the type of policy, the insurance amount, coverage details, and policy effective dates.
A certificate of insurance shows appropriate protection against potential risks. Most clients will request it before contracting you for high-risk assignments where financial losses can occur.
Insurers brokers are responsible for providing the certificate of insurance on request. In most cases, a certificate is issued together with your policy. You can get your proof of insurance upon request within a few business days.
Get Landscaping Insurance for Your Business
Landscaping insurance can help cover the cost of claims made against your business. Contact a licensed insurance agent and ask them to get you a Pathpoint quote today.