What Insurance Your Landscaping Business Needs
You beautify our lawns and add curb appeal to our homes. Your landscaping job means that you’re working with tools and equipment and travelling to and from client sites. Your daily work is not without risk.
You need a landscaper’s insurance package to protect your business so that you can get the job done with your green thumb.
Where is your landscaping business located?
Are you located on Davenport Road, Warren Road, the Danforth, or on Merton Street in the Mount Pleasant West neighborhood?
Are you in Etobicoke, Scarborough or in Mississauga, Vaughan, King City, Oakville, Vaughan, or Caledon?
No matter your location in Toronto, Greater Toronto Area, or anywhere in Ontario, your Western business insurance expert will give you detailed and top-notch insurance advice for your landscaping business, no matter its size. You’ll also be advised on ways to save.
How will a landscaper’s insurance package protect my business?
You need to protect your landscaping business from the potential risks you and your employees face when on the job.
Without insurance, you would have to cover these costs out of your own pocket. Can you take that kind of risk?
A landscaper’s insurance package can help protect you from these 3 common claims:
1. A client trips and falls, breaks a wrist, and has a head injury after you’ve finished installing stone path in her backyard. The client she sues you for bodily injury and wins. Commercial General Liability insurance will help cover the legal fees and settlement.
2. A thief breaks into your storage shed and steals your tools and equipment that you work with daily. Your Tools and Equipment insurance could help cover the cost to replace what has been stolen.
3. You get into an accident with your landscaping company’s van on the way to a job. Commercial Auto insurance helps cover the cost of damages to any vehicle used for business purposes, including cars, vans, trucks, and trailers. Your personal car insurance does not cover any business vehicles.
As a landscaping business owner, here’s an insurance check list:
- Do you have the best business insurance rate for your landscaping business?
- Do you have the right amount for your deductible and regularly review it to make sure it’s the right amount?
- Is your number of employees up to date?
- Do you know the value of your equipment and tools and is it properly insured?
What’s in a landscaping insurance package?
Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance: Also known as slip and fall insurance, it protects you against third-party bodily injury or property damage claims.
CGL can help pay legal and medical costs if an employee is injured on the job or property is damage when you are on a landscaping job.
Without commercial liability insurance, you would be responsible for paying any liability costs out of your own pocket, which can add up to thousands of dollars.
Your CGL policy also can help protect you from libel, slander, copyright infringement, and false advertising allegations.
Your CGL policy coverage limit may only apply to all full-time employees, not each individual. If you require the same amount of coverage for each employee, consider increasing your policy coverage limit.
Usually, most insurers consider part-time employees and subcontractors as independent employees and they will need to get their own insurance policies.
How much CGL insurance do I need?
It’s not uncommon that a landscaping business would carry $2 million in CGL coverage.
The size of your landscaping business, number of employees, and claims history will be factors in how much liability insurance you need and the cost.
Equipment and Tools Insurance: It replaces or repairs damaged, stolen, or lost equipment and tools, accessories, or other property that you use in your landscaping business.
Anything valued at less than $1,500 is considered a tool and anything above that limit is considered equipment.
Commercial Property Insurance: It can help keep your business’s office or workshop protected from property losses, such as theft or vandalism. You can also add earthquake insurance, sewer backup, or flood coverage extensions.
Property you may need to insure:
- Building
- Furniture, equipment, supplies
- Inventory and computers
- Documents such as payroll, accounts receivable
Contractors’ Errors and Omissions Insurance
It protects you from damages from alleged errors or omissions in the performance of your professional duties or failure to provide professional services. It help protect you from third-party claims of faulty workmanship or the use of defective materials.
E & O insurance doesn't cover every type of liability claim. It doesn’t cover illegal acts and purposeful wrongdoing, such as intentionally breaking the law or deceiving your clients.
Cyber Insurance: Do you store your customers’ names, addresses, and credit card numbers in your landscaping business’s computer system, this information could be stolen by cybercriminals.
Without cyber insurance, you will have to pay for the cost of restoring your system on your own.
You may also be liable for damages to third parties whose information has been stolen and you may have to pay for notification expenses to inform customers affected by a breach.
Pollution Liability Insurance: Your landscaping business may use products that could be harmful to the environment or people. This type of insurance protects your landscaping business from third-party bodily injury and property damage claims and environmental liabilities associated with exposure to those products. It also helps cover any cleanup costs.
Business Interruption Insurance: If there is an insured loss at your window cleaning business that’s severe enough to prevent it from being open, the expenses associated with getting your business running again will be covered.
Business Interruption insurance usually covers vandalism, fire, wind, flooding, and other risks. It’s important to make sure to understand what this policy covers. This type of insurance will help compensate you for lost income and expenses that you will need to continue paying even when your business is unable to operate.
How much landscaping insurance do I need?
It will depend on the size of your landscaping company and the kind work that you do. It’s unlikely that all landscaping businesses would pay the same rates monthly or annually for their business insurance.
Ask your Western business insurance expert to determine the right level of coverage for your landscaping business.
What do I do if my landscaping company has an insurance claim?
- Contact your broker immediately after any business-related mishap. Waiting to file a claim can confuse insurers about the severity of the damages to your business.
- Know your policy so that when you contact your broker you are familiar with what will be covered or not.
- Document the damage. Take photos right away and write down what happened.
- Do not throw away damaged goods after taking photos. Keep any physical evidence so that your adjustor can see it.
- Do not invite lawsuits. Don’t say anything that could be used against you, especially if you aren’t sure what happened.
- Be honest about what your damaged property is worth. Damaged commercial property is generally valued according to its actual cash value or replacement value.
Western Financial Group has licensed BUSINESS INSURANCE EXPERTS to get your landscaping the right insurance package. Our experts are available now to help you navigate the business insurance journey to protect your landscaping business.
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