Imagine this – you are the head of a home cleaning company and after a cleaning project at someone’s house, the homeowner slips and falls because one of your employees did not properly dry the floors after washing them. The homeowner sustains serious injuries and sues your company for the injuries and now you have a heavy lawsuit on your hands. Another scenario – you are a roofer installing the roof shingles. Then, in an accident, the pile of shingles you are installing falls off to the ground and causes the surrounding property and house massive damage. In both these cases, an accident has occurred and you’re left with the possibility to pay for the property damage, medical costs, and associated legal fees that could have a devastating effect on your company’s finances. This is where general liability insurance comes in. General liability at its most basic form protects the company from third party claims of physical injury and property damage that naturally arise from your business operations. It covers the cost of your legal defense and any settlement or award should you be successfully sued. Even if the claims are trivial or baseless, you still have to legally defend yourself against the claim, and general liability insurance is there to cover those costs. When dealing with business, you should do all you can to minimize the risk of accident, but it is inevitable no matter how safe you try to be or how many precautions you take. Negligence, oversight, miscommunication, misunderstandings, or just plain bad luck are all facts of life one must heavily consider especially when dealing as an artisan contractor, janitorial service, or general contractor.
When a general contractor takes on a job, they’ll hand off parts of it to other sub-contractors. The general contractor still has the overall responsibility for legal compliance, safety, quality of workmanship and just about everything else that happens on the job site. General contractors therefore take on a ton of responsibility. With that comes an equal measure of potential liability. That’s why licensed and responsible general contractors carry generally always carry general liability insurance to protect both the contractor and client if something goes wrong.
Although general liability insurance is not legally required, many jobs, especially on government contracts, require to provide evidence of liability insurance as part of the qualification process. Many states require a minimum liability insurance to obtain state contractor licenses. From the employer's/client's side, they would want the peace of mind knowing you have ample resources should an injury or accident occur on their premise especially for those in the contracting businesses. The work that contractors and subcontractors do can be dangerous. General contractors, electricians, roofers and people who work with power tools or heavy equipment risk far more accidents on the job than say, the average office worker.
The value of general liability insurance cannot be understated. Don't risk being penalized for accidents that are out of your control. Imaco Underwriters is among the largest qualified general insurance distributors throughout the nation. Let us oversee your insurance needs for your clients and let you thrive.