What insurance a lawn care or landscaping business needs

The easiest way to decide what to buy is to list the ways your business can lose a lot of money in one afternoon, then match a policy to each. For most mowing and maintenance outfits, that list looks like this:

1. You wreck the truck, or the trailer comes loose, on the way between yards.
2. A mower or trimmer throws something through a window, into a car or into a person.
3. Someone steals the zero-turn off the trailer while you're edging around back.
4. A crew member gets cut, burned or hurt lifting.
5. A weed control or fertilizer application damages a lawn, a garden or a person.

Each of those lands on a different policy. Even when a quote says "lawn care insurance" at the top, what you're buying is a bundle of separate coverages, and the gaps sit in the seams between them.

General liability

General liability (GL) is the policy customers ask for. The NAIC's insurance glossary describes commercial general liability as having two parts: premises and operations, and products and completed operations. In lawn care terms, the first part answers for damage and injuries while you're working. The second answers for problems that show up after you've packed up, like a paver edge that heaves and trips someone a month after your install crew left.

Typical lawn care claims under GL:

• A rock kicked out from under a mower deck cracks a sliding glass door or a parked car's windshield.
• A string trimmer throws debris into a passerby's eye.
• Your crew runs over and breaks sprinkler heads or a buried low-voltage lighting line.
• A client's guest slips on wet clippings you left on the walkway.

Limits are usually quoted as a per-occurrence amount and an aggregate. The NAIC defines the aggregate limit as the most the policy pays for all losses in a policy period. Insureon says 94% of the landscaping businesses that buy GL through it choose $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, and it's the limit to expect in an HOA or property management contract.

GL has hard edges. It covers other people's property and injuries, not your own equipment, your own truck or your own employees. It also tends to exclude damage to property in your "care, custody or control," which is why the Texas Department of Agriculture tells licensed pest control businesses their agent must delete the care, custody and control exclusion. And GL policies commonly restrict pollution claims, which is why insurers sell pesticide coverage as a separate endorsement (more on that below). The general liability guide walks through each of these with examples.

Commercial auto for trucks and trailers

If your business runs on a pickup and a trailer, this is the policy that matters most, and the easiest one to get wrong.

The Hartford states that most personal auto policies do not cover property damage or bodily injury from an accident while you're driving your personal vehicle for work. Insureon puts it more bluntly: personal auto policies almost always exclude coverage for business use. A mowing route is business use every day of the season.

What to get right on the auto policy:

• List every truck the business owns or leases, and describe the use honestly (towing equipment between job sites, hauling debris).
• List the trailers. Ask your agent in writing whether each trailer is covered for liability when it's hitched, and for physical damage if it's stolen or wrecked.
• Put vehicle-mounted gear on the auto policy. The Hartford notes that vehicles and vehicle-mounted equipment are generally covered under commercial auto and excluded from inland marine. A plow blade or a skid-mounted spray tank bolted into the bed usually falls here.
• Don't assume the auto policy pays for what you haul. The Hartford lists contents inside your business vehicle damaged in an accident as not covered by commercial auto.

If employees ever run errands in their own cars, like a parts run or picking up mulch, add hired and non-owned auto (HNOA). The Hartford describes HNOA as liability coverage for accidents in a personal, rented or leased car used for business errands, and notes that it won't pay to fix that car.

Tools and equipment (inland marine)

Your mowers, blowers, trimmers, aerators and spreaders live on a trailer and move every day, so a property policy tied to a building doesn't fit them. Insureon notes that commercial property insurance covers your building and its contents but doesn't cover mobile property. MoneyGeek gives the lawn care version: commercial property won't pay for a mower or blower stolen from a job site.

The fix is an inland marine policy, sold under names like tools and equipment coverage, contractor's equipment or an equipment floater. The NAIC defines inland marine as coverage for property that may be in transit, at different locations, or scheduled item by item.

Two details decide whether it actually works for a lawn business:

• Scheduling. Insureon says items worth more than $2,500 may need to be scheduled separately. NEXT's lawn care packages show blanket equipment per-item limits of $3,000 to $5,000. If a mower is worth more than the per-item limit, list it by make, model and serial number.
• Valuation. Actual cash value pays replacement cost minus depreciation, per the NAIC glossary. On a mower you've run hard for several seasons, depreciation takes a big bite out of the check.

The equipment guide covers theft from trailers, rented equipment and how to pick a valuation.

Workers' compensation

Workers' comp pays medical bills and lost wages when an employee is hurt on the job, and it usually includes employer's liability, which covers lawsuits over those injuries. NEXT notes that in North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming, employer's liability is bought separately as "stop-gap" coverage. Those are also the four states where The Hartford says you must buy workers' comp from a state-run fund instead of a private insurer.

Whether it's legally required depends on your state and your headcount. North Carolina's threshold is three or more employees; Missouri's is five or more. Many commercial clients want to see it on your certificate regardless. The workers' comp guide covers seasonal help, owners and the 1099 question.

Pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer applications

Few services change your risk as much as spraying. A wrong rate that burns a lawn, drift onto a neighbor's vegetable bed, or a customer's dog that gets sick after a treatment are claims a mowing-only business won't see.

Insureon lists pesticide or herbicide applicator coverage as an endorsement you can add to a general liability policy. The Hartford sells herbicide and pesticide application coverage to help pay for costs from the sudden or accidental release of chemicals. For larger treatment programs, MoneyGeek lists contractors pollution liability, with typical costs of $83 to $500 a month.

States care about this too. Ohio requires licensed pesticide businesses to carry either a separate professional liability policy or an endorsement covering damage to the properties being treated. The pesticide applicator guide has a 14-state table of license insurance minimums.

Snow removal

Plowing and salting move your biggest risk from your own equipment to other people's feet. Slip-and-fall claims from a lot you plowed can arrive long after the storm. The Hartford lists snowplow operations insurance as its own coverage for property damage and bodily injury claims from plowing. Insurers price the difference too: Insureon's median general liability premium for snow removal contractors is $132 a month, against $57 for lawn care. See the snow removal guide before you take a winter contract.

Business owner's policy (BOP)

A BOP bundles general liability with property coverage. The Hartford describes its version for lawn care as general liability, commercial property and business income insurance in one policy. Insureon's median BOP for lawn care is $85 a month, against $57 for GL alone.

Our view: a BOP earns its extra cost when you rent a shop or storage unit with real value inside it (a spare mower, a parts inventory, a pallet of fertilizer). If your "shop" is a driveway and everything you own rides on the trailer, the property half of a BOP does little, and the money is better spent on an equipment floater. If you run the business from home, The Hartford suggests home-based business insurance for that setup.

Commercial umbrella

An umbrella adds limits on top of your GL, auto and employer's liability. The NAIC describes umbrella or excess liability as coverage above a specific amount set in the basic policy. Insureon reports a median of $88 a month for landscaping businesses, sold in $1 million increments, and gives the typical trigger: a client wants $3 million in liability, so you carry $2 million in GL plus a $1 million umbrella.

Expect the request from larger commercial and municipal accounts. Truck accidents are the other reason to consider one. A bad crash involving a loaded trailer can produce a claim bigger than a $1 million auto limit, and the umbrella sits on top of it.

Smaller pieces

• License and permit bonds. Insureon's landscaping median is $9 a month. A bond isn't insurance for you. Insureon notes that unlike a policy, you must pay back what the bond company pays out.
• Commercial property. Useful if you own or rent a building. NEXT reports that 46% of its lawn care customers pay $28 to $63 a month.
• Short-term coverage. The Hartford sells short-term general liability for projects that take between two hours and two weeks. That can cover a one-off job outside your usual services, but a recurring route needs a policy that's in force every day you mow.

A starting point by type of business

Your business	Start with	Add when it applies
Solo mower, own truck and trailer	GL, commercial auto, tools and equipment	Umbrella if a client requires higher limits
Maintenance crew of two or more	Everything above plus workers' comp	HNOA if anyone drives their own car for errands
Fertilizer and weed control	GL with a pesticide/herbicide endorsement, auto, equipment	Pollution liability for large commercial accounts
Install and hardscape	GL with completed operations, auto, equipment, workers' comp	Contractor license bond where your state requires one
Adds snow in winter	Snow operations on the GL, plow on the auto policy	Umbrella for parking lot contracts

Prices for each of these are on the cost page. What your state and your clients can legally or contractually demand is on the requirements page.