Landscaping business insurance for installs, hardscape and maintenance

A landscaping company can be two people who mow and mulch, or six who trench irrigation, set pavers and build retaining walls. The application says "landscaping" either way. The policy answers differently once the job leaves something behind. If you mostly mow and edge, the home page and the coverage page fit you better. This page is for the crew that builds things.

Where maintenance stops and installation starts

Maintenance ends when the truck pulls out. An install leaves a wall, a walkway or a buried line on the property, and any of them can cause a claim months later. Licensing boards draw a similar line.

California's Contractors State License Board describes its C-27 landscaping class as a contractor who constructs, maintains, repairs, installs, or subcontracts the development of gardens and grounds, including grading the plot. Nevada's contractors board lists installing rock, retaining walls up to three feet, irrigation, trees and shrubs, and sod as work that needs a licensed contractor, and lists mowing and edging as work that doesn't. The same board says licensed contractors must maintain a surety bond and carry workers' comp.

So the first install job can change the paperwork you owe before you start. The requirements page lists the states we've confirmed. Prices for the policies below are on the cost page; Insureon's landscaping cost page gives a median of $51 a month for general liability, and its irrigation cost page gives $105 for irrigation contractors.

Completed operations

This is the coverage that separates the two kinds of landscaping business. Insureon's glossary defines products-completed operations as protection when finished work later causes bodily injury or property damage, and its landscaper example is an irrigation system that later malfunctions and floods a yard. Insureon says general liability policies often include it by default.

Per the same glossary, the policy does not pay for damage to your completed work itself, or for customer property that is flawed because it incorporates your defective work. If a paver edge heaves, the flooded basement or the guest with the broken wrist is a claim. Re-laying the paver is your bill.

Grit Insurance, a contractor broker, gives the trade version: hardscaping, irrigation installs and retaining walls can fail months after the job is done, and the general liability policy has to be structured for that. Ask your agent to point to the products-completed operations line on the policy itself. An email that says "included" won't do. The general liability guide has a paver example in more detail.

Workmanship versus damage

Two different questions get mixed up here. One is whether your crew damaged something. The other is whether the finished work did what it should.

NEXT splits them on its landscaping insurance page. Damaging a sprinkler system during irrigation line installation is its general liability example. Being accused of installing an irrigation line that causes water damage is its contractors' errors and omissions example, and it says a homeowner's own policy may not cover damage to a garden you cause, which it calls a workmanship issue. The examples overlap, and NEXT doesn't say which policy wins when they do. Put the question to your agent with a specific job in it: a drain line you buried, a wall that leans.

Digging, wiring and the neighbor's claim

Excavation adds claims that mowing doesn't. Insureon's landscaping general liability page lists a client tripping in a hole you dug, a tractor backing into a fence, and heavy equipment damaging irrigation lines.

The Hartford's landscaping page includes an owner's story, told in the owner's words and not a verified case: a crew planting trees for a hotel cut a wire they took for a root, the store next door lost power for three days, and that business filed a claim for lost profits. In that story the claimant is the neighbor, not the customer. Grit says an umbrella matters most when a property damage claim runs past your general liability limit, and the coverage page explains how one works.

Subcontractors

Install work brings in specialists: a mason for a wall, an electrician for lighting, a trencher for irrigation. Insureon says subcontractors typically aren't covered under a general contractor's insurance unless they are named as an additional insured, and that it's common for contractors to expect subs to carry their own policies and show proof before starting.

Ask for the certificate before the sub touches the job. Two reasons beyond the client contract:

• Grit says that if a sub doesn't carry workers' comp, their payroll gets added to your audit.
• The Hartford's audit checklist asks for a certificate of insurance for every subcontractor, and it lists not reporting subcontractors as an example of premium fraud. It tells you to check your state's rules on reporting independent contractors.

Some states also count a sub's employees toward your own workers' comp threshold; the workers' comp guide has Virginia's rule. Additional insured requests are explained in the certificate of insurance guide.

Equipment bigger than a mower

A skid steer, a mini excavator, a plate compactor and a trencher are contractor's equipment, and the mower policy may not stretch to them. The Hartford's contractor's equipment coverage is written for loaders, backhoes, excavators and skid steers, and it can cover owned, leased, rented or borrowed equipment. It advertises replacement cost for equipment less than five years old. The Hartford says the product is for midsize and large businesses, so a small crew may need a different carrier or a broker.

Limits on small-business packages run lower than the machines. NEXT's landscaping page shows tools and equipment limits per occurrence of $3,000, $5,000 or $10,000 across its three tiers. Insureon notes that items worth over $2,500 may need to be scheduled separately. Either way, a machine that costs more than the limit goes on a schedule by serial number. The equipment guide shows how scheduling and valuation work.

Trucks, dump trailers and mobile equipment

Insureon says personal auto policies almost always exclude business use, and describes a mobile equipment endorsement that extends auto coverage to non-auto equipment like an excavator while it's driven on a public road. If your machines ride to the site on your own trailer, that endorsement is one to ask about. The Hartford says vehicles and vehicle-mounted equipment are generally covered under commercial auto, so anything bolted to the truck belongs there, not on the equipment floater.

Limits the contract will ask for

Commercial and HOA work sets its own numbers. The usual limits are $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, chosen by 94% of landscaping businesses that buy general liability through Insureon. Grit says commercial landscaping contracts, especially municipal and HOA work, often require a $1 million to $2 million umbrella on top of that. Read the insurance clause before you price the bid, not after you win it.

Before the first install bid

1. Tell your insurer in writing which work you do: maintenance, installation, hardscape, irrigation, or a mix. Don't leave install work off the application to hold the price down.
2. Get the products-completed operations line confirmed on the general liability policy.
3. Ask which policy answers for a drain line you buried or a wall you built if it fails.
4. Put contractor's equipment on a schedule, with mobile equipment on the auto policy.
5. Collect a certificate from every subcontractor before they start.
6. Check whether your state licenses the work at your job size, and what bond or insurance the license requires.

If your crew also takes down trees, that is a separate rating class with its own price and exclusions, covered on the tree service insurance page. If you're still deciding whether to go into landscaping at all, the startup guide covers which insurance to buy first.