General Contractor Insurance

Our contractor insurance packages are designed to protect your business from a variety of risks and help you save money to grow your business. You’ll be protected from financial losses related to:

Damage to someone’s property

Your ladder slips and crashes through a living room window. The general liability coverage in your insurance package would help pay for a replacement.

Accidents that hurt someone

A distracted homeowner trips over your extension cord breaks their ankle and sues you. Your general liability coverage would also come into play here by helping to pay for medical costs and legal fees.

Workplace injuries

Your employee has to get medical care and cancel some jobs after they slip and cut their finger with a drill. Workers’ compensation coverage with business owner’s coverage can help cover medical bills and lost wages. Workers’ comp is usually required by law if you have employees.

Injuries and damage involving your business vehicles

You get into a fender bender with your work truck that was ruled your fault. Commercial auto coverage will help pay for the repairs and some of the rental costs, depending on the policy limits. This coverage is also usually required by law for business-owned vehicles.

Theft or damage to your tools

Motor failure puts your compressor out of commission. The tools and equipment insurance that is optional with your general liability coverage can help pay for replacement and repair costs.

Damage to your own property

A water pipe bursts in your office and floods the entire space. Property insurance can help with replacement or repair costs if your owned or leased property is damaged due to a covered event, such as fire, tornado or vandalism.

Yes! We do require that your subcontractors have the legally required licenses, their own insurance with limits that are equal to or greater than your own, and that they have you named as an additional insured on their policy. You’ll also need to keep this documentation on file for an adjuster to review in case of a claim.

Absolutely! We know this is a common need for contractors, so we’ve given you the power to create certificates of insurance and add additional insureds right from your customer account, 24/7, with Live Certificates. You can read more about our Live Certificates and how they work here. If your contractor needs special language on the certificate or other forms (called endorsements), please send a sample certificate to support@nextinsurance.com and an agent will be happy to review those requirements with you.

Contractor’s Errors & Omissions coverage is intended to protect against faulty work or accidental damage to your product. This coverage is important if you work on a property that belongs to a third party but is in your care during the job, or if you construct products for your clients and want coverage in case mistakes are later discovered.

Of course! In this case, we recommend filling out an application for our General Contractor policy. Please review the subcontractor requirements carefully, so that in case of a claim, you’ll have all of the necessary paperwork.

General Liability insurance (often called “slip and fall” insurance) can protect your business against claims where you accidentally cause third party bodily injury or property damage. Usually, the third party is a client or a homeowner, but other people like neighbors or even random people walking down the street would be considered third parties as well.

The limits on the policy decide how much money you have available in case of a claim - you can think about them like a budget. The most important limits to consider when determining your package are the per occurrence limit, which is your available budget per claim, and the aggregate limit, which is your available budget for the policy term.

Unfortunately, General Liability policies do not offer coverage for personal or business property. For protection for those items in case of damage or theft, we suggest checking in with a local agent about the availability for an Inland Marine policy, a Contractor’s Tools and Equipment policy, or another type of property policy.

Good question! This actually depends on your business structure. We offer policies for individuals, LLCs, and more! If you’re not sure which one you are, we recommend checking with the department where you registered your business or filed for your licence. If you’re a registered LLC or corporation, our policies can offer coverage for your reported W2 employees, and in certain situations can extend as excess or umbrella coverage over a subcontractor’s (a 1099 employee) own policy. More information about our subcontractor requirements can be found in the “About Your Business” portion of the application, or by contacting our support team.

There are a few reasons you could still need General Liability coverage as a general contractor:

• You may still be at risk of causing damage during a site visit, especially if you run projects that are remodels or additions, where a third party's property is potentially vulnerable.
• You could be at risk for Personal and Advertising Injury, which includes accidental copyright infringement, defamation of character, advertising infringement, or caused some other form of non-tangible harm.
• You could be held responsible if you instruct your subcontractors to operate a certain way, and injury arises because of your method, especially if your instructions corrected or changed the actions or processes of your subs.
• You could be held responsible for certain actions of your subcontractors, as you were responsible for hiring them.

In general, our trade specific policies only offer coverage for the operations listed in the application, and the normal job components associated with them. If you offer a variety of services, especially if you have a specialty, we recommend filling out our General Contractor application.

We have a couple of policies that could be right for a jack or jill of all trades! Our Handyperson policy might be the best fit if you offer minor repair or maintenance services. This policy is limited to small jobs and is not a fit for jobs that might require a license, permit or inspection at any point. If your operations are a little bit larger in scale, or if you have a specialty, we recommend taking a look at our General Contractor application, where you will have the opportunity to add coverage from a list of coverable activities. Note: all of our policies require that you have the legally required licenses for the work you’re doing in your state, so be sure to check in to make sure you are compliant.

There are a couple of options here:

1. If your state requires a license, we do too. However, in most states where insurance is a requirement to get your license, we do offer the ability to purchase the policy on the condition that you agree to have all the required licenses before working. But it’s important to remember: if you are not operating legally, a claim will likely not be covered.
2. If your state doesn’t require you to have a license for a certain line of work you are welcome to apply for any trade specific policy, a Handyperson, or General Contractor policy. You can take a look at our jack-of-all-trades FAQ for how to decide between those two.

How do I cancel my policy? We’re sorry to see you go! To cancel your policy:

• Log in to www.nextinsurance.com using your email and zip code.

• On the homepage of your customer account click “View Details” on the tile for the policy you’d like to cancel.

• Lastly, click “Cancel coverage”.

Once you complete the request, we process it effective immediately. You’ll receive confirmation and a refund for any unused premium within a few business days.