Who Needs Landscape & Hardscape Insurance?
If you are in the business of lawn care service providing, grading and excavation service providing or the tree pruning business – you and your experienced agent should be shopping around for the right combination of policies for you – landscape and hardscape insurance.
Lawn care service providers
- fertilizing, weeding, installing your greenery and florals – general gardening (trees, shrubs, bushes, assortment of florals), irrigation system (sprinkler systems) installation and repairs
- professionals who’s goal is to keep your general landscaping in the best shape possible
Grading and excavation service providers
- adjusting ground for drainage, leveling the land, building the land up, altering the slope of the land
- professionals who’s goal is to get the land prepped and ready for roadways and structures
Tree pruning and care businesses
- dusting trees, trimming trees, stump removal, removing dead trees or tree limbs
- professionals who’s goal is to keep your trees and shrubs in the healthiest condition possible and if not to remove the death/ unhealthy parts of the plant in order for them to successfully thrive
Other examples of those who would seek coverage from this line of insurance: maintenance services, groundskeeping services, landscape sprayers – herbicide and pesticide application, hardscape landscapers, interior landscapers along with landscape architects and designers.
What policies come under Landscape/ Hardscape Insurance?
Landscape and Hardscape Insurance is not a standalone policy. It is a combination of different policies in conjunction with one another in order for all aspects of your business to be properly covered. With the ability to combine policies it ensures that you can customize your coverage to the needs of you as a business owner, your employees and clients.
We recommend the base of your policy to include: general liability, workers compensation, commercial auto, commercial property and mobile equipment.
- Commercial General Liability Insurance: helps to protect your business in claims of bodily injury, property damages, false advertisement, libel and slander.
- Worker’s Compensation Insurance: helps to provide financial and medical benefits to employees who get injured or fall ill on the job: disability benefits, medical treatment, lost wages, ongoing care and funeral costs.
- Commercial Auto Insurance: helps to cover damages to any vehicle you or your employee(s) use during business operations including bodily injury, property damage and vehicle damage (will not cover lawnmowers – they are considered property).
- Commercial Property Insurance: helps to repair or replace physical assets, replacing lost income due to the loss of physical assets and in covering the cost of replacing those assets that aren’t yours but at the time were in your possession.
- Mobile Equipment Insurance: helps to protect damage of heavy-duty equipment/ machinery used on the job like – bulldozers, tractors, farming machinery, forklifts, diggers, etc.
Other policies to consider including in your landscape/ hardscape policy are:
- Employment Practices Liability Insurance: helps in covering legal expenses due to claims such as – workplace harassment, wrongful termination, wrongful infliction of emotional distress and discrimination.
- Business Interruption Insurance: helps to cover losses that can happen as a result of a temporary shutdown of business operations caused by damage to the establishment due to an accident covered by insurance.
- Contractual Liability Insurance: helps to cover the financial loss of mistakes made while completing the contracted work and revising mistakes.
- Contractors Insurance: helps to protect you from potential liability in the instances of hiring electricians, handymen or other kinds of contractors.
- Commercial Umbrella Insurance: helps to cover the costs that are above the liability limit of your already existing primary policies.
Why is Landscape Insurance Important?
This coverage will ensure a level of protection for the business itself, the owner of the business and their liability, the employees as well as the clients entrusting them with their property.
Within the landscaping and hardscaping business there is room for serious injuries to happen when operating heavy machinery, operating at heights and also with the chemicals used – so being protected is very crucial.
In these lines of work you business could be subjected to numerous risks including:
- an employee suing the business owner for an occupational accident
- client property damaged caused as a result of the work being done
- a client or employee gets sick due to the chemicals (pesticides and/or herbicides) used on the job
- employees stealing from a client or company resulting in a lawsuit
Anyone who will be doing work on other people’s property whether commercial or personal should have at the minimum a base level landscaping/ hardscaping insurance policy. Accidents happen and in this line of work the unpredictable could happen at the drop of a hat. When that hat drops, you will want to be prepared with the proper protection.
