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Home inspectors like you help buyers and ensure that their future house doesn’t have costly problems. In your line of work, lawsuits, workplace injuries, business property damage, and other unfortunate events can happen.
Because of this, consider getting home inspector insurance. This grants the protection you need against the devastating risks you face when and after becoming a home and building inspector.
This article features the various policies, the cost of premiums, and the best companies offering the insurance coverage.
General Liability Insurance for Home Inspectors
Home inspector liability insurance grants protection against bodily injuries or property damage that clients, independent contractors, and other third parties file against you. The table above compares the quotes of the recommended insurance companies.
General liability for home inspectors is very comprehensive. Aside from bodily injuries or property damage, this home inspection business insurance will also protect you from these exposures:
CoverWallet | NEXT (Best) | Thimble | Hiscox | |
Per occurrence limit | $1,000,000 | $500,000/$1,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $500,000/$2,000,000 | $1,000,000/$2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
Products and completed operations aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Advertising injury coverage aggregate limit | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Tenant’s legal liability coverage limit | $1,000,000 | $100,000 | $100,000 | $100,000 |
Waiver of subrogation included? | Yes | No | Excluded | Excluded |
Hired/non-owned auto liability coverage included? | Yes | No | $2,500-$5,000 | Excluded |
Equipment breakdown floater included? | No | No | Excluded | Excluded |
Can you get a certificate of insurance online? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Name additional insureds? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Deductible | $0 | $0 | $0-$2,500 | $0 |
You need professional liability insurance for home inspectors, which is also called errors and omissions insurance. The table above compares the quotes of the recommended insurance companies. E&O insurance for home inspectors grants a shield if clients file a claim because you didn’t accomplish your work properly.
E and O insurance for home inspectors is underwritten as an occurrence policy or as a claims-made policy. The best E&O insurance for home inspectors is occurrence-based because it can provide coverage even if its policy period has expired.
Insurance companies allow you to get home inspector professional liability insurance as a stand-alone policy or as an add-on to general liability insurance.
CoverWallet (Best) | NEXT | Hiscox | |
Per occurrence limit | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Aggregate limit | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 |
Name additional insureds? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Waiver of subrogation included? | Yes | No | No |
Deductible | $0 | $0 | $500 |
CoverWallet | NEXT (Best) | Thimble | Hiscox | |
Building coverage limit (minimum) | $50,000 | $430,000 | $25,000/$500,000 | $10,000/$100,000 |
Contents coverage limit (minimum) | $50,000 | $35,000 | $25,000-$500,000 | $10,000/100,000 |
Outdoor signs | Excluded | $2,500 | Excluded | Excluded |
Accounts receivable | Excluded | Excluded | $5,000/$10,000 | Included |
Money and securities | Excluded | $2,500 | $1,000 | Included |
Lock and keys | Excluded | $1,000 | Excluded | Excluded |
Business interruption floater | Excluded | Included | Included | Included |
Equipment breakdown floater | Excluded | Included | Excluded | Excluded |
Inland marine insurance floater | Excluded | Excluded | $10,000 | Excluded |
Employee dishonesty floater | Excluded | $5,000 | $2,500 | Included |
Deductible | $500-$1,000 | $500 | $500-$2,500 | $500-$10,000 |
Commercial property insurance reimburses your losses if something happens to the office and its furniture, computer, HVAC, and other contents.
This property inspector insurance policy applies if damage or loss happens because of:
Commercial property insurance doesn’t grant protection against earthquakes, floods, and mudslides. You need to purchase endorsements from your real estate inspection insurance to cover these perils.
Get all the best quotes from leading providers in a click of a button!
Residential inspection insurance programs of most carriers allow you to get a business owner’s policy.
A business owner’s policy is a type of insurance that combines general liability and commercial property insurance. You can also get cyber liability, business interruption, equipment breakdown, and other business insurance from this.
As a home inspector, it’s smart to get a business owner’s policy instead of buying general liability and commercial property insurance individually.
This is because you’ll get cheaper rates and enjoy easier policy management.
Workers’ compensation insurance is useful if you’re running a home inspection agency. Get this as soon as you have one or more employees.
Workers’ compensation insurance provides the money you can use to cover these costs when an employee sustains a work-related injury or disease:
Home inspector’s worker’s compensation insurance might come with an employer’s liability insurance. Employer’s liability insurance grants protection if an employee files a claim for negligence against you after sustaining a work-related injury or disease.
This provides $100,000-$5 million worth of coverage that you can use to cover the following expenses:
Residential building inspector insurance programs offer commercial auto insurance if you use an owned vehicle for work.
Commercial auto insurance grants protection if something happens while you or an employee is on the way to inspect a house, meet a client, or get supplies and pieces of equipment.
The functions of commercial auto insurance are as follows:
The average cost of a $1 million general liability insurance for home inspectors is $47 per month or $564 per year. This home inspector liability insurance cost estimate assumes that you have 5 employees and make $500,000-$750,000 per year.
There are many factors that affect the overall home inspector insurance cost. For one, each kind of coverage has its own rates. The table below outlines the cost of each policy you need to purchase as a home inspector:
Cost per Month | Cost per Year | Percentage Of Customers That Get This | |
General liability insurance | $47 | $564 | 95% |
Errors and omissions insurance | $51 | $612 | 70% |
Workers compensation insurance | $72 | $864 | 92% |
Commercial property insurance | $53 | $636 | 70% |
Business owner’s policy | $49 | $588 | 75% |
A great option for cheap home inspector insurance rates is NEXT. With this company, you can save up to 10% by bundling general liability insurance with commercial property insurance and other business insurance policies.
NEXT offers home inspector errors and omissions insurance as part of its general liability insurance.
Average cost: $25 per month
CoverWallet can help you get insured fast. Use CoverWallet’s online quote comparison tool, indicate your location, profession, and policy needed, and receive the offers of different carriers within minutes.
You can also get insured immediately. Proceed to buy a quote and enjoy perks – online certificate of insurance which is very useful for home inspection licensing and filing.
Average cost: $30.58 per month
Get all the best quotes from leading providers in a click of a button!
Consider Tivly® if NEXT or CoverWallet can’t provide coverage. Policies you can get from this company are general liability insurance, workers compensation insurance, professional liability insurance, and more.
A representative will help you choose coverage options and discuss the details of your policy.
Average cost: $33 per month
Thimble’s home inspector insurance offers a business owner’s policy and workers’ compensation insurance.
You can get short-term general liability insurance from Thimble. This grants coverage for hours, days, weeks, or months and has $1 million-$2 million per occurrence and aggregate limit.
Average cost: $35 per month
Hiscox provides coverage through its building inspector insurance program, which consists of general liability, professional liability, business owner’s policy, and cyber liability insurance. Similar to Thimble, Hiscox allows you to choose between policy limits and deductibles.
Average cost: $37 per month
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