For your business best protection and savings, we recommend bundling GL with some other important coverages on one Business Owners Policy!
Working in the trades is a great way to make good money, and the United States is currently going through a severe shortage of tradies, regardless of whether you’re a carpenter or a handyman . That being said, the trades can also create a risky work environment in which things can and do go wrong.
When people hear that, they often think the worst, including bodily injury and potentially even death, but this isn’t always the case. Something as simple as a job done wrong can land you in hot financial water, and it can put your entire business and/or career at risk if you don’t have tradesman insurance, also known as tradie insurance or tradesperson insurance.
Over the course of this guide, we’re going to take a look at everything you need to know about tradesman insurance. We’ll cover the various kinds of tradesman business insurance, and on top of that, we’ll go over how much you can expect to pay for each kind of insurance for tradies.
There are many different kinds of tradesman and professional insurance available, and they are determined by the kind of policy that you get and exactly what those policies cover. The exact kind of tradesperson insurance coverage you get is linked to how much you pay for your policy, with cheap tradesman insurance typically featuring less coverage.
Public liability insurance tends to be some of the most affordable insurance for tradesmen because it’s relatively situational and unlikely that you’ll need to make a claim on it. As the name suggests, this kind of tradie insurance coverage only applies to the public who visit your place of business and may be injured or suffer some kind of damage as a result of your business operation.
Public can include delivery people, visitors who know your employees, or even customers who are visiting your offices or passengers on the street of your work location. Due to the limited coverage offered by this typr of insurance, you likely won’t have too much trouble getting a good rate on it, though it won’t protect you from some of the more significant risks involved in running a trades business.
General liability insurance for tradesman is a little less situational than public liability insurance, so a tradesman insurance online quote for general liability will be a bit more pricey than PLI. In exchange for this higher price, this kind of policy will cover more than just damage caused to the public by your business activities.
For example, employees of the business, sellers, and even the owner of the business will be covered from the same range of occurrences. The cases covered by general liability insurance include both property damage and bodily injury coming from accidents that occur during the company’s operations.
An oft-unused part of general liability insurance is advertising injury coverage. This kind of coverage will pay out if you end up getting sued for your advertisements if they’re found to contain copyright, invasion of privacy, libel, or anything along those lines. Of course, this isn’t a free pass to get reckless with your ads.
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In most cases, if you’re trying to insure your personal tools, then you’ll likely have them covered under your homeowners insurance or your renters policy. However, the instant you start using your tools for business, they will be excluded from these two policies because they are automatically excluded.
If your insurance doesn’t cover your tools when you use them for business purposes, you’ll need to get tradesman tool insurance, which will let you make a claim if your tools are damaged or lost. You will also be able to get a payout if your tools end up getting stolen while you’re on the job.
Personal accident insurance is a form of tradesman business insurance that protects the people working for the company. For example, if one of your workers ends up getting injured on the job, they will have access to a personal accident insurance payout to ensure that they are taken care of.
Personal accident insurance will pay out in the event of an injury on the job site or even accidental death. This kind of coverage will also pay out in case an employee ends up with permanent or total disability due to an accident that was sustained on the job. Some policies of this type are easier to pay for because of payroll deduction schemes.
The next kind of tradesman and professional insurance you’ll want to consider is business building insurance. As the name suggests, this kind of coverage will apply to any buildings that are under the name of your trades business, but it can also apply to properties that you are renting or leasing.
If you own the building, this kind of coverage will apply to the structure itself as well as its contents. If you are leasing or renting the building, then the coverage will apply to the building’s contents that are yours, but it will also pay out if you have a problem with any of the additions that you’ve made to the building.
If you have a company van for your trades business that you would like to make sure is insured, you will have to get your hands on some commercial vehicle insurance.
You’ll want to avoid personal vehicle insurance, as the moment you use your personal vehicle for business, your insurance will no longer apply to it. As with personal vehicle insurance, commercial vehicle insurance includes property damage and personal injury liability components, as well as PIP in applicable states.
Wondering how much does tradesman insurance cost? Please find the average tradesman insurance cost below for some of the most common policies required by tradespeople and we’ll give you a rundown of how much you can expect to pay per month and per year for them:
Policy | Cost per month | Cost per year |
---|---|---|
General liability insurance | $60 | $720 |
Professional indemnity insurance | $87 | $1044 |
Public liability insurance | $63 | $756 |
If you’re looking for the best tradesman insurance available, you’re likely looking for some cheap tradesman insurance that contains all of the coverage that your business needs from the best tradesman insurance companies. Fortunately, finding the right tradesman insurance policy is easier than ever with our tradesman insurance quotes comparison, which takes out the legwork from your side.
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This company does not care about the people they insure or the people that work for the company. They do stupid meets all day long about quality on calls while injured workers sit in pain waiting for answers but can never get to anyone to help them. This company hires uneducated people to run the company so that nothing important get done. I have heard so many stories about injury workers having bad service. They can’t never get their claims adjuster on the phone and the doctors that this company tells people to go to do not care about their patients causing their injuries to become worse. This company neglect on taking care of people’s injured employees have caused people to end up with disabilities for the rest of their life. if you get insurance under this company you will end up having to hire a lawyer to fight them in court. Do not get a policy with this company. Your employees will pay the price and so will the owners of the company. Honestly they need to get shut down. Avoid at all cost do not get this insurance and do not work for this company.
Terrible customer service. I got this insurance for my Amazon store when I ran one, took a break and cancelled all my subscriptions. I called these guys and they recommended sending an email. They never responded and have been charging me since then. Definitely going to dispute via the bank. Hate when businesses take advantage of other small businesses for their own gain.
I purchased a year long policy for my small business I paid for the year up front. First they sent me the incorrect paperwork and acted as if I had something to do with the mistake. About three weeks later I received a bill for the policy. I then sent countless email as the payment did clear my account. About a week later I'm told they have no record of my payment. Now I have to send any documents proving I said then. It went on for weeks. More requests of proof from this person then another. Every conversation had an under lying tone of me being dishonest. Finally I just gave up with them and filed a despite with my bank which took all of three days.. So now I'm continuing to receive emails that my policy is past due and will be cancelled. Funny, I was told I didn't have a policy because they couldn't locate it.
Purchased the General Liability policy I needed to fulfill a contract for my hiring party. Simply Business made it very easy to complete an application and review multiple quote options. Ended up purchasing a policy for 1/2 of what I originally was told by my agent.
I insured my small business with them from early 2016 to January 2022. I had a workman's compensation policy with them the entire time for my staff of approximately 10 people which fluctuated up and down minimally over the years. We ran a very safe operation and never had so much as one claim. I sold my business in early 2022 and cancelled my policy which triggered a final audit of $2871.00 which was owed back to me. Of course I dissolved my LLC immediately after selling the business and thus closed my bank checking account at the advise of my accountant. Though my name was on the business policy, Employers Preferred Insurance Company refused to issue a check to me directly as the policy holder due to...you guessed it, policy. Long story short, if you sell your business keep a small amount deposited in the checking account because it's almost a guarantee that companies such as Employers will use their policy to weasel their way out of money owed after the dissolution of a business. I should have known that I would be treated a just another number shortly after I signed with them as the sales agent just disappeared after I was set up for an online account to manage my policy. My next business venture will entail me working with an actual insurance agent who has an office in an actual brick and mortar building!