insurance

Status
Not open for further replies.

dnj12345

Member
Anyone have a thought on how much liability insurance to have to cover if you do 95% residential and maybe some light commercial? To get sued they have to prove gross negligence correct? Thanks in advance.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
There may be laws in your area that state a minimum.

$1mil is usually enough unless your commercial work is in malls.
 

GUNNING

Senior Member
Not in the business plan

Not in the business plan

In FL I think its 1 mil but the law only allows redress up to the amount you made on a particular job. After attorney fees its not that much. But if you get sued you are not going to be able to get insurance again very readily and its a big headache. Its cheaper to do the job right the first time. Getting sued and using the insurance is not in my bussiness plan.
Insurance is cheap and impressive to get after the first million though. The first million pays for the administrative up front fees, then its all actuary table unless the agent gets greedy. Look into umbrella policies to bridge auto and liability.
Knew of a Plumber that got sued for $1.5 million becasue one of his guys hit (and killed) someone while DUI. He had 1.4 mill in insurance. Its that last $100 k that does ya in. It was punitive on the part of the victims family, but understandable at the time. You can never have enough insurance, or forethought. Hmmm... that reminds me.
 

raider1

Senior Member
Staff member
Location
Logan, Utah
I carry a 1 million dollar liability policy. It is not really as expensive as you might think.

My insurance company custom fit my policy for the type of work I do (Mostly residential with small commercial).

Chris
 

Charlie Bob

Senior Member
Location
West Tennessee
I carry $1,000,000 liabily policy.
When i first started i used to carry $500,000 but some jobs started to require a million dollar policy, so I upgraded then.
Like raider1 said, it's not that expensive, at least in this part of the country.
 

hardworkingstiff

Senior Member
Location
Wilmington, NC
I also carry $1 million.

But I also have adders for theft (I've been known to store over $100,000 of cable on a job site) and damage to customer's equipment when in my care and custody.

General liability is minimal and you might be surprised what it doesn't cover. You need to read and understand your policy, don't just take the word of your agent.
 

Rewire99

Member
Anyone have a thought on how much liability insurance to have to cover if you do 95% residential and maybe some light commercial? To get sued they have to prove gross negligence correct? Thanks in advance.

You have liability coverage to protect your assets, what are you total assets?

If you are sued, and found no wrong doing, the cost of defending the case is where the insurance comes in 1 million in legal fees is easy to blow thru in even a minor case.
Do you own a home, have investments or other holdings? all these things come in to play when considering liability insurance
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Not to brag, but we have a $2M liability policy, and it also covers work-vehicle-caused damage. A commercial job required it, and it wasn't that expensive to keep.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
Not to brag, but we have a $2M liability policy, and it also covers work-vehicle-caused damage. A commercial job required it, and it wasn't that expensive to keep.

$2mil does not cost twice as much as $1mil. In fact, the difference is a pretty small increase.
 

jaylectricity

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
Occupation
licensed journeyman electrician
Anyone have a thought on how much liability insurance to have to cover if you do 95% residential and maybe some light commercial? To get sued they have to prove gross negligence correct? Thanks in advance.

I carry one million dollar coverage and I do exactly the kind of work you're talking about.
 

dmagyar

Senior Member
Location
Rocklin, Ca.
2 Million total

2 Million total

I've got a great policy now, but the first company that insured me for a few years was screwing me. When I started to shop around I found out they were about $600 over what I ended up getting the same coverage from another company. I even added a marine rider for $10,000 in tools and still paid less which lets me sleep a lot better.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Anyone have a thought on how much liability insurance to have to cover if you do 95% residential and maybe some light commercial? To get sued they have to prove gross negligence correct? Thanks in advance.
I think you can be held liable for simple negligence, and you can be sued for anything and even if the suit has no merit you will have expenses to defend yourself.
 

stars13bars2

Senior Member
Anyone with one million coverage needs to ask your agent how much for two million. I had to for a particular cusomer and it was only $12 more.
 

dduffee260

Senior Member
Location
Texas
Not sure but I think we have a 5 million policy. We had to bump it up from 2 million because of some of the size of projects in the past few years.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top