Houston Contractors Insurance
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From Houston Workers’ Compensation Insurance to General Liability, Commercial Auto Insurance & More! We Are Your Easy & Stress Free Construction Insurance Provider in Houston, TX!
Business Insurance for Contractors in Houston
Houston is a construction hub for the Gulf Coast, and contractors and those who operate in the construction industry are required by law to carry multiple types of insurance. Any businesses that own a vehicle will need commercial auto insurance. If you own a business with a physical location and a commercial lease, you’ll need general contractors’ insurance.
Professionals across multiple fields will need contractor insurance while working in downtown Houston or anywhere else in the Houston metro area. These professions include:
- Carpenters
- Drywallers
- Handymen
- Roofers
- Concrete Contractors
- Electricians
- General Contractors
- Plumbers
Whether you’re the contractor in charge of the whole production or you’re working underneath someone as a subcontractor, you always want to have insurance of your own. There is no guarantee that a contractor’s insurance coverage will extend to their subcontractors.
If you haven’t been the one paying for the policy and your name doesn’t appear on any of the documentation, don’t count on it. You’ll likely need to have multiple types of insurance, which could include:
- Bonding
- Contractor’s Error & Omissions
- Excess Liability
- Property/Contractors Equipment
- Commercial Auto
- Environmental
- General Liability
- Worker’s Compensation
Houston clients are discerning, and rarely want to hire uninsured contractors, so if you want to win your bids, you need to prove that you have insurance. You can do this by obtaining a certificate of insurance, or COI. This proof of insurance has all of the relevant information a potential client would need to see, including:
- Policyholder’s name
- Policy limits (1M, 2M)
- Coverage type
- Effective date
There are a lot of different reasons insurance is important for contractors to have. There is no single overall insurance, so most contractors are required to have multiple types of insurance. We’re going to take a closer look at the 7 most common types of contractors’ insurance that can cover you and your business if a problem arises.
Are you a roofer in Houston, Texas?
Learn about the tailored policies for your roofing business here
General Liability Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
When operating in the Houston area, construction or contracting professionals in many fields are required to hold general liability insurance. This is the bare minimum level of contractors’ insurance and you will likely need to stack other types of insurance with this to fully cover yourself.
Houston General Liability Coverage includes:
- False advertising
- Products
- Slander
- Property damage you cause at a job site
It’s no secret that construction is a dangerous industry. Because of this, injuries to those on a job site happen sometimes, which is where insurance comes in.
Unfortunately, sometimes it’s a client or other visitor that ends up in harm’s way. Employees have access to coverage in the event of a serious injury at work via workers’ compensation, but general liability insurance is crucial if you want to ensure non-employees are covered as well.
General liability also takes care of property damage that happens after the job has been completed. This is helpful if something you built collapsed a year after completion, causing injuries.
Workers’ Compensation Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
Houston workers’ compensation, or workman’s compensation, is a type of insurance that takes care of employees that are injured on the job. Because the construction industry is so physically demanding, injuries happen pretty frequently. Most of the workers that get hurt can get back to work quickly, but that’s not the case for everyone.
When your employee is injured badly enough in Houston that they miss work or need extended medical care, they are impacted financially in a couple of ways. First, their paycheck is going to be short wages that they were relying on. Second, their medical expenses and debt continue to grow. Luckily, workers’ compensation is available.
Thanks to workers’ compensation, employers know that their workers are going to be covered if they are hurt at work. Injured employers may be eligible for compensation to cover current medical expenses, future medical expenses, and lost wages. Being out of work for an extended amount of time can cause serious issues, but Houston workers’ compensation insurance makes sure workers can still care for themselves and their families.
Commercial Auto Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
In Houston, any businesses that own or use a vehicle are required to carry commercial auto insurance. This protects you and your business in the event of an accident, especially if you were at fault.
Coverage may include:
- Collision or comprehensive physical vehicle damage
- Damage caused to others by your insured vehicles
- Damages sustained by your vehicle’s occupants that were caused by an uninsured motorist’s negligence
- Liability damage
- Physical damage to any vehicle owns, uses, or leases
There are two types of liability coverage that are included in commercial auto insurance. The first is property damage, which covers damage to property you caused damage to in an accident. The second is bodily injury, which covers injuries that occurred during an accident that was your fault.
Houston commercial auto insurance also comes with two types of coverage for physical damage. Comprehensive losses are damage from weather, theft, and other non-collision losses. Collision covers damage from automobile accidents.
Builder’s Risk Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
Houston builder’s risk insurance is important, as it covers any in-progress construction. There are a lot of individuals that have invested time and money in a construction site, including the contractor, lender, property owner, subcontractor, and architect. These individuals would all benefit from taking out a builder’s risk insurance policy.
Builder’s risk insurance covers a building that is under construction in the event of property damage caused by:
- Acts of God
- Fire
- Lightning
- Vandalism
- Explosions
- Hair
- Theft
Aside from property damage, Houston builder’s risk insurance can help cover other expenses aside from the actual construction, such as:
- Additional interest on loans
- Lost sales
- Rental income
- Real estate taxes
While many different circumstances would be covered under this insurance, some situations would not be included:
- Planning
- Damage due to faulty design
- Engineers
- Employee theft
- Acts of terrorism and war
- Mechanical breakdowns
- Workmanship and materials
- Wear and tear
- Rust and corrosion
Inland Marine Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
As a contractor, you should carry inland marine insurance in Houston. While the name may be deceiving, this type of insurance doesn’t have anything to do with water or boats. Inland marine insurance covers materials, equipment, and products that are transported over land via truck or train, as well as anything temporarily housed by a third party.
Houston inland marine losses are often caused by collisions and cargo theft. If you are storing or shipping high-value items, you will want the added protection that normal property coverage does not allow, including:
- Communications and networking equipment
- Construction and contracting materials
- Photography equipment
- Computers, including laptops and servers
- Medical and scientific equipment
Damages during transportation and storage happen quite often, and you want to make sure your items are protected. It could be an expensive lesson if you decided not to have inland marine insurance and something were to happen while transporting high-value goods. Some companies will replace things for you, but that is not a guarantee. If you’re insured, you know your items can be replaced if needed.
Commercial Umbrella Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
While having specific types of insurance is good, what happens if you exceed the limits of your various policies? If you don’t have the funds to cover the costs beyond what your insurance will provide, you may be out of luck. This is where commercial umbrella insurance comes in.
There are a few things that often don’t come with enough coverage on many standard policies, including:
- Medical bills, including ongoing or future treatments
- Legal costs or the costs to pursue coverage
- Damage totals to public property or other people’s property may be damaged
This added layer of insurance does differ from excess liability insurance. Houston Commercial umbrella insurance helps offset the excess financial hit that can come from insurance claims against your employees or your business. Excess liability insurance only extends specific things.
ACORD Certificates for Contractors in Houston, Texas
When you have multiple types of insurance, not only do you want to be able to show proof to potential clients, it would be nice to not need a dozen different cards to keep track of. This is where ACORD certificates come in. It is a special certificate that is granted to those that hold certain types of commercial insurance policies.
Whether you call it an ACORD certificate or an ACORD 25 COI or Certificate of Insurance, they are the same thing. ACORD certificates are designed to provide a one-page summary of the various types of coverage you have, making it easy to share this information with a third party.
This succinct list of your coverage includes all important policy information, such as:
- Insurance policy number or unique identifier
- Type of insurance coverage provided by the policy
- Which insurance agency issues the policy
- Coverage limits
- Names of the insured parties
- Policy effective date
- Policy expiration date
Business Insurance for Contractors in Houston, Texas
Operating as a contractor anywhere in the Lone Star state requires that you hold sufficient insurance to indemnify you against certain forms of financial liability. Failing to keep these insurance policies active and effective can not only leave you and your business open to incredible levels of potential financial damage. Additionally, there are state and county fines and punishments that may apply if you are found to be operating a contractor business with anything less than the legally mandated insurance minimums. This can mean not only fines but potential criminal charges against those operating the business.
No matter what type of insurance you need, and what you need to be covered, Contractors Liability is has been providing affordable Texas contractors insurance to construction businesses for years. Make sure you are keeping yourself and your business protected.
If you want to get the best coverage now, from the best carriers and at the lowest price, call us at (866) 225-1950 or click for a free quote. We can assist you and answer all your questions 24/7!
Your Houston Contractors Insurance Questions Answered
Get answers to your most common questions from Contractors Liability
For General Liability Insurance in Houston you need $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate almost 100% of the time. 99% of all General Liability policies we sell in Texas are $1,000,000/$2,000,000.
For Commercial Auto Insurance in Houston you need $1,000,000 CSL meaning $1,000,000 Combined Single Limit for Bodily Injury and Property Damage to the other party combined. To protect your Houston vehicle you need to have Comprehensive and collision coverage. Commercial Auto Collision Insurance in Houston, TX covers any collision and Comprehensive Commercial Auto Insurance covers anything but collision.
For Workers Compensation Insurance in Houston you need $500,000/$500,000/$500,000 in general. This covers your workers in the event of a claim where the owner is liable up to $500,000. In 99% of cases the owner is not liable and coverage for workers compensation is unlimited.
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