Handyman Insurance
A handyman is a skilled professional that is experienced with a variety of jobs, often done in residential and commercial buildings. A handyman may be skilled with maintenance-type work like electrical, plumbing, repairs, and other types of trade skills. Due to the work environment and type of work a handyman does on a daily basis, there are also a number of risks associated with a handyman’s job, both to the business itself and the handyman. In order to protect your handyman business from lawsuits, litigations, or other forms of financial burden, getting proper handyman insurance is essential.
There are a number of types of handyman insurance available for your company, which will offer your business and assets protection against potential lawsuits, injuries, or other risks. The following is a summary of the different types of handyman insurance you have to choose from:
Handyman General Liability Insurance
A common insurance policy for handyman businesses is general liability insurance. General liability protects your business from a variety of risks that can potentially cause you financial strain, including unforeseen events. Problems that can arise — which are protected by general liability include liability to a 3rd party arising from negligence. For example, if there is a flood after the handyman has been working on the customer’s plumbing which destroys some of the customer’s property, the business can be accountable. General liability will help to cover the costs of this occurrence.
Handyman Business Auto Insurance
Handyman businesses often use vehicles for business purposes, such as picking up supplies or driving to their client’s home or business to complete repairs. For this reason, business auto insurance is an essential policy for this type of business. If your handyman is in an accident while driving the company vehicle, and is injured or causes damage to the vehicle, these costs will be covered by business auto insurance.
Handyman Workers Compensation
If your handyman company has more than one employee, you are required by law to carry worker’s compensation insurance. Should your employee get injured on the job, which is a risk you take for this type of physical labor, they will be covered by worker’s compensation. Injuries are a high risk among handymen due to the nature of their job, so worker’s compensation is not only the law, but extremely important for your employee’s protection.
Handyman insurance offers you peace of mind to do your job well, while knowing your employees, business and financial assets have the best security available.
Handyman Business Owners Policy
If you want to go a step further, you can get an insurance policy that combines general liability insurance with additional customized policies, in what is known as a Business Owners Policy (BOP). A BOP can include any number of policies you choose to include in this package policy for your handyman business’s protection, such as the following:
- Structure and Contents If you bring your handyman business to various locations and keep your office equipment and tools in a trailer, structure and contents will offer you financial assistance if a natural disaster destroys the trailer and contents.
- Business Income and Extra Expense Following a natural disaster or damage from a flood or fire, you may experience a loss of business operations while repairs take place. In this example, business income and extra expense coverage helps cover the income you are without during this time.
- Business Income and Extra Expense Your mall kiosk may need to shut down temporarily following an accident that damaged your equipment or supplies. In this case, business income and extra expense will cover the loss of business income while you are unable to operate your kiosk as well as additional expenses from relocating.
- Employee Dishonesty Coverage Unfortunately, employee dishonesty and fraudulent activity sometimes occur. Protect your business from these acts by adding employee dishonesty coverage to your BOP.
- Electronic Data As a handyman business, you more than likely store important data electronically such as employee records, client information, and financial information; protect this data with an electronic data policy on your BOP should it get damaged or destroyed.
- Products and Completed Operations Even if you performed work as was requested, issues can come up later as a result of the errors or mistakes. If this happens, the products and completed operations policy of your BOP offers your company financial protection.
- Handyman Surety Bond Coverage Many customers and clients prefer their handymen to come from a business that is bonded, which ensures that they will guarantee the services they plan to provide. After signing a contract for the services, the company is bonded so that customers have a guarantee that the work will be completed as requested. For example, if you have agreed to repair the shingles on a client’s roof, the surety bond offers a promise to the client you will complete the work in the amount of time detailed on the contract.
