Commercial General Liability

Questions

• Can a landlord require business insurance?

  Yes. A lease is a contract, and insurance clauses in it are enforceable like any other term. Commercial landlords routinely condition tenancy on general liability at stated limits, additional insured status, and a certificate of insurance before you get keys. The practical question isn't whether they can — it's which demands are standard and which are negotiable.

• Do I need business insurance if I work from home?

  Yes, if the business has any liability exposure — because the assumption doing the work here is wrong: homeowners and renters policies generally exclude business liability. A client or courier injured at your door, or a professional mistake that costs a client money, lands outside the homeowners policy entirely. Working from home changes your premises, not your exposure.

• Do I need business insurance?

  In practice, yes — from the moment anyone can plausibly hold you responsible for an injury, property damage, or a financial loss. Very little of that is statute: workers' comp and auto liability are the legal mandates, and everything else is enforced by landlords, clients, and lenders through contracts. Buy against your actual exposures, not the label "business insurance."

• Do I need commercial insurance for DoorDash?

  Usually not a full commercial policy — but you can't rely on an unmodified personal auto policy either, because personal policies typically don't cover business use like paid delivery. DoorDash maintains third-party liability coverage of up to $1M in most states, but only during active delivery, never for your own car, and only while you keep your own valid policy.

• Do I need general liability insurance if I have an LLC?

  Yes. An LLC and a general liability policy solve different problems. The LLC fences your personal assets off from business creditors; insurance pays claims and legal defense. Forming an LLC adds no coverage, leaves everything the business owns exposed, and the shield holds only if you keep business and personal finances separate.

• Do I need insurance for side work or moonlighting in the trades?

  Yes — from the first paid job. None of the policies already around you respond to moonlighting: your employer's insurance covers their business, not your weekend jobs, and homeowners policies barely acknowledge business activity. A sole proprietor can buy general liability directly, no LLC required, and completed work keeps the exposure alive long after you've left.

• Do independent contractors need liability insurance?

  Usually, yes. No statute says "1099 workers must buy liability insurance," but three forces converge on it: your client's policy doesn't defend you, the contracts that get you hired demand proof of your own general liability, and states with contractor registration laws make coverage a condition of taking the work at all.

• Do you need insurance for a cleaning business?

  Yes — not because a statute says so, but because commercial clients and property managers won't let you in the building without proof, and the two claims that define this industry land on uninsured owners personally: damage to a client's property and accusations of theft. General liability answers the first; a janitorial bond answers the second.

• Does contractor insurance cover subcontractors?

  Mostly no. A subcontractor is not an insured under the hiring contractor's general liability policy, and a 1099 worker is not covered by the hiring firm's insurance. Workers' comp is the trap: in Florida, if an uninsured sub's worker gets hurt, the law makes the contractor responsible for the benefits — the 1099 label doesn't change that.

• Does general liability insurance cover employee injuries?

  No. General liability policies exclude bodily injury to your own employees — Texas's insurance regulator puts it plainly: CGL is not intended to cover workers' compensation or employer's liability. The exclusion reaches further than owners expect, because a state can treat your 1099 workers as employees, and the exclusion follows them.

• Does general liability insurance cover property damage?

  Yes — other people's property, not yours. General liability pays when your operations, your products, or your completed work damage property belonging to someone else. Your own building, tools, and inventory need commercial property coverage, and contractors face a further exclusion: damage to your own completed work, unless a subcontractor caused it.

• Is general liability insurance required by law?

  No — there is no blanket statute, federal or state, that makes every business carry general liability insurance. The real mandates are narrower and easy to miss: contractor registration and licensing laws in some states make liability coverage a condition of working legally, and contracts — leases, client agreements, marketplaces — enforce it privately.

• What insurance do electricians need?

  Start with general liability — for electricians it can be a license condition, not a choice: Maryland requires master electricians to carry at least $300,000 in liability coverage plus $100,000 property damage. Around it sit commercial auto for the van, workers' comp once you hire, and the completed-operations coverage that answers for fires after you've left.

• What insurance do I need as a photographer?

  General liability first — because venues and clients demand proof of it before you can work, not because any law does. Add professional liability (E&O) if a lost or failed shoot would be a real claim, since general liability only covers injuries and property damage. Gear coverage is a separate property question; the liability exposures are certificates and contracts.

• What insurance do I need for a lawn care business?

  General liability carries most of the risk in lawn care: mower-thrown debris, damaged client property, and injuries on ground you just treated. If you apply pesticides or herbicides, most states require licensed applicators to prove liability insurance — and standard GL excludes chemical claims unless an applicator endorsement is added. The truck and trailer are a separate, commercial-auto exposure.

• What insurance do nonprofits need?

  It depends on what you do, not on your tax status — 501(c)(3) recognition does nothing to stop a lawsuit. General liability anchors premises, events, and volunteer activity; D&O answers claims against the board; and the federal Volunteer Protection Act shields individual volunteers, not the organization. In practice, venues, funders, and government contracts are who force the purchase.

• What insurance does a general contractor need?

  Four coverages carry a general contractor: general liability, workers' compensation, commercial auto, and — on most commercial work — an umbrella to meet contract limits. What's legally required comes from your state license board and workers' comp statute; everything else is imposed by the contracts you sign. Your subcontractors' insurance decides how much of the risk stays yours.

• What insurance does a handyman need?

  General liability is the center of gravity — it's what property managers demand before you're on a vendor list and what pays when a repair damages a home or injures someone. The real problem is scope: handyman policies are built for small permit-free jobs, commonly exclude work like roofing, and licensing law decides where "handyman" legally ends.

• What insurance does a landlord need?

  A landlord policy, not homeowners — and its liability section is the part that answers lawsuits. Homeowners insurance generally stops responding once the property becomes a rental. Landlord liability coverage pays legal fees and medical costs when a tenant or guest is injured by a hazard you should have fixed; many landlords also require tenants to carry renters insurance.

• What insurance does a restaurant need?

  Start with who can sue you: injured customers (general liability), victims of an overserved patron (liquor liability), and your own workforce — workers' comp for injuries, EPLI for termination and harassment claims. The package mechanics matter less than whether every plaintiff on that list maps to a live policy with no exclusion standing in the middle.

• What is the difference between professional liability and general liability insurance?

  They cover two different ways of harming someone. General liability pays when your business physically injures a person or damages their property; professional liability — also sold as errors and omissions — pays when your advice or work product costs a client money. Neither substitutes for the other, and service businesses routinely need both.

• Why is a certificate of insurance required?

  Because your counterparty is transferring risk, not collecting paperwork. A landlord, general contractor, or client requiring a COI is making sure claims arising from your work land on your insurer instead of theirs — and the certificate is how they verify limits, additional insured status, and policy dates before letting you on site or into the contract.