Completed operations
Completed operations describes bodily injury or property damage arising after a business's work has been completed or put to its intended use. It is a liability exposure tied to finished work or products, not a promise that the contractor's own defective work will be repaired or that professional errors are covered.
Completed operations is the finished-work side of a liability exposure. A roof, installation, repair, or product may have left the contractor’s control and been put to its intended use, yet later cause bodily injury or property damage. The term identifies that post-completion setting; it does not decide whether a particular policy responds.
When work becomes “completed”
IRMI’s definition looks to the contract, the job site, and intended use rather than a universal number of days. A project can therefore move from ongoing operations to completed operations when the contracted work is finished or the work is put to its intended use, even if a later dispute concerns what was installed.
The resulting allegations are concrete: a property owner says a completed roof leaked into a finished space; a building occupant says a railing installed by the contractor failed; or a user says a product caused damage after sale. Those are different from an employee injury during the job, a consultant’s advice error, or a request to replace the contractor’s own work simply because the customer dislikes it.
Why contracts call it out
Commercial contracts often keep a contractor responsible for finished work and ask for evidence that the liability program reaches that exposure. The AIA G715 supplemental attachment hosted by New York DFS specifically asks about bodily injury or property damage arising from completed operations, contractor indemnity obligations, and exclusions involving prior or subcontractor work.
The statutory example is also specific. Florida Statutes § 627.441 addresses an insurer offering completed-operations liability coverage after an owner-controlled insurance program on a public construction project. It does not turn every finished project in every state into the same insurance program.
Keep the exposure lines separate
The ABA primer describes completed-operations coverage in terms of injury and property damage after the work is complete, while identifying common boundaries for the cost of redoing an insured’s own work and for professional mistakes. A contractor that also designs, specifies, or advises may need a separate professional-liability analysis. A manufacturer or seller may need a product-liability analysis.
For the policy, certificate, and additional-insured mechanics, use the sister library’s client requirements guide. The PDS review remains narrower: what finished work can injure someone, damage property, trigger a contract allegation, or leave the business defending a claim after it has left the site?
Sources
- Context source: IRMI — Completed Operations — Defines when work is complete, including work completed under a contract or put to its intended use.
- Primary source: Florida Senate — Florida Statutes § 627.441 (2025) — Primary statute addressing liability coverage for completed operations after an owner-controlled insurance program period on a public construction project.
- Context source: American Bar Association — Products-completed operations coverage primer — Explains post-completion injury/property-damage exposure, the completed-operations hazard, and common boundaries around an insured's own work and professional errors.
- Primary source: New York Department of Financial Services — AIA G715-2017 supplemental attachment — Officially hosted project form asks whether bodily injury/property damage arising from completed operations and contractor indemnity obligations are covered.