General liability for builders
General liability, workers compensation, commercial auto and tools coverage for builders and subcontractors. Tell us what you do and where you work, and a licensed specialist will classify the trade, find markets that will write it, and get your certificate issued.
Four coverages do most of the work for a building business. General liability responds to injury and property damage your work causes to other people. Workers compensation covers your own employees. Commercial auto covers the trucks. Inland marine covers the tools, which general liability never does.
What changes as you cross a state line is not the policy, it is the requirement around it. Minimum limits, whether the certificate has to be filed with the licensing board, whether workers compensation can be exempted, and the size of the license bond all vary. Some states mandate general liability for a license and some do not mandate it at all, which does not help you, because the contract in front of you will still require it.
Each state page covers the licensing authority, whether general liability is required for the license, the workers compensation rule, the license bond, and what to watch for.
Browse all 50 statesRequirements verified against state sources, October 2026.
Most builders end up with some combination of these. Which ones depend on whether you have employees, vehicles and tools worth insuring.
Third-party bodily injury and property damage from your operations and your completed work. The coverage a general contractor asks you to prove.
Medical costs and lost wages for an injury to your own employee. Separate from general liability and required in nearly every state once you have staff.
Your trucks, trailers and towed equipment. A personal auto policy excludes business use and will not cover the tools inside.
Inland marine coverage for tools in transit and on site, including theft, which is the most common loss builders actually file.
Pick your state for the licensing authority, the general liability and workers compensation position, the license bond, and what to watch for.
Yes. Their policy is written to defend them, not you. If your work causes damage, their carrier can pay the claim and then pursue you to recover it.
The same business day once the policy is bound and we have the requirement. If you already have a policy with us, a certificate for a new general contractor is usually issued within a couple of hours.
One million per occurrence and two million general aggregate is the common contract requirement and a reasonable starting point. Larger projects and public work require more.
Usually. First-year builders are placed regularly, often with a surplus lines carrier until there is a track record.
One policy can list every state you operate in. Pricing is driven by the highest-exposure state on the schedule, so tell us all of them.
Not always, but check two things: whether completed operations is included, and whether additional insured status covers ongoing and completed operations. A policy missing either can fail the contract requirement and cost you the job.
Tell us your trade, payroll and the states you work in and we will come back with real carrier numbers.
