Independent agency in Peoria, Arizona. Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance member.
Independent agency in Peoria, Arizona. Strategic Insurance Agency Alliance member.
General liability is the policy everyone asks to see. A general contractor before you start, a landlord before you sign, a city before it issues a permit. It is also the policy that answers when your work damages someone else's property.
At a glance
General liability at a glance
What it answers
Bodily injury to others, property damage to others, and personal and advertising injury.
What it excludes
Your tools, your vehicles, your building, and injuries to your own employees.
Limits
Written per occurrence and as an annual aggregate. Contracts usually specify both.
Certificates
Issued to general contractors, landlords and municipalities, with additional insured wording where required.
Commonly bundled
With commercial property, as a business owners policy.
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Start here
General liability answers three kinds of claim: someone is physically hurt because of your business, you damage someone else's property, or you cause certain advertising and reputational harms. It pays the defense costs as well as the settlement, and on a contested claim the defense is often the larger half.
For a trade business, the property damage half is the one that fires. A fitting that fails and floods a finished basement. A tool dropped through a customer's window. A trench that takes out an irrigation line.
It is just as important to know what it does not do. It does not cover your own tools, your own vehicle, your own building, or injuries to your own employees. Those are four other policies, and the mistake of assuming general liability is a blanket is the single most common misunderstanding in small business insurance.
Limits are usually written as a per-occurrence limit and an aggregate for the policy year. Read what your contracts require before you pick, because a limit that fails the contract is a limit that has to be rewritten mid-job.
For a shop or an office with property, bundling the two is usually both cheaper and simpler.
General liability on its own
Covers your liability to other people and nothing else.
Right for a business with almost no property of its own and no fixed premises.
Common for a sole trader who works out of a truck and rents nothing.
You still need separate policies for the vehicle, the tools and the crew.
A business owners policy
General liability and commercial property in a single package policy.
Usually cheaper than buying both separately, and one renewal instead of two.
Commonly includes business interruption, which pays while you cannot trade.
Right for a shop, an office, a warehouse or any leased space with contents in it.
The parts
If the claim is not one of these three, general liability is probably not the policy that responds. That is worth knowing in advance.
602-480-6453General liability
Declarations
Bodily injury to others
A customer, a passer-by or another trade is hurt because of your operations or on your premises.
Covers their costs and your legal defense.
Property damage to others
Your work or your operations damage property belonging to somebody else.
For the trades this is the claim that actually happens: water, fire, a broken window, a cut line.
Personal and advertising injury
Claims such as libel, slander and certain advertising harms.
Rare, and quietly useful for any business that says anything in public.
Products and completed operations
Claims arising from work you already finished or a product you supplied.
For a contractor this is the coverage that matters long after the job is signed off.
Illustration of how a declarations page is laid out. Not a real policy.
Where it sits
The most expensive misunderstanding in small business insurance is thinking general liability covers everything. It covers harm you do to other people and their property. Everything else has its own policy.
Your truck is commercial auto. Your tools are inland marine. Your employees are workers compensation, which Arizona requires from the first person you hire. Your own building or leased space and its contents are commercial property, which is usually bundled with general liability as a business owners policy.
A tradesman with one truck, one helper and a garage full of tools is carrying all four exposures whether or not there are four policies in the file.
Four policies, one business. General liability covers harm to others. It does not reach the truck, the tools or the crew.
On the business side we have even more markets to work with than on personal lines, and new carrier appointments keep coming. That gives your business room: we can match your class of work to a carrier that wants it, not one that barely tolerates it.
A general liability quote that does not start with your contracts is a guess. General contractors, property managers and municipalities all specify limits, and some specify additional insured status, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording. Those phrases change the policy, not just the certificate.
What we need from you
A description of the work you actually do, in your own words
Your annual revenue or payroll, since most GL is rated on one of them
Any contract that specifies insurance requirements, in full rather than summarised
Whether you use subcontractors, and whether you collect certificates from them
Your ROC license number if you hold one
Then we quote it across the commercial carriers with an appetite for your class of work. We have more markets open on the business side than most people expect, and that is often the difference for a trade one company would turn away.
In their words
5.0 stars across Google and Facebook
“
Great experience with this insurance agent! He helped me find a good price for my car insurance and made the whole process easy and stress-free. Very helpful, honest, and professional. Highly recommend!
RY
Ramez Y.
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Hanna K. · Google and Facebook
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I had a really good experience working with Shield of Faith Insurance. I needed new rental insurance as I was moving apartments. I got sent details on the policy next day and all I had to do was sign the forms. I ended up with a really good deal and saved about 20% compared to my old policy. I reached out to him again about auto insurance as well. I have had Geico for over 5 years and my premiums had only gotten more expensive. He somehow ended up getting me more coverage for half the price I was paying before. The entire process was easy and Mena was very responsive to email and text. Would highly encourage you to take a look and see what type of deals he can make for your insurance policies.
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Every review above is quoted in full from Google or Facebook. Read all of them.
How much general liability insurance do I need?
Start with what your contracts require, because that is a hard floor. Beyond that the right limit depends on the size of the jobs you take and what a serious claim in your trade actually costs. We will read the contract with you rather than defaulting to a round number.
Does general liability cover my tools?
No. General liability covers harm to other people and their property. Your own tools and equipment are covered under an inland marine policy or a tools and equipment endorsement, which is a separate purchase.
Does general liability cover my employees if they get hurt?
No. Injuries to your own employees are covered by workers compensation, which Arizona requires from your first employee under Arizona Revised Statutes 23-902. General liability specifically excludes them.
What does additional insured mean on a certificate?
It means another party, usually a general contractor or a property owner, is added to your policy for liability arising out of your work for them. It is a real change to the policy rather than a note on a certificate, so the request needs to reach your agent rather than being typed onto a form.
Do I need general liability if I am a one-person business?
Legally it is not mandated in the way workers comp is, but practically you will struggle to work. General contractors, landlords, property managers and many municipalities require proof of it before you can start. And a single property damage claim can exceed a year of revenue for a sole trader.
Free and no obligation
At Shield of Faith Insurance, we make it easy to compare options for your business. Commercial auto, general liability, workers comp and a business owners policy can all sit with one local agent in Peoria, AZ.
Contact our Peoria office today to request your free, no-obligation insurance quote and discover how we can help you protect what matters most.
Call or text anytime during the business week. Evenings and Saturdays by appointment.
What happens next
1
Tell us about your business: the work, the vehicles and the crew.2
We compare several carriers for the whole package: auto, liability and workers comp.3
A real person from our office calls you back with options. No robo-dialers.Service area
Shield of Faith writes general liability insurance in Arizona for contractors, shops and service businesses, including general liability insurance in Peoria, AZ and across Glendale and Surprise. Business liability insurance in Arizona is what a general contractor, a landlord or a city asks to see before you start, and liability insurance for small business is priced off what you actually do, which is why the quote starts with a description of the work rather than a category.
Get a commercial quote
Tell us about the business. We compare several carriers and call you back with options.
No robo-dialers and no spam calls. A local agent follows up personally. Sending this does not bind coverage.
Send us the insurance requirements page. We will quote to it exactly rather than to a round number.
