Plumbing Insurance: Small Business Insurance for Plumbers

What is Plumbing Insurance?

Insurance for plumbers and plumbing companies has liability coverage. Plumbing liability insurance can be categorized into several types depending on which cases they provide protection. But in a nutshell, all function to help the policyholder pay for attorney fees and other legal costs as well as compensation to the concerned party.

Types of liability insurance plumbers and plumbing companies get are:

• General liability

• Professional liability

• Public liability

General liability insurance kicks in when a client accuses a plumber or plumbing company of causing injuries or property damage while working. Here’s a table showing the most common injuries plumbers can cause and their compensation:

Products and completed operations is an optional coverage in general liability insurance and become useful if a client accuses a plumber or plumbing company of doing a measly job. Plumbers have liability for any finished project for as long as 1 to 6 years. And if the project turns out to be a complete failure, the client can sue for damage. Here are some examples:

• DeLong Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning faces charges from the children of their client who died because of carbon monoxide poisoning improperly installed water heater caused.

• Tiger Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning, & Electrical Services faced charges accusing them of damaging the client’s property and failing to fix a water and sewer line extending from his house to the city line.

• Philadelphia Gas Works, together with the city government of Philadelphia, faces a lawsuit accusing them of poor maintenance of the gas lines which led to death and burning of homes of concerned residents.

Professional liability insurance will kick in when a plumber or plumbing company is accused of causing damage because of negligence or lack of expertise. Examples are when improper piping is installed, there’s failure to exercise necessary caution while working, and so on. Here’s a perfect real life example where professional liability insurance can help:

• Pearl Plumbing, Inc. faces a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding consumers in the course of recommending the unnecessary replacement of sewer pipes.

Plumbing Liability Insurance

Insurance for plumbers and plumbing companies have liability coverage. Plumbing liability insurance can be categorized into several types depending on which cases they provide protection. But in a nutshell, all function to help the policyholder pay for attorney fees and other legal costs as well as compensation to the concerned party.

Types of liability insurance plumbers and plumbing companies get are:

• General liability

• Professional liability

• Products and completed operations

• Public liability

General liability insurance kicks when a client accuses a plumber or plumbing company of causing injuries or property damage while working. Here’s a table showing the most common injuries plumbers can cause and their compensation:

Professional liability insurance will kick in when a plumber or plumbing company is accused of causing damage because of negligence or lack of expertise. Examples are when improper piping is installed, there’s failure to exercise necessary caution while working, and so on. Here’s a perfect real life example where professional liability insurance can help:

• Pearl Plumbing, Inc. faces a lawsuit accusing them of defrauding consumers in the course of recommending the unnecessary replacement of sewer pipes.

Products and completed operations become useful if a client accuses a plumber or plumbing company of doing a measly job. Plumbers have liability for any finished project for as long as 1 to 6 years. And if the project turns out to be a complete failure, the client can sue for damage. Here are some examples:

• DeLong Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning faces charges from the children of their client who died because of carbon monoxide poisoning improperly installed water heater caused.

• Tiger Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning, & Electrical Services faced charges accusing them of damaging the client’s property and failing to fix a water and sewer line extending from his house to the city line.

• Philadelphia Gas Works, together with the city government of Philadelphia, faces a lawsuit accusing them of poor maintenance of the gas lines which led to death and burning of homes of concerned residents.

Plumbers Public Liability Insurance

Plumbers public liability insurance is helpful when plumbers or a plumbing company faces lawsuits community members file. This is important for carrying out large scale projects wherein any improper work doesn’t only affect the client but other people as well. It’s important to distinguish the difference between public liability and general liability. To make it simple, public liability applies to lawsuits raised by the public against a plumbing business. On the other hand, general liability will take care of lawsuits raised by clients.

Other Plumbing Business Insurance

Aside from general liability insurance, public liability insurance, and professional liability insurance, there are other kinds of protection plumbing businesses should get. Other recommended business insurance are:

• Commercial property insurance

• Commercial auto insurance

• Business interruption

• Crime insurance

• Cyber liability insurance

Commercial Property Insurance

Commercial property insurance protects a plumbing business’s building against fire, extreme weather, vandalism, theft, and other named perils. Its purpose is to reimburse expenses for a damaged building’s repair or reconstruction. Note that this doesn’t provide coverage for rented spaces.

If the plumbing business is just renting a commercial space, then adding rented premises coverage to commercial property insurance must be considered. Again, the function is still the same – cover repair and reconstruction costs if a rented property is damaged by fire, extreme weather, vandalism, theft, and other named perils.

Aside from the commercial space, a plumbing business also needs to take care of equipment and tools used for work. And so, commercial property insurance can be added with stocks and contents coverage. Stocks and contents coverage is an optional policy that pays for the repair and replacement costs of damaged or lost work tools and equipment. However, coverage only kicks in the event of fire, theft, vandalism, and other named perils.

Commercial Auto Insurance

A plumbing business can’t operate well without its own cargo van , flatbed truck , or any other vehicle that can carry a lot of load aside from passengers. To cover a vehicle used for business purposes, carriers offer commercial auto insurance.

Commercial auto insurance has auto liability coverage. Auto liability coverage answers costs if the plumbing business’s vehicle caused a vehicular accident and injured third parties or damaged property.

Another coverage in commercial auto insurance is physical damage. Physical damage coverage can be classified into two types – collision and comprehensive. Collision insurance covers costs if the plumbing vehicle crashed into an object or another person’s vehicle. But note that this one doesn’t provide coverage if the vehicle rammed a deer, cow, or any other animal on the road.

Comprehensive insurance covers most of the loopholes of collision insurance. This will cover the resulting damage after the plumbing business’s vehicle collided with an animal. Comprehensive insurance also takes care of damage as a result of fire, theft, vandalism, extreme weather, and malicious mischief.

Employees riding the plumbing vehicle will sustain injuries if a vehicular accident happens. And so, it’s smart to add accident coverage. Commercial auto insurance with accident coverage can cover the emergency treatment of employees riding the plumbing vehicle who got injured after the accident happened.

Business Interruption Insurance

Unforeseen events might force a plumbing business to cease operations momentarily. But even how problematic the cause is, employee wages, loans, taxes, and other operational costs must still be paid.

Business interruption insurance kicks in if a plumbing business has to cease operations to solve an issue or move to a new place. The policy provides money equal to a portion or the full value of the plumbing business’s average revenue. The insurance money received can be used to pay for employee wages, loans, taxes, and other operational costs.

Crime Insurance

Theft and burglary will incur losses for a plumbing business. This is why there’s crime insurance to cover this peril. Basic crime insurance will help recover monetary losses if third parties commit the following:

• Theft

• Forgery

• Data breach

• Fraud

Outsiders aren’t the only ones who can commit crimes against a plumbing business but employees too. And so, crime insurance offers an employee dishonesty coverage . This policy reimburses financial losses if an employee commits any of the following:

• Document manipulation

• Fraud

• Social engineering

• Destruction of money and business assets

• Theft

Cyber Liability Insurance

Cyber liability insurance is particularly useful for plumbing businesses running a website or any other digital system to collect payments and market services. It provides coverage the moment clients file a claim because their sensitive information such as credit cards, bank accounts, and phone numbers got exposed. With cyber liability insurance, the plumbing business can pay for defense costs and settlements.

Workers Compensation Insurance for Plumbers

Plumbing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. This is due to the following reasons:

• Plumbers working in sewage systems might get exposed to toxic gasses and get killed or suffer from injuries or diseases

• Plumbers are always at the risk of slipping or falling while at work

• The task of plumbers involves lifting heavy weights, uncomfortable work postures, continuous repetitive movements, and the use of specialty tools that might cause injuries

With that being said, the work environment of plumbers are filled with hazards. In connection to this, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that exposure to toxic substances and harmful work environments led to 672 worker fatalities . Here’s a table showing the cost of most common injuries plumbers experience

It’s best if plumbers and plumbing companies get workers comp insurance. A workers comp insurance will pay for the medical cost of plumbers and lost income when a work-related injury happens. In addition, in case of death, workers comp insurance also provides death benefits and provides financial assistance to the deceased amounting to $4,000 for the burial fee and 75% of the deceased’s weekly take home pay as financial assistance to the family.

To be clear, only the direct family of the workers comp insurance policyholder or additional insured can receive benefits. The spouse will receive money until death or remarriage whereas the children will receive money until 18 years old.

Plumbing Insurance Coverage

Liability coverage offers $1 million up to $2 million to the policyholder. The deductible the policyholder needs to pay starts at $500. Note that paying for lesser deductibles means that premiums for plumbing insurance coverage and others will be expensive.

Commercial property insurance with plumbers tools insurance offers a $60,000 minimum policy limit. If the plumbing business is large, then the carrier can extend the limit to more than $1 million. The median deductible for commercial property insurance is $500 – $1,000.

Commercial auto coverage for plumbing businesses and contractors offers a $50,000 or lesser minimum limit. However, carriers suggest that a policyholder should have a $500,000 up to a $1 million policy limit for comprehensive protection.

Carriers leave the policyholder to decide how much money business interruption insurance can give. This can be as low as $100,000 or as high as more than $2 million

The limits of workers comp insurance start at $500,000 up to more than $1 million. Also, the policyholder can decide to get workers comp insurance for their plumbing business to not have any limits.