How To Get Insurance for a Lawn Care Business

If you work in the lawn care industry, you may be required to have workers’ compensation and commercial auto insurance and should consider other coverage types to insure your equipment and protect yourself against common liability risks. You can get commercial insurance packages tailored to the needs of lawn care workers from multiple insurance companies.

Keep reading to learn more about how you can find the right lawn care business insurance policy and what coverage types you might need to fully protect your landscaping business.

On This Page

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  What Is Insurance for Landscapers?

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  Who Needs Landscaping Insurance?

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  What Type of Insurance Do I Need for My Lawn Care Business?

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  How Much Does It Cost To Insure a Lawn Care or Landscaping Business?

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  How To Get Lawn Care Business Insurance for Your Company

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  FAQs

What Is Insurance for Landscapers?

Landscaping business insurance is not necessarily a singular insurance product but instead a collection of commercial insurance types that address the risks that come with professionally tending other people’s yards. While some insurance providers sell insurance packages specifically marketed toward lawn care workers, others may simply sell all of the different coverage types you need to create your own professional gardening insurance policy.

Who Needs Landscaping Insurance?

Various types of lawn care workers can benefit from purchasing business insurance including professional mowers, gardeners, tree trimmers, landscape designers, irrigation specialists, horticulturists and arborists.

Lawn care companies face numerous risks such as employees injuring themselves while using sharp tools, expensive machinery getting damaged on the job and harmful chemical spills damaging the nearby environment or causing clients to get sick.

As a result, it’s important for these businesses to maintain adequate lawn care insurance.

What Type of Insurance Do I Need for My Lawn Care Business?

If you are interested in insurance for lawn care business professionals, these are some of the most important coverage types you should consider buying.

General Liability

General liability insurance can cover hospital bills and property repairs if you are held liable for injuring someone or damaging their property. If one of these claims escalates into a lawsuit or you are sued for personal and advertising injury, your general liability insurance will also cover defense costs, settlements and other relevant legal expenses.

For example, general liability insurance would provide coverage if you were to run over some gravel with your lawn mower and launch a rock through a window and into your client’s eye. It could also pay your legal fees if you were sued for spreading false and defamatory statements about a rival business through your company’s social media accounts.

Professional Liability

Professional liability insurance, also known as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, protects you if you are sued for breaching the terms of a contract, acting negligently or otherwise failing to adequately perform your professional duties. For example, professional liability insurance might cover you if you accidentally killed several expensive flowers in the process of weed-eating a client’s garden.

Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation insurance can cover an employee’s medical care, lost wages and other related expenses anytime they are injured or become sick on the job. Businesses with multiple employees are required by law to maintain worker’s compensation insurance in every state besides Texas, where this requirement only applies to companies contracting with the government.^[1]

Commercial Auto

You will need commercial auto coverage to insure your vehicles while you are driving them for work-related purposes since a personal auto insurance policy won’t cover business activities. Most states set the same minimum coverage requirements for both personal and commercial auto insurance policies.^[2]

Commercial Property

Commercial property insurance covers any buildings you use for your lawn care business such as a warehouse or office space. It also insures equipment and other items against perils like fire and theft while they are stored inside of your covered buildings.

Many insurance carriers sell business owners policies (BOPs) that combine general liability and commercial property insurance. A BOP may also include business interruption insurance that covers lost revenue or temporary relocation costs if a covered peril damages your property and prevents you from operating your business as normal.

Tools and Equipment Insurance

Tools and equipment insurance is a type of inland marine insurance that lawn care contractors can buy to insure their work tools while they are in transit or at a job site. While commercial property insurance covers these items while they are in your primary work building, you will need tools and equipment insurance to keep them covered outside of your main office.

This type of coverage is crucial for insuring items like lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers, weed eaters, buckets, trailers and more. Along with covering your tools and equipment, this coverage type also insures your employees’ personal tools that they use for work as well as their clothing.^[3]

Additional Coverages To Consider

The following coverage types also have the potential to bolster your gardeners’ insurance policy:

• Commercial umbrella insurance: If you exceed the coverage limits on any of your liability policies, commercial umbrella insurance can step in to make up the difference. Your umbrella coverage can apply to multiple types of liability claims and generally has a much higher coverage limit than a typical liability policy.
• Pollution liability insurance: Environmental insurance is important if your landscaping business uses pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Pollution liability coverage can take care of legal costs that arise if you are sued for damaging the environment or making someone sick.
• Electronic data liability coverage: Third-party cyber insurance can provide coverage in case you accidentally cause a client to lose digitally-stored information. For example, electronic data liability insurance might cover legal fees if you were sued after damaging a client’s fiber optic cable during a landscaping project, cutting off their internet connection and causing them to lose all of their progress on an important business presentation.^[4]
• Equipment breakdown coverage: Equipment breakdown coverage insures your equipment against damage from short circuits, internal mechanical failures and other sudden losses that aren’t covered by commercial property or tools and equipment insurance.
• Commercial crime insurance: Commercial crime insurance protects your company from financial losses due to forgery, burglary, employee dishonesty and other criminal actions.

How Much Does It Cost To Insure a Lawn Care or Landscaping Business?

Landscape insurance prices largely depend on the insurance company you select and the coverage types included in your policy. For example, NEXT Insurance charges the majority of its customers in the lawn care industry around $201 to $236 per month for general liability, workers’ compensation, commercial property and tools and equipment insurance.^[5]

Some of the other factors that will influence how much you have to pay for landscaping insurance include the size of your business, the types of services you provide, the value of your equipment, your location and your claims history.

How To Get Lawn Care Business Insurance for Your Company

Before settling on a policy, you should use an online marketplace like SmartFinancial to compare commercial insurance quotes from multiple providers. Some of the companies that sell specially-designed lawn care business insurance policies include The Hartford, NEXT Insurance, Hiscox, Thimble Insurance, Markel Insurance and Sentry Insurance Group.