Business Electrician Insurance

Knowing you have the right protection can help keep you going. Electricians and electrical contractors need insurance that’s tailored to the risks they face. We have the customized coverage you need for your small business.

Get the coverage you need today. Call For A Free Quote @  855-718-1061

business insurance for electrical contractors

Do Electrician Need Insurance?

Low voltage or high voltage, inside wiring or traffic signalization, industrial or institutional – electrical contractors offer a wide range of services.  With professionals in Underwriting, Claim and Risk Control all dedicated to your industry, we can tailor an insurance program to fully support your risk needs with the right products and services.  We have specialized products that provide limited coverage for physical injury to certain electrical property to help electrical contractors like you manage the unique risks you face.

Electrical contractors have unique risks. BizInsurancePro offers products and insights to help our customers stay ahead of risk by preparing for it and ultimately helping to reduce loss costs and keep projects running smoothly. 

business insurance for electrical contractors

Who Needs Electrical Contractors Insurance?

If you run a business making electrical installations or repairs, you should consider special electrician insurance. This can include these businesses:

What is Electrician Insurance?

Electrician insurance is designed to protect electricians from lawsuits and financial damages resulting from work-related accidents. If you make a mistake that results in financial or physical harm, you may be subject to lawsuits, and the cost of insurance pales in comparison to the potential losses you may face if you are found to be liable.

Common types of electrician insurance include general liability, workers’ compensation, professional liability, and other types of coverage. Each is designed to protect electricians and their companies from different common mistakes and circumstances.

What Does Electrician Insurance Cover?

Your coverage will depend on the specific types of policies you choose, your provider, your business risks, and other factors.

Generally, an electrician insurance policy package will cover the following and more:

  • Bodily injury
  • Property damage
  • Employee injury or illness
  • Commercial auto accidents
  • Damaged tools and equipment
  • Claims made due to unsatisfactory, negligent, late, or incomplete work

Be sure to carefully review your policy for exclusions, as doing so will help you determine which supplemental insurance policies you may need, to ensure you and your business are completely covered.

Get the coverage you need today. Call For A Free Quote @  855-718-1061

How Much Does Business Electrician Insurance Cost?

The average cost of business insurance for electrical contractors is $48 per month, or $550 per year. That is for a general liability insurance policy only. This is also the most popular insurance policy for electrical contractors.

If you add more coverages that an electrician may need, the premiums will increase accordingly. Below is the table of average costs for different coverages for your reference.

Electrical contractor insurance coveragesAverage costs
General liability insurance$48 per month
Commercial property insurance$85 per month
Contractors tools and equipment$35 per month
Workers comp insurance$145 per month

 

What Insurance Does an Electrical Contractor Need?

Many electricians and electrical contractors start with a Business Owner’s Policy (BOP). This combines three types of insurance coverage that many small businesses need to help protect them from different risks.
 
General liability insurance, or electrician liability insurance, helps cover claims that your electrician business caused bodily injury or property damage to someone else’s belongings.
 
Commercial property insurance helps protect your owned or rented building and the equipment you use as an electrician. This includes:
 
  • Amp meters
  • Screwdrivers
  • Wire strippers
  • Pliers
  • Power tools
  • Batteries

Business income insurance helps recover some of your lost income if you can’t operate your electrician business because of covered property damage.

Reasons Why Business Insurance for Electrical Contractors are Important

Garnering clients: In some cases, failing to have proper coverage can actually cost you clients. This generally applies to general liability insurance, which protects the business in the event of property damage/personal injuries while on the job. If you don’t have enough insurance coverage, clients will be concerned that you will go after them legally to pay legal and medical costs from worksite accidents out of their control.

Protecting you from angry clients: Imagine doing a commercial electrical installation, only to be informed a few days afterward that the power went out. The client, in this case, may have lost money in refunds/lost sales and potentially even had to toss out some of their perishable products. The last person to work on their electrical system was your business, and you are given a bill for it. This is a case where professional liability coverage is needed. When work you do leads to client losses, this keeps you from paying for it out of pocket. Having coverage here can also minimize the damage to your business’s reputation.

Protecting your employees: All electrical contractors pay heavy attention to safety and invest in equipment and training, but that doesn’t completely avoid accidents. Sometimes, something unforeseen can lead to employees getting injured, and they will need help paying for medical costs and replacing lost income. This is where worker’s compensation coverage is essential. Most states require workers compensation insurance to practice trades anyway, so this is one of the first policies you should be looking into.

Lost/damaged tools: In some cases, you may be reliant on a piece of equipment to finish a job, so if it fails while working, you can be caught in a difficult position. How do you pay to repair or replace it when your cash flow is contingent on that one job? In this case, you need contractor equipment coverage. Your policy can also cover losses and theft.

Coverage for road issues while on the job: Most people think of job site accidents when talking about insurance, but driving to and from the job qualifies as work time as well. What happens if one of your technicians gets in an accident on their way to a site? Their personal auto policy won’t protect your company, so you need business auto insurance. This generally includes liability, but you can also upgrade to collision/comprehensive coverage to protect your vehicles.

Settling contract disputes: For one reason or another, a client may decide not to pay their bill in a timely fashion. Even if you are able to eventually get your money, the halt in cash flow could be devastating for your business. This is especially the case if you are a smaller contractor devoting a lot of your manpower to one large job. To protect yourself in the event of a wait, invest in business interruption coverage. This will help provide you with money while you wait to resolve the dispute.

Essential Coverage for Electricians and Electrical Contractors

General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance is a common type of commercial liability insurance coverage. Policies typically include coverage for bodily injury and property damage. Coverage is also available for advertising injury, which may include libel, slander and copyright issues. Coverage details vary, so it’s important to select the policy the best meets your company’s liability needs.

A tools and equipment floater covers the insured property wherever it is used and may include such items as hand tools, power drills, hoisting machines and power pumps.

General Liability Insurance Includes:

  • Premises Liability – Premises liability protects your customers when they are at your workshop or retail space. It also protects them when you are working at remote job sites. If a customer receives bodily injuries on your premises or work area, your premises liability insurance will pay for the medical bills. This insurance also pays for property damages that occur at your place of business.
  • Products Liability – If the products that you sell to your customers bring harm, suffering or property damages, your customers may sue your electrician company. Even if you did not manufacture the products, if they are found to be defective or to be the cause of bodily injuries and property damages, you may have to defend yourself from the legal actions. Products liability coverage pays for lawsuits related to products, and can pay the injury and damages settlements.
  • Completed Operations – After you have finished performing electrician services for your customers, they may claim that the operations you completed for them caused problems. Claims or problems that include bodily harm or property damages are covered by your completed operations insurance. This coverage pays for the medical or repair bills that arise, and can pay for your legal defense fees as well.

Business Owners Policy (BOP)

General liability is included in a business owners policy, or BOP. A BOP provides you with additional business electrician insurance protection for your company assets. Asset protection includes tangible items such as your electrician tools, and intangible assets such as your company payroll. Other examples of BOP coverage options include:

  • Buildings and Contents
  • Business Income and Extra Expense
  • Electronic Data
  • Newly Acquired or Constructed Buildings
  • Employee Dishonesty Coverage

Owners and Contractors Protective Liability (OCP)

Given the possibility of a lawsuit should someone claim to have been harmed by your work, you will almost certainly need liability insurance.

If working as a subcontractor, your customer may require you to have Owners and Contractors Protective Liability (OCP) coverage. This protects either a property/business owner or a general contractor from possible liability arising from the negligent acts of an independent contractor or subcontractor hired to perform work on behalf of the insured. The actual purchaser of the policy is the independent contractor or subcontractor, but the protection is for the benefit of the property/business owner or general contractor for whom the work is being done.

Commercial Auto Insurance

Also refereed as Business Vehicle Insurance, your personal auto policy probably provides coverage for your electrical contractor in business use of your truck, van or other vehicle. A personal auto policy is unlikely to provide coverage, however, if the vehicle in question is used primarily in business. It will not provide coverage for any vehicle owned by a business. For those vehicles you must have a business auto policy.

If you’re driving a truck you own personally for a business purpose and get into an accident for which you are liable, an injured person could sue you personally. Will your personal auto policy have enough coverage to pay all the damages? If not, a lawsuit may be filed against your business. If you use personal vehicles for business, you want to be sure you have high enough limits to protect your business. You should discuss this with your electrical contractor insurance agent.

Inland Marine Insurance

This electrical contractor insurance is a must so don’t let the term “inland marine” confuse you. As opposed to “marine insurance,” which covers products when transported over water, inland marine insurance covers products, materials and equipment when transported over land—e.g., via truck or train—or while temporarily warehoused by a third party. Collisions and cargo theft are the two most frequent causes of inland marine losses.

Regulating Agency and References

Insurance Information Institute (III)

This organization’s mission is to improve public understanding of insurance – what it is and how it works.
Visit us at https://www.iii.org.

National Electrical Contractors Association | NECA

NECA is the voice of the $202 billion electrical construction industry that brings power, light, and communication technology to buildings and communities across the U.S.

NECA contractors are the technical professionals responsible for the most innovative and safest electrical construction in the U.S.

Visit us at https://www.necanet.org/.