Cleaning Business Insurance

For a cleaning business, difficulties in handling client property damage, third-party bodily injury, employee injury, and potential theft of client possessions can affect your company’s profitability if you don't have adequate insurance. Insurance for cleaning businesses covers your business for the ramifications of adverse incidents, helping you mitigate financial strain and keep your enterprise profitable.

Business Insurance for a cleaning company can help you deal with risks you may face as a business owner, from a customer slipping on a recently mopped floor to being accused of damaging someone’s property. Being insured against accidents or threats to your business is crucial in keeping your business afloat when mishaps occur.

General Liability Insurance 

General Liability insurance for cleaning businesses often covers common business risks such as customer injuries, customer property damage, and advertising injuries. It safeguards your business against high legal costs and is usually required to be able to lease commercial space, bid on a job, or execute a contract.

Many cleaning service business owners typically purchase general liability insurance before seeking other coverage. This policy provides liability coverage related to the following:

• Third-party bodily injury
• Customer property damage
• Personal & Advertising injury

Third-party Bodily Injury

General Liability insurance for cleaning companies pays for repairing or replacing your customer’s belongings which are accidentally broken by one of your employees on a cleaning job. An employee could very easily break an expensive figurine or vase while dusting. If there is a disagreement about the cost associated with a repair, and the client files a suit, the General Liability insurer would defend your business and pay what the court awards for covered claims.

• Third-party damages
• Attorney's fees
• Court-ordered judgments
• Negotiated settlements arranged outside of court

This policy does not cover employee injuries, workers’ compensation insurance covers employee injuries.

Third-party Property Damage

General Liability insurance for cleaning businesses pays for repairing or replacing your customer’s belongings property which is accidentally broken by one of your employees on a cleaning job. An employee could very easily break an expensive figurine or vase while dusting. If there is a disagreement about the cost associated with a repair, and the client files a suit, the General Liability insurer would defend your business and pay what the court awards for covered claims.

Personal & Advertising Injury

Copying another company's logo or slogan could result in a lawsuit, which is why a careful review is necessary before releasing your advertisements. What you or your employees say about people or businesses can also get you into trouble with personal injury claims. Legal defense is covered by General Liability insurance for covered occurrences, as well as Personal and Advertising Injuries, which include:

• Defamation of character, both libel (written) and slander (spoken)
• False arrest
• Invasion of privacy
• Wrongful detention
• Copyright infringement

Workers’ Compensation Insurance 

Workers' compensation insurance pays the associated medical costs and a portion of lost wages statutorily required for employees hurt on the job. Illnesses may be covered, but a disease has to be a direct result of the job to be compensable; think of black lung disease suffered by coal miners years ago-this disease was only caused by the work done in the mines. Workers' compensation insurance is required in most states, depending on the number of employed staff a company has. Check the requirements in your state before you forgo this coverage. Penalties and fines can be stiff.

Employee injury benefits

When a job-induced injury occurs, workers' compensation insurance helps compensate employees and provides coverage for the following:

• Immediate medical costs, such as an ambulance ride and emergency room expenses
• Ongoing medical costs, such as medications and physical rehabilitation
• Partial lost wages while the employee is unable to work
• Death benefits for fatal incidents

Employers’ Liability 

Employers’ liability coverage is typically included with a workers’ compensation policy and provides defense when an employee sues their employer for negligence in causing their injury. If the court agrees, this coverage would respond to the awarded compensation.

In one situation, one of your window washers may complain about vertigo and require a reduced or modified workload. If you don't accommodate the request and that employee falls off the scaffold, you will most likely face a lawsuit. In that case, employers’ liability insurance for cleaning business covers:

• Defense
• Court costs
• Settlements or judgments
• Witness fees

Without Workers' Compensation coverage, you will pay for your own defense and damages awarded.

Commercial Auto Insurance

Your employees most likely depend on your cleaning company's vans to travel to customers. If an employee gets into an at-fault accident and injures another driver, it could cause serious financial problems for your company. An automobile accident liability lawsuit could result in enormous debts for your company, and maybe put it out of business, particularly if another party is injured.

Commercial Auto insurance covers third-party injury and property damage when your employee driver causes an accident. The costs related to car crashes have steadily been increasing in recent years with people on their phones while driving (more accidents) and the extensive electronic equipment now standard in most vehicles, increasing the costs of repairs. Comprehensive and collision physical damage covers business-owned vehicle damage, less the deductible.

Your cleaning business insurance policy can be adapted to match your company’s needs. For instance, a pool cleaning service may only serve clients within a certain-mile radius, reducing risk. Heavy trucks, like septic tank cleaning services, need higher liability limits on their business auto policies because of the amount of damage or injury they could wreak.

Statutory and optional coverage is also purchased on a business auto policy; besides auto liability, you may opt for medical payments, personal injury protection (aka no-fault), uninsured motorists coverage, rental reimbursement, towing, and permanently attached equipment.

Business Owner's Policy 

A Business Owners Policy (BOP) comprises business property insurance and General Liability insurance. It typically costs less than buying the policies separately. It is a requirement for many cleaning businesses. General liability is usually required in most premises lease agreements.

A Business Owner's Policy can help cover the costs of:

• Lawsuits involving third-party injuries or property damage.
• Lost or stolen business equipment
• Damage to owned assets, building, contents etc. by covered perils
• Libel, copyright infringement, and other types of advertising-injury lawsuits.

Commercial cleaning often entails heavy-duty cleaning and waxing machines that are very expensive to replace and may cause significant damage if incorrectly used. Therefore, this policy is vital for house cleaners, housekeepers, carpet cleaners, and window cleaners.

General Liability Insurance 

Customer Injuries or Property Damage

The Business Owner's Liability insurance can cover medical expenses, legal fees, and other costs associated with injuries sustained by customers or third parties from business operations, such as:

• Accidental damage caused by your cleaning crew
• A homeowner tripping over cleaning equipment used by your staff
• A client injury at your office

Advertising Injuries

General Liability is also a part of a BOP that covers injuries resulting from cleaning services, including:

• Defamation, including libel (written) and slander (spoken)
• Copyright infringement

For example, if you slander a rival's work at a business event and are sued, liability insurance coverage may help cover legal costs.

Commercial Property

Damage to your cleaning equipment and other business property

Commercial Property insurance in a BOP can protect you from the unforeseen financial loss of:

• Business equipment, such as vacuums, shampooers, ladders, etc.
• Office furniture and fixtures
• The building if you own it

If your equipment was stolen or a fire occurred at your business, your Business Owner's insurance policy will assist with the replacement of lost items or the costs of repair.

Business Interruption

If your cleaning business must close because the building was damaged by a covered peril (fire, tornado, hurricane, riot/civil commotion) and you cannot conduct normal business operations, Business Interruption insurance for cleaning business can prevent a financial disaster by replacing net income. Your company will be able to pay ongoing expenses.

Commercial Umbrella Insurance 

Once the insurance limit of a policy has been paid out in claims, Commercial Umbrella insurance provides an additional layer of coverage up to the limit purchased. An umbrella policy can be written in conjunction with the General Liability, Commercial Auto Liability, or Employer's Liability policies.

Your legal costs can quickly add up to the point that your insurance coverage isn't enough to cover them. Umbrella liability insurance, similar to excess liability insurance, may pay for claims that exceed the liability limit on your underlying insurance policy.

The policy can boost the coverage limits of your insurance for commercial cleaning business:

• General Liability insurance
• Commercial Auto insurance
• Employer’s Liability insurance (part of workers' compensation insurance)

Many cleaning businesses choose Umbrella insurance policies to satisfy their customers' contracts that may require limits in excess of $2,000,000.

Janitorial Service Bond

A third-party services bond is often required before people or businesses hire a cleaning company. Because cleaning companies have access to residences or commercial spaces often when unoccupied to perform their work, there is always a chance that an employee may steal something from a client location. Or, it’s possible that a break-in could occur later if a door were “accidentally” left unlocked. Although you may trust your employees, their access to private homes and offices may be a temptation.

This cleaning service bond provides coverage related to the following:

• Employee theft of money or property
• Client contracts