Running a successful pressure washing company takes skill, quality equipment, and the right insurance policy to protect employees and customers alike. If you don’t yet have business insurance, it can be tough to know why you need it and what kind of coverage to get. To get started, know that you should get pressure washer liability insurance at a minimum if you want to protect your business long term. Here’s what this kind of insurance covers.
Property Damage
When you’re doing pressure washing for a living, you and any employees you have are going to be visiting other people’s property on a regular basis. This means you’ll be arriving at homes and businesses with your equipment to perform pressure washing services, and no matter how careful you are, you could end up breaking something while there.
This is especially the case if you ever have to enter a home or business to get to the back patio for pressure washing. There’s always the chance that you could brush against an expensive piece of artwork on a wall or a shelf, sending it crashing to the ground. Or you could knock your equipment into furniture, denting or scratching it. Either way, you don’t want to be responsible for paying for the repairs out of pocket, which is why you need pressure washer liability insurance. The third-party damage coverage that’s part of liability will pay to fix or replace anything you or your employees break on the job.
Bodily Injury
Pressure washer liability insurance also applies to bodily injury that you or your employees might cause a third party. For instance, if a passerby or customer trips over your hose while you’re cleaning a driveway, your pressure washer liability insurance policy will pay for his or her medical bills.
This coverage will even pay for any income the injured party is missing out on while recovering at home. And if he or she needs ongoing medical care due to a long-term disability caused by your company, pressure washer liability insurance will pay for that, too. As you might imagine, you could end up owing thousands or even millions of dollars in medical payments without business insurance, so it’s important to get this coverage as soon as you can.
Damage to Rented Business Property
Another reason to get pressure washer liability insurance for your business is that it can protect your rented business property. So, if you’re leasing an office or even a warehouse to store your equipment, you need insurance that will pay for repairs when someone or something causes damage to it.
For instance, if an employee accidentally starts a fire or flood that damages the property, your pressure washer liability insurance will pay to repair or rebuild it. And if your employees or equipment damage the floors over time, insurance will pay to repair or replace them.
Legal Fees
One little-known type of coverage that comes with pressure washer liability insurance is a legal defense. Depending on what your company is accused of, pressure washer liability insurance can pay for your legal fees, including the amount it costs to defend your business and any settlements you’re ordered to pay.
For example, if you don’t have insurance that will pay for damage to a rented property, the owner of the building could sue you for the cost of repairs. This could put you out of business if you don’t have the money to pay. Fortunately, pressure washer liability insurance will fund your legal defense fees when necessary, as well as pay for the repairs. Your pressure washer liability insurance policy can also pay the legal costs associated with personal and advertising injury, such as if someone accuses your company of slander or wrongdoing when it comes to marketing.
Products and Completed Operations Coverage
Finally, your pressure washer liability insurance policy will include coverage for products you’ve sold or jobs you’ve done in the past. So, if you completed a pressure washing job for someone weeks or months ago, and he or she complains about it long after paying, your insurance policy will cover your company as needed.
The same goes if you sell products related to pressure washing, and you receive customer complaints alleging that they’re defective or caused property damage. Your insurance will pay for any damages or legal costs associated with such allegations.
It’s clear that pressure washer liability insurance covers a wide range of possible issues that could come up when you own a company like this. That’s why it’s a good idea to get liability insurance as soon as you can, at which point you can add on other coverage types for even more protection.
