General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your work, including products-completed operations. This is the policy general contractors and municipalities name in their permit and contract requirements.
Michigan contractor insurance
Built to Protect Your Jobsite
General liability, workers' compensation and commercial auto for Michigan's hardest working contractors — with certificates issued in the wording your general contractors actually require.
- General contractors
- Electricians
- Plumbing & HVAC
- Carpentry & framing
- Roofing
- Concrete & excavation
- Landscaping
- Specialty trades
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Core coverages for contractors.
The policies that make up a working trade program. What each one costs and how it is structured depends on the exposure drivers below.
Workers' compensation
Medical costs and lost wages for injured employees, rated on payroll by class code. Pay-as-you-go options are available and help smooth cash flow across a seasonal book of work.
Contractors' equipment
Tools and equipment written on inland marine rather than the building policy — covering theft or damage in the truck, on the jobsite or in storage, on either a scheduled or blanket basis.
Commercial auto
Work trucks, vans and trailers, with hired and non-owned auto added for employees running for material in their own vehicles. Fleets of any size can sit on one schedule.
Umbrella & excess
Liability limits above the primary policies, which most commercial contracts now require. It has to sit over the right underlying policies — including auto and employers liability — to respond as the contract assumes.
Builders risk
Course-of-construction property covering the structure, materials and supplies while the project is underway, against fire, wind and theft. Written per project or on a reporting form.
What drives a contractor's terms.
Two contractors carrying identical policies can be priced and covered very differently. These are the items that move the account.
Contract requirements
General contractors dictate limits, additional insured status, primary and non-contributory wording and waivers of subrogation. A policy that meets the premium target but not the contract language will stop you getting on the job.
Subcontractor controls
Subcontractor costs may be included in the premium audit when adequate evidence of separate coverage is unavailable, depending on the carrier, classification and circumstances. That is why collecting certificates before work starts — and keeping them current through the term — is worth the administrative effort: it is the evidence the auditor asks for.
Payroll classification
Comp cost follows class code and payroll, and misclassified labour surfaces at audit as a bill you did not plan for. Splitting payroll correctly between trades and separating owner compensation is worth doing before binding.
Completed operations
Work you finished remains an exposure for years, and construction claims often surface long after the job closes. Continuity of this coverage is the part most likely to be quietly reduced when shopping on price alone.
Restricted operations
Roofing height, hot work, demolition, excavation depth, EIFS and residential new construction are commonly restricted or excluded by endorsement. Knowing which sit on your form is the difference between a covered and a declined loss.
Loss history & experience mod
Three to five years of loss runs and any assigned experience modification factor drive both appetite and price. A single large comp claim can follow the account through several renewals.
What underwriters will ask for.
Contractor submissions live or die on the operations detail. Having these ready shortens the process and usually improves the terms.
- Annual receipts, split by trade and by type of work performed
- Residential versus commercial split, and new construction versus service work
- Annual payroll by class code, with owner compensation identified
- Subcontracted costs, and certificates of insurance held on file
- Minimum limits required of subcontractors and written subcontract agreements
- Maximum height worked and whether any roofing is performed
- Vehicle schedule with VINs, radius of operation and driver list with MVRs
- Tools and equipment schedule, including leased and rented items
- Loss runs for the last three to five years
- Sample contract language and any additional insured requirements
- Experience modification factor, if assigned
- Written safety program and any OSHA citations
Contractor insurance, plainly.
Direct answers to what Michigan trades ask before they move a program.
Most Michigan contractors carry general liability, workers' compensation once they have employees, commercial auto, and inland marine for tools and equipment. Contract requirements usually add an umbrella and additional insured endorsements, and course-of-construction jobs need builders risk. The right combination depends on the trade performed, the payroll, and what the contracts you sign obligate you to carry.
Usually the same business day once coverage is bound. What slows a certificate down is not the certificate, it is the wording — additional insured status, primary and non-contributory language and waiver of subrogation have to already exist on the policy before they can be shown. Sending the contract requirements up front avoids that delay.
Only if you carry contractors' equipment coverage, and only on the terms that form sets. Tools are inland marine property, not building property, and theft from an unattended vehicle is a commonly restricted cause of loss. Small tools are often written as a blanket limit with a per-item cap, so the schedule should reflect what you actually carry.
If a subcontractor cannot produce evidence of their own coverage, their cost is generally picked up as payroll on your policy at audit. That is the single most common source of unexpected audit bills for Michigan contractors. Collecting certificates before work starts, and keeping them current through the policy term, is what prevents it.
It responds to property damage or injury arising from work you already finished. It matters because construction claims frequently surface months or years after the job closes, and because moving carriers can shorten or interrupt that protection. Continuity of completed operations should be checked any time a contractor changes policies.
Because it extends your policy to defend and indemnify them for liability arising out of your work. Most commercial contracts require it on a primary and non-contributory basis together with a waiver of subrogation. These are endorsements that must be added to the policy — a certificate alone does not create the coverage.
Need insurance for your contracting business?
Titanium Shield Insurance Agency is an independent commercial agency in Rochester Hills. We review contractor programs against the work actually performed and the contracts actually signed — classification and payroll, subcontractor controls, completed operations, and the additional insured wording your general contractors require. Othon Economopoulos handles these accounts directly.