Janitorial Business Insurance

The types of coverages your janitorial business requires depends on your unique needs. However, a comprehensive policy for this trade typically includes:

• Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance: As its name suggests, CGL insurance covers general liability risks your janitorial company faces in its daily operations. Frequently called ‘slip-and-fall’ insurance, CGL protects you and your employees from legal liability for third-party bodily injury and property damage claims and lawsuits. For example, if after waxing the floor of an office building lobby someone slips, falls, and is injured, they could pursue legal action against you. CGL provides you with financial support to defend yourself while keeping your business up and running.

• Tools and Equipment Insurance: Janitorial businesses and professionals can’t perform the necessary work they must do without the tools of the trade. Tools and equipment insurance pays to repair or replace your tools and equipment if lost, stolen, vandalized, or damaged by fire, flood, or an extreme weather event. It protects everything from brooms, mops, and buckets to vacuums and heavy cleaning equipment whether in use, storage, while being transported from one site to another, or if stored at a client’s location.

• Pollution Liability Insurance: As part of your custodial services, it’s possible you use toxic or aggressive chemical agents and cleansers to ensure your clients’ properties are as squeaky clean as can be. However, these necessary substances can trigger unintended impacts on the environment or human health. Pollution liability protection is designed to shield you from such incidents. It provides coverage for third-party bodily injury, property, and environmental damage whether sudden or gradual resulting from your work.

• Professional Liability Insurance: Commonly referred to as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, professional liability insurance kicks in if a client accuses you of negligence, misconduct, errors in your service, or failing to deliver a service as promised. For instance, if one of your clients sues you for negligence, this coverage will provide you with financial support for your legal defence and cover the cost of compensation awarded by the court or for an out-of-court settlement.

• Commercial Property Insurance: If you own, lease, or rent an office, warehouse, or other commercial space from where you run your janitorial business, you need to protect the building and your business contents. Commercial property insurance provides coverage for damage or loss to your property, inventory, and furnishings (including computers and electronics) because of a fire, flood, natural disaster, theft, or vandalism.

• Commercial Auto Insurance: The vehicles you own or use for business purposes require a commercial auto policy because a private-passenger car insurance policy is not designed to cover any vehicle used for business purposes. A commercial auto policy provides similar coverages to what a private car insurance policy does. Foregoing commercial auto coverage puts you at risk of shouldering the cost of damages to your vehicle or other drivers’ vehicles if you are involved in a collision.

• Commercial Crime Insurance: Commercial crime insurance protects you from internal theft, forgery, fraud, and employee dishonesty. It can be added as an endorsement to your overall policy or purchased as a standalone product and accounts for temporary, full- and part-time employees.