10 General Liability Small Business Insurance Claims

While no business owner or independent professional gets a thrill out of purchasing insurance, you’ll be grateful you’re covered if sudden and unexpected liability claims against you pop up.

Among the most crucial types of business insurance is general liability insurance. It covers third-party bodily injury and third-party property damage claims caused by your business’s operations or services. It may also include product liability insurance to cover injuries or damages to customers caused by any product you manufacture, distribute, or sell. If product liability coverage isn’t included in your general liability policy, it can be added easily, and it’s a wise thing to do.

We know from a national survey of Canadian consumers by Zensurance that they won’t hesitate to sue a small business owner or independent professional if they perceive they’ve been wronged or if the work you do for or a product you sold to them results in a customer suffering physical or financial harm. That’s reason enough to get excited about getting insured.

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Here are 10 general liability insurance claims filed against some of our clients in the past year that show the value of having general liability insurance as a key plank of your business’s risk mitigation strategy:

1. Product and Completed Operations Liability Claim

Our client manufactures car wheels. After installing a new car wheel on a customer’s vehicle, it was discovered the wheel was defective, resulting in $8,336.54 worth of damage. 

However, the damages to the customer’s vehicle were covered under the policyholder’s general liability insurance coverage, which included product liability insurance and completed operations coverage.

2. Flooring Installation Liability Claim

Our client is a general contractor who was doing a flooring installation at a customer’s home. 

The customer had a Murphy bed, aka a wall bed, attached to the wall. Our policyholder needed to move the bed to replace the flooring beneath it. However, after doing so, the bed fell and damaged part of the wall. 

Our client’s general liability policy covered $3,491.20 in damages to the customer’s wall.

3. Third-Party Water Damage Liability Claim

Another one of our contractor clients was installing a new shower in the upstairs portion of a customer’s home. 

While drilling into the wall, they accidentally hit a water pipe, springing a leak. Water slowly but surely leaked downstairs and damaged the customer’s lower floor. 

Their general liability policy covered the $13,643.66 in damages to the customer’s home.

4. Tenants’ Legal Liability Third-Party Property Damage Claim

One of our clients rents a commercial space in a building for their small business. They accidentally clogged the sink in the bathroom, it overflowed and damaged a unit located below. 

Their general liability policy includes tenants’ legal liability coverage, which paid just over $4,000 in damages to other units in the building that was affected by the leaking water.

5. Roof Installation Liability Claim

One of our professional roofing contractors had the misfortune of experiencing a windswept roofing job.

While installing new roofing shingles to a customer’s roof, a sudden windstorm blew several loose shingles onto a neighbouring property, subsequently damaging their neighbour’s home. 

The roofer’s general liability policy covered the $3,506.58 of repairs required to fix the damages to the neighbouring property. 

6. Third-Party Bodily Injury Liability Claim

Snow removal contractors are always at risk of third-party bodily injury claims despite their best efforts. 

Last winter, one of our snow removal contractor clients received legal notice of a slip-and-fall accident at a property where they were contracted to be responsible for snow removal and ice management. That put them on the hot seat since slip-and-fall incidents on icy surfaces increased by 108% between 2013 and 2020.

Our snow removal contractor’s policy included general liability insurance, which covered an $8,500 settlement offer to the injured party. The injured person accepted the offer, preventing further legal action against the snow removal contractor.

7. Construction Liability Claim

Another of our general contractor clients inadvertently damaged an embedded sprinkler system while conducting construction work on a customer’s property. 

As no course of construction or wrap-up liability insurance policy was in place, our client’s general liability insurance had to cover it. 

Luckily, this third-party property damage claim wasn’t expensive, and our client’s general liability insurance covered the $1,391.94 repair to the damaged sprinkler system.

 8. Renovation Damage Liability Claim

One of our renovation contractor clients was hired by a customer to renovate her condo’s bathroom. 

Unfortunately, while inspecting the plumbing pipes in the bathroom as part of the renovation work, an old valve sprung a leak that led to $8,675.14 of water damage to the unit’s interior. 

Once again, general liability insurance came to the rescue by covering our client’s expensive repair bill.

 9. Concrete Repair Liability Claim

Our contractor client specializes in asphalt and concrete repairs and installations and was hired to water-seal a concrete patio. 

After high-powered washing and applying two coats of sealer, the patio’s concrete stone unexpectedly changed colour, upsetting the contractor’s customer, who demanded the concrete stones be replaced.

Our contractor’s general liability policy paid the $5,158.58 necessary to replace the homeowner’s patio stones.

10. Third-Party Property Damage Liability Claim

Our client, a food truck operator, was set up at a location serving their customers. They have a small, portable patio seating area they set up on one side of the truck. On a windy day, a sudden gust of wind blew one of the patio umbrellas off the table and into a car parked nearby, damaging the vehicle. 

Their general liability policy covered over $1,400 in repairs to the owner’s damaged vehicle.

How to Get Low-Cost General Liability Insurance for Your Small Business

Zensurance makes it easy for any small business owner or independent professional to get the low-cost general liability insurance protection they need.

Fill out our online application for a free quote.

Through our network of over 50 insurance providers, our knowledgeable, friendly brokers will do the shopping for you to find the protection you need, customize it to suit your business and budget, and provide you with a certificate of insurance to share with your customers and partners to enhance your credibility.

– Reviewed by Mohammad Samin, Senior Claims Advisor, and Reagan Elly, Claims Advisor, Zensurance.