Laundromat and Dry Cleaner Insurance

A laundromat and dry cleaning insurance policy includes a broad range of coverages to protect your small business from unforeseen accidents or incidents. A typical policy may include:

• Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance: Commonly called general liability insurance, CGL protects your laundry business from third-party bodily injury and property damage claims because of an accident or unforeseen incident. For example, if a customer falls and is injured on your property, CGL may cover their medical and rehabilitation expenses. If the injured customer sues you, CGL can cover your legal defence fees and any compensation awarded to the customer up to your policy’s limit.

• Commercial Property Insurance: The building and your contents (like your washing machines) where your laundromat, coin laundry, or dry cleaning business is located should be covered against losses due to fire, water damage, a natural disaster, theft, and vandalism. Commercial property insurance provides that coverage. It may also include business interruption insurance to cover your lost income and business’s overhead expenses following an insurable loss. If it isn’t, you can add it to your policy.

• Equipment Breakdown Insurance: The top load or front load washers, dryers, pressers, vending machines and soap dispensers on your premises must work flawlessly 24/7. However, if one or more suffer an electronic or mechanical malfunction, fixing can be costly. Equipment breakdown insurance is designed to repair or replace your equipment if it ceases to operate due to a power surge, electrical short, or an internal mechanical breakdown.

• Product Liability Insurance: The detergents and cleaning chemicals you use or sell to your customers to wash their clothing could damage a customer’s clothing or cause them physical harm if they suffer an allergic reaction. Product liability insurance covers claims related to any product you manufacture, distribute, or sell.

• Pollution Liability Insurance: Pollution liability insurance, or environmental liability insurance, covers costs associated with sudden or gradual damages to the environment or that trigger injuries to customers or neighbours from the chemicals your laundromat or dry cleaning business uses. It can pay for clean-up costs, civil fines, and emergency response expenses.

• Errors and Omissions (E&O) Insurance: E&O insurance covers you for allegations of professional negligence. Also called professional liability insurance, it can pay for claims related to your services if you make a mistake, neglect to provide a service, or accidentally damage a customer’s property or clothing during the cleaning process.

• Cyber Liability Insurance: Cyber liability insurance protects you from costs due to a data breach or cyber-attack. If your laundromat or dry cleaning business uses a point-of-sale (POS) system to accept digital payments from customers, has a website, conducts business via email, or stores customer information on a hard drive or in cloud storage, cyber liability insurance can help you recover if that information is compromised or stolen by a cybercriminal. It offers coverage for legal advice, credit monitoring, and repairing and restoring your software systems following a cyber-attack.

There may be other coverages you need to add to your policy. For example, if yours is a dry cleaning business that owns a vehicle to deliver freshly cleaned and pressed clothing to customers or to pick up supplies for your company, you might require commercial auto insurance to cover your vehicle if it’s involved in an accident.