General liability, tools coverage and the certificates your customers and property managers ask for — for handymen and general trades across Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma.
Handyman is a broad label covering very different work. A contractor doing minor repairs, painting and fixture replacement is a different risk from one doing roofing, electrical or structural work, and carriers price and underwrite accordingly.
What matters is what you actually do, not what the business card says. Tell us the real mix — including the occasional job outside your normal scope — because a classification that does not match the work is the most common reason a claim gets argued.
Some jobs push a handyman business into a different class or outside a carrier's appetite entirely: roofing, electrical panel work, structural changes, anything above a certain height, excavation, and work on commercial buildings rather than homes.
None of that means uninsurable. It means the placement changes, and it is better established at quoting than discovered at claim time.
A steady relationship with a property manager or landlord usually comes with insurance requirements written into their vendor agreement — a minimum liability limit, additional insured status, and sometimes a waiver of subrogation.
Send us the agreement and we will tell you whether your current policy complies. Certificates go out immediately once coverage is bound, which matters when the work starts tomorrow.
General liability generally covers damage your work causes to other property, while the cost of redoing your own defective work is typically excluded. For a handyman that distinction comes up often — the burst supply line that floods a kitchen is a different question from the fitting you installed.
How the exclusions apply depends on the policy form and the circumstances, which is a good reason to read it rather than assume.
Nothing in state law generally requires general liability, but customers, property managers and landlords routinely do — and without it, damage you cause comes out of your pocket.
Under inland marine coverage, usually yes subject to limits and any theft conditions. Under commercial property alone, generally not, because that coverage is tied to your premises.
Personal auto policies generally limit or exclude business use. Once the truck carries tools and materials to jobs, it usually belongs on a commercial auto policy.
Roofing, electrical panel work, structural work and anything at significant height can change the class or fall outside a carrier's appetite. Tell us the real mix and we will find the right market.
Immediately upon binding, sent directly to the customer or property manager who asked for it.
Tools, subcontractors and the certificates your customers ask for.