Insurance Recommendations for Kitchen Grease Exhaust Cleaners
Hood Cleaning School recommends that you have a general business liability policy in place before you clean your first restaurant once you get back home, but not needed to attend our training.
You want to shop for agencies that carry “surplus lines” or “excess lines.” This is the category of insurance that you will be insured under usually. Do a Google search for this type of insurance with your state listed and it will give you several agencies to call. Also ask them if they currently insure any “hood cleaners” and see if you can mimic their policy.
There are only about 7 companies in America that carry this type of insurance and most agents won’t know what you are talking about.
Make sure that you go to several independent insurance brokers (representing hundreds of companies) and make sure that they understand exactly what you will be doing. That is, you will be using soap and water to remove grease. You are a commercial janitorial service specializing in cleaning the grease from dirty ductwork.
Also make sure that your agent knows that you will primarily be cleaning hoods. They should rate you at 90% to 95% hood cleaning and 10% to 5% power washing. If they rate you wrong it could severely affect your premiums.
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Changing Your Business Operations May Require Additional Insurance
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Do you have “Care, Custody, and Control” Insurance Coverage?
How much coverage should I get?
Commercial insurance rates are based on Payroll and Gross Receipts. If your payroll is unknown, then each state has a minimum that your insurance will be based off of.
The average quote for a Hood Cleaning Business:
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GENERAL LIABILITY: 100-500K The General Liability coverage is broken down into several sections.
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GENERAL AGGREGATE LIMIT: 100-500K
The maximum the company will pay for covered losses during one policy period. -
PRODUCTS-COMPLETED OPERATIONS AGGREGATE LIMIT: 100-500K
Includes all Bodily Injury and Property Damage occurring out of your work, except work that has not been completed or abandoned. -
PERSONAL & ADVERTISING INJURY LIMIT:100-500K
Injury arising out of oral or written publication of material that slanders or libels a person or organization. False arrest, detention or imprisonment. -
EACH OCCURRENCE LIMIT: 100-500K
An accident including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful condition. -
FIRE OCCURRENCE LIMIT: 50-100K
Fire coverage which you are legally liable for, which you are renting or leasing. -
PROPERTY DAMAGE DEDUCTIBLE: 100-250K
Injured agrees to contribute up to a specific amount per claim towards the amount paid to claimant as damages. -
Inland Marine portion of the policy provides coverage for the Trailer/Equipment. The limit will need to be enough to cover the value of your equipment ($8500). The washer will be covered for Fire, Theft and Vandalism to the limit stated on the policy. There will be either a $250.00 to $500.00 deductible depending on the value of the washer.
Policies are usually underwritten through surplus lines. The package can consist of coverage for vehicles, equipment and includes comprehensive General Liability. Each policy is made specific for each individual requirements.
Changing Your Business Operations May Require Additional Insurance
Some changes may require an immediate review of your insurance to assure proper coverage.
A very important pressure wash operation that is often overlooked is the washing of vehicles. This exposure requires specialized coverage to assure that claims resulting from your movement of vehicles is covered. Additional coverage required when moving a vehicle are:
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GARAGE KEEPERS LIABILITY: Will provide coverage for damages you may do to a customer’s vehicle while you are driving it. (This is only for the customer’s vehicle that you are driving)
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GARAGE LIABILITY: Will provide coverage for a person or item that you may do Bodily Injury, or Property Damage to while you are driving that customer’s vehicle. (Example: if you hit the wash bay, customer building, or another of the customer’s vehicles that are parked on the lot. Also if you hit a pedestrian on the lot)
Should you change your business operations, it is imperative that you contact your insurance agent to assure that your policy is adequate to provide coverage for any additional exposures. Back to Top
Do you have “Care, Custody, and Control” Insurance Coverage?
I am sure you are all aware of how important it is for you to carry insurance on your business. Especially General Liability Coverage. All General Liability policies will cover your company for Bodily Injury and/or Property Damage that you may cause while you are doing your job. Have you ever thought about what may be EXCLUDED from your policy? That dreaded word “exclusions”!!
If you take the time to read the working policy under the exclusions portion you will probably see that coverage is excluded for “that particular part of any property that must be restored, repaired or replaced because “your work” was incorrectly performed on it. What does that mean to you? It means that if you damage the exact thing you are working on, you have no coverage! An example of this would be, if you were hired to wash the siding on a customers home and the water seeped in the windows damaging the wallpaper, the drywall, and the carpeting, you would have coverage under a normal General Liability Policy. While washing this siding the solution dropped down and damaged the plants and shrubs, you would have coverage under a normal General Liability Policy. However, if you damaged that siding, (the exact item you are working on) you would not have coverage for it. It would be considered “property that must be restored, repaired or replaced because “your work” was incorrectly performed on it”.
When purchasing your policy be sure that you advise your agent that you want an endorsement added to your policy called “Extended Broad Form Property Damage Liability Coverage”. This endorsement will give you back coverage for care, custody, and control. In other words, you can be covered for the exact thing you are working on. The limit on this is normally $25,000 but you can purchase higher limits on an optional basis for an additional premium.
Review your policy today with your agent and make sure you have “Care, Custody, and Control” coverage?