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GARAGE LIABILITY INSURANCE
WHO NEEDS IT?? - YOU MAY!!
GARAGE LIABILITY is an important coverage that is quite often overlooked by towers.? If you have a repair facility or body shop you have no choice but to carry garage liability, but what about those of you that do straight towing?? If you do not have this coverage you may be leaving yourself open for a lawsuit that your automobile policy will not cover.?Let me begin by describing garage liability.?
The coverage is as follows:
1.?????? Premises - It provides coverage for your premises should get injured due to your negligence.? It also covers the driveways and all entrances to your premises.
2.?????? Operations - It provides coverage for any bodily injury and property damage due to your negligence having to do with your regular operations.
3.?????? Products - It provides coverage for your auto related products sold by you should any of these products result in bodily injury or property damage.
4.?????? Completed Operations - It provides coverage should there be an occurrence at a later date resulting in injury or property damage due to your operations.
5.?????? Non-Owed Auto Coverage - It provides you and your employees with automobile liability while driving your customers' vehicles in your care, custody and control.?As you can see, garage liability is an extremely comprehensive form of general liability coverage.?
Let me now give you some specific examples of how these coverages may apply to your operation:
1.?????? Premises -A.????? An individual slips on oil or ice on your premises (even in your office).
B.????? An individual breaks into your storage lot to retrieve an impounded vehicle and gets injured in the attempt.
2.?????? Operations -A.????? You jump-start a car and the battery explodes causing either damage to the auto or injury to a bystander.
B.????? You are working a recovery in the middle of the night and have a chain lying on the ground.? If an onlooker falls over the chain and gets injured, your auto liability will not provide coverage, but your garage liability will.
3.?????? Products -A.????? You install or sell a master cylinder, it falls, and an injury occurs.? You may not be personally liable for either of these, but you will be named in the resulting lawsuit.
4.?????? Completed Operations - A.????? You do a brake job and the brakes fail (or they say so) and someone is injured.
B.????? You change a tire on a road call and the tire comes loose and causes an accident.
5.?????? Non-Owned Auto Coverage -A.????? You take a customer's car for a test drive and cause an accident.
B.????? You take a car off your flatbed and proceed to drive it unaware of the fact that it has no brakes and injure someone.?
Many of you may not be aware of the fact that the liability on a private passenger car does not cover the driver once the car is left in the care, custody and control of an auto repair facility, but it is the case!!?
Just stop for a minute and think of the different situations that may arise when you may be exposing yourself to a lawsuit if you do not have garage liability.? How many of you have a storage lot?? Do you do any roadside repair? Are you involved in any recovery work??In reality, there is probably no one involved in the towing industry that is not leaving themselves exposed to a potential lawsuit without garage liability.?Garage liability premium is based on the number of employees on your payroll on a fixed rate with a maximum of $5,200 per year per employee.? Theoretically, this means that an operation with 2 employees will pay 1/3 the annual premium for this coverage than an operation with 6 employees.? In other words, it may be just as cost effective for a small operation to carry this coverage as a larger operation.?As I have said before, you?re paying for your insurance, so ask your agent as many questions as possible about the potential situations you may encounter, no matter how unusual, so that you know exactly what your exposure is when you are "on the job".?
As always, I welcome your questions and comment.
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