General liability
Property damage and injury, including thrown debris and damage to neighbouring property.
Business Insurance
Landscape contractor cover for outdoor work.
Mowers throw stones, irrigation work floods, and chemical applications drift. Landscaping claims are small in cause and often large in effect.
Landscaping and lawn care businesses accumulate a lot of small exposures rather than one big one: equipment scattered across trailers and sites, seasonal crews, chemical application, and work performed metres away from cars, windows and neighbouring property. The programme has to be broad rather than deep.
Chemical application is a separate question
Herbicide and pesticide application is treated distinctly by carriers, and some general liability forms exclude it. Texas requires licensing for commercial application, and drift onto neighbouring property is a genuine and recurring claim in this trade.
If you apply chemicals at all, even occasionally, declare it. Cover is available and usually affordable, but it needs to be arranged deliberately rather than assumed to be part of the base policy.
Trailers, theft and seasonal crews
Equipment theft from trailers and yards is one of the most frequent losses in landscaping, and it tends to happen in clusters. Contractors equipment cover follows mowers and machinery wherever they are, which a property policy will not.
Seasonal hiring also affects workers compensation and audit. Payroll fluctuates sharply through the year, and estimating it badly at inception produces an unwelcome adjustment at audit. It is worth setting realistically at the outset.
What it covers
The parts of a landscape contractor insurance policy
Equipment and trailers
Mowers, blowers and machinery, covered on site, in transit and against theft.
Herbicide and pesticide
Application cover, which many standard liability forms exclude by default.
Commercial auto
Trucks and trailers, rated for towing and for the crews they carry.
Workers compensation
For seasonal crews, with payroll estimated realistically to avoid an audit surprise.
Irrigation work
Water damage arising from irrigation installation and repair.
Working with us
What we do differently
We are an independent agency, so we place your landscape contractor insurance across several carriers rather than fitting you to one company's product. That means a genuine comparison, and someone to call who is not a call centre.
- Declare chemical application — many liability forms exclude it as standard
- Insure equipment against theft from trailers and yards specifically
- Estimate seasonal payroll realistically to avoid a large audit adjustment
- Check towing is properly rated on the commercial auto policy
Common questions
Landscape Contractor Insurance, answered
Is herbicide application covered by general liability?
Often not — many forms exclude chemical application by default. It can be added, but it needs to be declared. Commercial application in Texas also requires appropriate licensing.
What if a mower throws a stone through a car window?
That is a standard general liability property damage claim and among the most common in the trade. Deductibles matter here, since these claims tend to be frequent and individually small.
Is my equipment covered if stolen from a trailer?
Under contractors equipment cover, generally yes, including from a trailer or yard. Some carriers apply conditions about security, so it is worth checking the wording.
How does workers comp work with seasonal crews?
Premium follows payroll and is reconciled at audit, so a realistic estimate at inception matters. Under-estimating a seasonal peak produces a significant bill at the end of the year.
Do I need cover for irrigation work?
If you install or repair irrigation, yes — water damage claims from that work behave much like plumbing claims and are worth confirming are within your policy scope.
Related cover
Often arranged alongside this
Tree Trimming Insurance
Chainsaws, height, and heavy things falling in a predictable direction until they do not. Tree work is a specialist class, and general contractor policies rarely fit it.
Read moreContractor Insurance
Most contractors do not buy insurance because they want it. They buy it because a general contractor, a client or a city will not let them start without a certificate.
Read moreGeneral Liability Insurance
Commercial general liability covers claims brought against your business by other people. It is also the policy almost every client contract and commercial lease requires you to hold.
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