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General Liability: Because you never know what can happen.

Odds are you’ve checked out the other blogs I’ve written that are specific to dealerships and auto mechanics such as Garage Liability, Garagekeepers and Garage Property.  If you were wondering if that was it, if those were the only pieces of coverage you need, the answer is simple: nope.  You need General Liability too.

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General Liability is the true safety net for any business, but especially for those in the auto industry.  The exposure to risk is huge, combining aspects of retail, industry, and transportation.  What other business has risk from all three of these separate industries?

Let’s take a deeper look at the role of General Liability for dealers and mechanics and see how it protects them.

The Basics

General Liability Insurance for Garage Owners protects your business from accidents and incidents that you are responsible (or liable) for.  It protects you from a ton of things that can happen in the day to day running of your business, including coverages like:

Premises and Operations Exposure –

This protects against things that can happen on your property to your customers – or anyone else that walks on the lot or into your shop.

Think of slipping and falling or any other kind of way people could get hurt on your property.  This covers their medical expenses and your legal fees if they sue you.

Personal and Advertising Injury –

This coverage protects you from things like libel, slander, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, or any number of other examples of legal trouble.  If you act in way that someone else take offense to and they take you to court, this is the part of the coverage that protects you and helps pay for legal fees and damages.

Products-Completed Operations Exposure –

This is a mouthful of a protection that boils down to this: if you perform faulty or defective work that hurts another person or their property, this is the coverage that protects you.

For the auto business, a good example is if you repair someone’s vehicle incorrectly, and they get into an accident because of it – this part of General Liability will cover the damages.

What is not covered.

General Liability does a lot to protect you from harm.  But it doesn’t do everything.  Luckily, most of what it doesn’t do is covered by other policies or types of garage insurance coverage.  Items not covered include:

• Business Property
• Liability for non-owned vehicles
• Employee accidents or injuries
• Damage to non-owned vehicles
• Criminal activities.

As you can see by the links, each of the above examples are covered by another policy type.  Garage insurance should include all pieces of coverage in order to fully protect you from risk.

There is of course one big exception.  If you engage in criminal activities, no insurance will cover you.  Period.  Luckily you’re a stand up person, so we don’t have to worry about that!

Why you need this.

For most businesses, General Liability is the coverage you need the most.

People think that insuring their stuff is the real reason they need insurance.  And that makes sense.  Stuff is tangible, real, and can get stolen or burn in a fire.

But a skateboarder suing you after kick-flipping off of your loading dock and breaking his leg is more likely than someone stealing your expensive gear.

And no, it probably doesn’t matter that they weren’t supposed to be there.

It’s also likely that getting angry online and leaving a nasty message on someone’s Facebook wall can get you a lawsuit.  You may not have meant it when you said, “Terry Bull Auto Parts installs garbage into your car,” but I guarantee their lawyer will tell a jury that you did.

(If there is a Terry Bull Auto Parts, this was only an example.  Please don’t sue us.)

While there is a limit to the amount of accidents that can happen to your stuff or your employees, there is simply an unlimited number of things that can bring about a General Liability Claim.

As we say around here, “Anyone can sue anybody for any reason.”

So make sure you not only have General Liability, but that you have enough of it.  Get more than you think, as lawsuits can cost you an arm and a leg.  And if someone get’s hurt in an accident that your faulty worked caused, damages can run into the hundreds of thousands.

Or millions if people die.

Let’s wrap it up.

Get General Liability.  And get a lot of it.

This is a non-negotiable piece of protection that can be the difference between you staying in business or going under.  And the list of things that it protects you from are endless.

If you aren’t sure how much coverage you have, or if somehow you don’t have this coverage at all, we need to talk.

Click the link below to schedule a call with an agent who knows this coverage like you do vehicles – inside and out.

Because when it comes to liability, you don’t want to be on the road with your breaks out.

SCHEDULE HERE

Garage Business Property: Protects Your Stuff

That’s it in a nutshell.  While other coverages can be somewhat confusing when it comes to what they do and do not cover, Garage Business Property is more straightforward.

You may have read a little bit about this in our Amazingly Honest Guide to Auto Mechanic Insurance.  If so, great!  But even if you have, we need to dig a little deeper.

This is the coverage that protects your STUFF.  It covers the building over your head, any additional buildings on your property, and the business personal property like owned tools at equipment that allow you to do what you do everyday.*

(*there is a distinction about tools, but we will get into that later)

While it is simpler in some ways, let’s get into what it actually covers so we know inside and out what this coverage does.

Well covered.

The Basics

Garage Business Property coverage covers the (wait for it) property owned by your business.  That is typically divided into two parts:

Building Property – This covers your primary building that houses your business, any secondary buildings that are on your property and are owned by the business, and any permanently installed machinery and equipment.

NOTE: Surprisingly, this includes your car lift!  Since it is physically attached to the structure, it is considered a part of the building and not business personal property.

Personal Property – This covers your personal, portable belongings – tools, equipment, monitors, computers, office equipment, pretty much anything that is owned by your business and not nailed down.

NOTE: But it does NOT include your employee’s tools!  If your employee, not your business, owns their own tools, it is not covered under a regular business personal property policy.

This is a broad, powerful piece of coverage, so make sure you have enough of it.  Property should be insured to the full replacement cost amount.

What it covers.

This coverage protects you a lot like your homeowners policy.  It protects against:

• Fire & Smoke
• Weather – Lightning, Wind, Hail, Sinkholes
• Vandalism
• Vehicles – Including Cars, Trucks and Airplanes

Many policies cover more than this, but these basics are on just about every policy.

What is not covered.

There are exceptions, as we have seen in the employee tools example above.  Things that aren’t covered include:

• • • • • • Cash, account records, or other forms of currency.
• Automobiles for sale.
• Illegally obtained property.
• Building foundations
• Any machinery or pipes below the basement level.
• Land
• Digital Data & Currency
• Liability (That is covered by your General Liability and Garage Liability pieces of coverage)
• Cars you don’t own but currently possess (that’s Garagekeepers or Garage Liability)

Many of these seem almost self explanatory when you read them, but they all have been questions asked of an insurance agent at one point or another.

Except maybe the illegal thing.  Not a lot of people would ask their agent to insure their boosted cars – but you never know!

Optional or Additional Coverages

As with other garage coverages, there are options or additions to the basic protections that allow a policy to be tailored for each business.  Some of those coverages are below.

Debris removal is a common addition that helps cover the costs to remove debris after an accident that has damaged a covered building.  The normal amount that is paid for this coverage is 25% of the total of the full amount paid for the claim plus the deductible.

This really helps if something terrible has happened and you have to clean up and start over.  Having to pay out of pocket could be painful emotionally as well as financially if there was a total loss.

Preservation of Property covers personal property that is moved from the business location in order to protect it from a covered risk.

If a hurricane is about to strike your dealership, and you move your equipment to a warehouse you don’t own for safe keeping, this protection would cover your stuff even though it is somewhere else.

Pollutant Cleanup helps cover the cost of cleaning up polluting chemicals or materials if they have been spilled, scattered or otherwise put in the earth as the result of an accident that your policy covers.

If a wind causes a tank to fall and explode, getting oil everwhere and polluting the ground, this protection helps protect you from paying it on your own.

Electronic Data coverage can be added to help restore or replace any digital material that you use for your business.  This is a very important additional coverage as most people use computers for all business transactions and records nowadays.

Let’s wrap it up.

In many ways this is the cornerstone of most business insurance policies, and garage insurance is no different.

Without protection for the roof over your head, what does it matter if everything else is covered?  Being a dealer or a mechanic means having a permanent location (in most cases, anyway), so protecting that location is of vital importance.

For our customers in North Carolina, we always make sure we insure buildings to their full replacement cost (how much it would cost to rebuild them), their personal property to to the full value of their equipment, and as many add-ons as needed to make sure their particular business are covered.

Costs can range dramatically from small, one room tire shops to large, sprawling dealerships with several lots and support buildings for storage and body work.

The best way to know if you have the coverage you need is to ask us.  Having a simple conversation with one of our agents who knows this coverage like the back of their hand can be the difference between you paying less than you are now, as well as you having enough coverage to rebuild your business, no matter what happens.

The entire point of Garage Insurance is to make sure you can survive a disaster and stay in business, getting back to where you were before the event happened.

So let’s talk and make sure you can get there if something does happen.  Fill out the form below or call us at (336) 377-9003 and let’s figure out how to make you bulletproof.

What makes Garage Liability Insurance tick?

Or vroom, as the case may be.  As a part of your Auto Mechanic Insurance, or what us insurance agents call Garage Insurance, Garage Liability is a vital piece of protection that helps businesses that have cars or trucks in their possession avoid liability for any number of accidents that can happen.

When most people think of liability insurance (if they do at all), they think about Commercial General Liability, which is a similar but not exactly the same coverage.

But instead of talking about what it isn’t, why don’t we just get into what it is?  Because it does more than just what I mentioned above.  Okay, okay, let’s just get into it.

The Essentials

Garage liability coverage protects you and your business from bad things that happen while you are in possession of other people’s cars or trucks.  This is typically while you are fixing the vehicle, but even if you are just keeping it for a few days before you get a chance to look at it, this coverage applies.

The most common scenario is when you or a body shop employee are test driving a vehicle and cause a car wreck that is yours or the employees fault.  Just like the liability coverage for your personal auto insurance policy, garage liability covers damages that you may cause to others in an accident.

But there is another very important thing that this coverage does!  Garage liability covers the work performed by your business on a car or truck in your possession.  What does that mean?  Let’s look at another example.

Let’s say you replaced the brakes on a vehicle for a customer.  But instead of completing the work, your employee accidentally damaged the break line.  The following day your customer picks up the vehicle and gets into an accident on the way home because they can’t stop the car.

Garage liability insurance would cover the damages to the person’s car, any bodily injury, and even legal fees if the customer takes you to court.

This is a hugely important part of the coverage!  In today’s lawyer-happy world, people are encouraged to sue one another for even the slightest issue.

If you or your employee are responsible for a problem with the work you’ve done, what we call negligence, garage liability will protect you from legal fees and awards that result from any court cases or out-of-court settlement.

So those two main pieces of coverage are awesome.  But can garage liability do anything else?  Actually, yes.

Additional or Optional Coverages

Some companies do more than just the basics.  They include coverages that are either traditionally with another coverage type or just throw in more value to make themselves more competitive.  Knowing the difference is difficult as each company can change what they do – which is why you need an agent!

But I will go over some of the coverages that do get included by some companies.  Remember to ask your agent if the coverages below are a part of your policy.

Optional Cov A: If you’re a dealer as well as a mechanic, good news: Garage liability covers your owned vehicles too.  But remember, this only covers the liability, not the actual physical bodies of the cars themselves.

So if you’re driving around on an owned vehicle and you hit someone, it’s just like a car you’re fixing that is in your possession.  Garage liability covers it.

Optional Cov B: If you lend your customer a car while you are working on theirs, you may be pretty nervous about what happens to both the car and the driver.

Luckily with this option your garage liability extends to the garage customer, protecting you from any trouble that can happen with someone else driving a car that you own.

Let’s wrap it up.

The bottom line is that this coverage protects you from something bad that you or one of your team members did – or at least something that someone claims you did.

If you are on the hook for an accident, an incorrect repair job, or a legal matter, then garage liability steps in and protects you so that you don’t pay a massive bill out of pocket.

As I’ve talked about in other blogs, the cost of claims is going up – especially bodily injury claims and legal claims.  With medical care so expensive, any accident where a person gets hurt can result in a claim that costs over $100,000.

And people tend to ask for MORE when they know the person on the other end of an accident represents a business.

If it’s a court case, then it might as well be the Wild West.  Anything can happen, from your policy only paying court fees to protecting you up to whatever limit you have as your maximum.

If a court decides that the mechanic or employee needs to be made an example of, the fines and awards can be in the millions.

So make sure you’ve not only got garage liability, but the RIGHT garage liability.  Let’s get you scheduled to speak with an agent who specializes in Garage Insurance and let’s make sure you are protected the way you deserve to be covered.

SCHEDULE HERE

All that stands between you and your dream is a Dealer License.

So why is it so dang hard to get one?  There are several hoops you have to jump through in order to get a Dealer License, and at first it may seem to be a ridiculous waste of time.  But if you look at it from the perspective of the people doing the regulations, and the industry itself, it actually makes a lot of sense.

So let’s break down why you need to go through the process – and what the process actually is.

1. It helps the integrity of the industry.

It may seem like anyone should be able to sell any number of cars that they want, but making sure that only those that are actually serious and have the financial ability to have an office space makes it so that a consumer is less likely to encounter someone who wants to hide who they are – or where they got the vehicles in the first place.  That’s why the first main criteria – having a place of business – is so important.  It takes money and dedication to get at least 96 feet of showroom and a separate 96 feet of office space to start your business.  It also keeps out those who aren’t serious or those who aren’t trustworthy from making the investment to go official.  And with the other requirement that you have to have a sign with letters at least three inches in height, they are making sure you aren’t hiding who you are and what you do.

These requirements are attempts at having an industry populated by professionals who are serious about selling cars, not amateurs or people who want to hide who they are.

And the requirement that dealers take a 12 hour licensing course is in this same vein.  Dealers should know the ins and outs of the industry and its regulations, so demanding that they take a course is in line with this thought.  This really isn’t that bad if you compare it to other industries: you must complete 20-40 hours to be an insurance agent and 90 hours of coursework to be a real estate agent.

2. It makes sure dealers are covered.

Prospective dealers are required to have the correct liability insurance for your new business.  The reason for this is the same reason that anyone is required to have liability insurance to drive – it makes sure that others are protected from a prospective dealer’s negligence.  Without this requirement someone could set up shop with a dealer license but have no money left over and, if they were responsible for an accident or scam or something else that left a customer high and dry, there would be no guaranteed recourse like insurance to make that customer whole again.

Having insurance is a way of protecting would-be clients and others that interact with new businesses.  Operating without one is in itself a negligent act.  Not only that, it exposes the dealer to the risk of having to pay directly for accidents or lawsuits that they are responsible for.  Without insurance, opening a new dealership is a much riskier proposition than it could be.

3. It makes sure dealers will obey laws and regulations.

New dealers have to get a bond in order to set up shop and start selling vehicles.  While this just seems like another regulatory obstacle to doing business, this is actually another way to protect the public.  Surety bonds are agreements bound by cold hard cash that says new dealer will abide by the laws and regulation of the state in which he or she resides.  With a bond in place, we know anyone with a dealer license is bound by law and money to be trustworthy – or at least has something big to lose if they are not.

Bonds are the ultimate way that consumers know they can trust a business that is appropriately bonded and licensed.  That is why they are used in many industries, from construction to car dealers to even individuals working directly with the court.

We can help you with both liability insurance and bonds.

Now that you know why you have to meet these requirements, it’s nice to be able to do most of the hard work in one place.  While we can’t file your paperwork, buy an office or take a test for you (because, you know, that’s illegal), we can walk you through the simple process of getting liability coverage for your new business and a bond set up to make you official.  It’s all part of our mission to help new business owners get started and stay protected once they are (if you’ll forgive the pun) on the road.

If you’re curious to see how Alliance can help you set up your new business, fill out the form below or call the number at the top of the page.  It’s hard enough to get started, so why not do it all in one place?

Let’s hope you never file a Homeowners claim.

A homeowners policy is like a seat belt.

We use seat belts every day.  They aren’t comfortable, they are one extra thing we have to do in the car, and they can choke us if we do have to use them.  But they also work when we need them most, often saving our lives in the process.

A homeowners policy is like a seat belt.  You pay for it even when you think you shouldn’t have to, either folded into your mortgage payment or on a monthly draft.  You have to keep up with the paperwork, talk to your agent when you have something change, and it can get more expensive if your home goes up in value.

But, if lightning strikes – literally – and a fire destroys your roof, you’ll be extremely thankful that you have one.

So let’s talk about what happens when that something does happen, and you have to file a homeowners claim.

Was that the Johnson’s house?

Dealing with damage.

The first thing to do, as I mentioned in my blog on handling the claims process and winning, is to make sure that everyone is safe.  If your eight year old daughter decides to put her favorite stuffed bunny in the toaster oven to “warm him up,” you might have a fire on your hands.  If you do, use your fire extinguisher to try and put it out or at least minimize the damage.  But if you can’t, and there is ever any doubt, exit safely – here’s how to exit with children.  If you cannot contain a fire, or have other emergency situations in your home (flood, burglary, medical emergency, etc.), call 911 immediately and report it to the proper authorities.

Once the situation is safe and all danger has passed, assess the damage.  Take pictures and document all that you can to make sure you can give your adjuster the information they need.  You’ll want all the ammunition you can get to navigate a homeowners claim with confidence.  Other than pictures, make lists of items that may have been destroyed or lost, find receipts or estimates of of damaged property, and organize your findings so that there isn’t any question of what was damaged due to the covered accident.

I think that’s the last of it.

Report it to your insurance company.

This part should be obvious – contact your insurance company as soon as possible.  Let your agent and your company know – even though your agent can’t handle the entire claim for you, they can give you advice, help you with forms, and make sure you have the right contact information for your insurance company.  A homeowners claim is a massive deal, and your agent will want to know what happened – especially that you are all right!

Soon your adjuster will be contacting you and coming by to assess the damage.  Provide them with all of the documentation you worked so diligently to create earlier, and help them navigate the home, especially if there is substantial damage.  Remember that your adjuster is the person who can help you the most during this process, so work with them and see them as an ally rather than an obstacle.  It is their job to help you get back on your feet, and the right attitude can help both of you get to a successful conclusion.

Wow, that was easier than I thought.

Handling the repairs.

Whether you go with the companies that your insurance company recommends or someone you decide to hire yourself, make sure you keep track of what is going on and who is doing what.  Sometimes the timing of repairs can be off, and you will have to pay for something to be fixed and wait for the insurance company to pay you back.  Always check with them first to make sure that this is part of the process, as you don’t want to be surprised and find out that the repairs you ordered aren’t covered!

Again, proper communication with your adjuster and your agent should get you through this smoothly and in a timely manner.  If you do hire your own contractors to do the repairs, make sure that they are licensed and bonded in your area, as this could be another stumbling block between you and your company.  Not only that, but having your friend’s uncle’s cousin’s brother repair your roof could get you in big trouble if he falls off and you find out that he doesn’t have commercial insurance.  Check with your company or your agent if you aren’t sure who to hire.

I’m glad I renewed my paperwork with the state or I wouldn’t have got this job!

Remember the three keys.

The three keys to handling a homeowners claim are safety, documentation, and communication.  If you focus on these three things you will come out at the other end with repairs completed and a new sense of just what insurance is really all about.

Remember, this is why you have insurance in the first place – to get you back to where you were before something bad happened.

If you have questions about the claims process, or about homeowners insurance in general, please reach out and ask us anything.  Fill out the form below and find out how Alliance Insurance can help you protect the things you love – because you never know what could happen.