General Liability is the coverage almost every GC and property owner will ask to see proof of before you’re allowed on a jobsite. The Services page covers the basics — this is the deeper version, including the parts that actually trip contractors up.
What It Actually Covers
General Liability responds to third-party claims of bodily injury or property damage arising from your operations — a visitor tripping on your equipment, a neighboring structure damaged during work, a completed project causing damage after you’ve left the site (“products-completed operations”).
What It Doesn’t Cover
Injuries to your own employees — that’s Workers’ Compensation, a separate policy entirely.
The cost of redoing your own faulty work — most GL policies exclude the cost of correcting your own workmanship, even though they’ll cover resulting damage to other property.
Professional errors or design mistakes — that falls under Professional Liability, not GL.
Occurrence vs. Aggregate Limits
Your policy has two key limits: a per-occurrence limit (the most it pays for a single incident) and an aggregate limit (the most it pays across all claims in the policy period). GC contracts increasingly specify minimums for both — worth checking against your actual contract language before you’re mid-bid and find out your limits fall short.
Where This Connects to Certificates of Insurance
Your GL policy is the coverage most frequently referenced on a certificate of insurance, and the one most often tied to additional insured and primary/non-contributory requirements from GCs. See our Certificates of Insurance Resource Center for more on how that works.
Want to confirm your current GL limits actually match what your GC contracts require? Request a Quote and we’ll review it with you.