Insurance Insurance Cost?

[chuckcoug]

I am looking into doing some brush hog and discing work on other peoples property. I would think I would need liability insurance. Does anyone know the cost per year for a very small operation? Maybe 1 mil liability?

[lawn_king]

Here in massachusetts 1 million will run you around $500.

[LoneCowboy]

I have had a very strange experience with this.
1 million general business liability policy. Remember, if you trailer you need to move your truck/tow vehicle to a business policy, almost exactly the same amount of money though, no big deal. Also, this is not property, so if someone steals it, you're boned.
1st year of business (did maybe 15k revenue): $700
2nd year of business, first company drops business liability, guy finds $1100, only did about 20k that year (got married)
3rd year, came up for renewal, new guy had bought the agency went in adn said "find me something better, my carpenter friend who does 80k a year pays less than this"
He did, $200 (he's the man, he's gotten a lot more business from me because of that)
This year it will go up because we're going to do a lot more, big time expansion of the business (at least we're going to try)
But that's pretty **** reasonable

Many places won't write policies on businesses not in operation for 3 years or so much revenue. So, get it early and it appears the price goes down after a while. (makes sense, more history)

[Farmwithjunk]

Originally Posted by chuckcoug

I am looking into doing some brush hog and discing work on other peoples property. I would think I would need liability insurance. Does anyone know the cost per year for a very small operation? Maybe 1 mil liability?

I have my insurance as a rider on my farm policy. 1 mil liability, $250,000 on my equipment while working off farm sets me back just over $300 per year. Truck/trailer is covered under existing farm policy. I've been with the same ins. co. and same agent for 29 years for whatever that's worth.

Some ins. companies will raise rates if they know you're "excavating". (dirt work of any kind) Mowing, while inherently dangerous, is less likely to result in a claim against them as opposed to running a tiller through a buried power line or gas pipe.

[Cacinok]

give yourself some further insurance and make sure you setup an llc or s corp and keep it current.

[NHTC30]

When I bought my tractor, I bought insurance through the dealer to cover my tractor and equipment in case it was stolen or damaged, and also got a million dollar liability policy. I am covered for 5 years and each policy was about 500 dollars for the entire 5 years. I checked and double checked and triple checked with my auto insurance, and they assure me that I am covered while hauling my tractor under my current policy which runs me about 500 or so per year for my truck. I'm not sure who my insurance is with for my tractor or the business liability ( I think one of them is mutual of Omaha or something) because I haven't looked at my policies in a while and have never filed a claim (knocking on wood as I type this).

[tlbuser]

Originally Posted by NHTC30

I checked and double checked and triple checked with my auto insurance, and they assure me that I am covered while hauling my tractor under my current policy which runs me about 500 or so per year for my truck.

My vehicle insurance will only cover my trailered equipment for "personal use, no business uses". My business insurance covers everything.

[NHTC30]

I think the insurance on my tractor actually covers anything that happens to it, even while being pulled on the trailer. My auto insurance covers the truck, trailer, and liability. I thought I would need to insure it differently, I was up front about what I would be doing, and I was assured three time I would be okay.

[jimmy1]

I am not familiar with insurance products in your area but I would suggest that you aproach your agent or broker about what you have in mind and based on his recommendations you can then decide if it is feasable to do what you are considering. There is no set cost as all situations will vary. For example if you have a homeowner policy versus a farm policy may make a difference on how the situation is addressed. You may be able to extend liability as an incidental bisiness from your existing policy and then depending on the carrier and type of policy you have you may not be able to. But do check it out because you do not want to find out after the fact that you have exclusions that may void coverage, especially when it comes to liability.

Jim

[RonR]

I think there's a big difference involved. My understanding is IF you have a farm and farm insurance, it's pretty easy/cheap to extend it to cover biz use of your equipment OFF your property.

If my tractor was for personal use, NEVER to go off my property, and NEVER for business use, my homeowner insurance would most likely cover any liability issues for not much, if any $$$$.

The minute I go off property, and / or for a business, it's a new world. I needed (and wanted) a $1M liability policy, protection for the tractor and trailer for loss due to theft, fire, damage to the tractor or trailer while hauling. This costs me about $900/yr; I tried checking around, but I didn't find any other companies that wanted to provide coverage, maybe becuz I was just starting the biz, even though I have 40+ yrs experience operating this type of equipment and hauling.

I had to add a rider to my auto insurance ($80) to cover liability for towing the trailer and anything it was hauling.

I had to talk hard to convince my agent that my 22HP Kubota (no backhoe) would NOT be used for excavation. That adds a new dimension (and price) for your liability.

Hope this helps.
ron