General Liability
GL is the policy everyone tells you to get without explaining what it doesn't do. Here's the plain version, including the exclusions that actually matter for handyman work.
General liability responds when your work causes injury to someone else or damage to someone else's property. That's it — that's the whole job. A client trips over your extension cord, a shelf you mounted pulls out of the wall and breaks something below it, a "quick fix" leaves a slow leak that shows up as water damage two weeks later. GL is what pays the legal and settlement costs when a claim like that lands.
Here's the part most explanations skip. GL generally excludes damage to property that's in your care, custody, or control at the time — meaning the specific thing you're actively working on. If you're replacing a faucet and you damage the faucet itself in the process, that's typically not a GL claim; it's just bad workmanship, and it's on you to make it right directly. But if that same faucet work causes a leak that damages the cabinet below it, the flooring, or a downstairs ceiling — collateral damage to property beyond what you were directly working on — that's the kind of claim GL is built to cover. The distinction between "the thing I was working on" and "everything around it" is exactly where a lot of handyman claims get decided.
If a claim arises from work that legally required a license you didn't have — say, electrical panel work beyond your state's handyman threshold — it can complicate how a carrier responds, even if your policy is otherwise active and in good standing. This is one more reason knowing your state's scope-of-work limits matters as much as carrying the policy itself.
$1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate is the common baseline and satisfies most residential and small commercial jobs. Larger property managers and GCs increasingly want $2M/$4M — worth having both figures in hand before you bid a bigger contract. If you're also weighing whether you need property coverage on top of GL, see our comparison of standalone GL vs. a bundled BOP.
Tell us the real range of what you do — not just "handyman," but the specific trades and typical job types — and we'll structure a GL policy that actually matches your exposure, with a certificate ready the moment you bind.
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Related Coverage
FAQ
Usually not directly — this falls under the care, custody, and control exclusion, since it's the specific item you were working on, not collateral damage. If that same mistake causes damage beyond the item itself, that broader damage is typically where GL responds.
GL responds to third-party injury or property damage that results from your work. A repair that simply doesn't hold up, with no resulting injury or additional damage, is more of a workmanship or warranty issue than an insurance claim.
It can complicate a claim tied to that specific work, even with an active policy. This is a good example of why knowing your state's licensing threshold before taking a job matters as much as carrying coverage.
Yes — insurance doesn't prevent a lawsuit, it responds to one. GL typically covers your legal defense costs and any settlement or judgment within your policy limits, which is a meaningfully different (and usually much better) position than facing a claim with no coverage at all.
Job size and frequency don't reduce the underlying exposure — a single bad outcome on even one small job can cost far more than years of premiums. Occasional work still carries real risk.
Licensed agents build your custom quote — typically same business day. Review, enroll, and get your COI instantly.