Janitorial Insurance

Janitorial Business Insurance

Protect your business with a comprehensive janitorial insurance policy and wipe away the risks you face.

Zensurance - Janitorial Business Owner

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Custodian

Insurance for janitorial services

Whether your janitorial small business serves residential, commercial, or industrial clients, you can be exposed to liabilities ranging from third-party bodily injury or property damage claims to dealing with damage or loss to your business property resulting from fires or floods. 

A comprehensive janitorial insurance policy from Zensurance can ensure your business and assets are adequately protected if something goes wrong.

Janitorial insurance is a customized policy consisting of several coverages that protects janitors, custodians, and cleaning professionals from the risks they face while on the job.

The types of coverages your janitorial business requires depends on your unique needs. However, a comprehensive policy for this trade typically includes:

  • Commercial General Liability (CGL) Insurance: As its name suggests, CGL insurance covers general liability risks your janitorial company faces in its daily operations. Frequently called ‘slip-and-fall’ insurance, CGL protects you and your employees from legal liability for third-party bodily injury and property damage claims and lawsuits. For example, if after waxing the floor of an office building lobby someone slips, falls, and is injured, they could pursue legal action against you. CGL provides you with financial support to defend yourself while keeping your business up and running.
  • Tools and Equipment Insurance: Janitorial businesses and professionals can’t perform the necessary work they must do without the tools of the trade. Tools and equipment insurance pays to repair or replace your tools and equipment if lost, stolen, vandalized, or damaged by fire, flood, or an extreme weather event. It protects everything from brooms, mops, and buckets to vacuums and heavy cleaning equipment whether in use, storage, while being transported from one site to another, or if stored at a client’s location.
  • Pollution Liability Insurance: As part of your custodial services, it’s possible you use toxic or aggressive chemical agents and cleansers to ensure your clients’ properties are as squeaky clean as can be. However, these necessary substances can trigger unintended impacts on the environment or human health. Pollution liability protection is designed to shield you from such incidents. It provides coverage for third-party bodily injury, property, and environmental damage whether sudden or gradual resulting from your work.
  • Professional Liability Insurance: Commonly referred to as errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, professional liability insurance kicks in if a client accuses you of negligence, misconduct, errors in your service, or failing to deliver a service as promised. For instance, if one of your clients sues you for negligence, this coverage will provide you with financial support for your legal defence and cover the cost of compensation awarded by the court or for an out-of-court settlement.
  • Commercial Property Insurance: If you own, lease, or rent an office, warehouse, or other commercial space from where you run your janitorial business, you need to protect the building and your business contents. Commercial property insurance provides coverage for damage or loss to your property, inventory, and furnishings (including computers and electronics) because of a fire, flood, natural disaster, theft, or vandalism.
  • Commercial Auto Insurance: The vehicles you own or use for business purposes require a commercial auto policy because a private-passenger car insurance policy is not designed to cover any vehicle used for business purposes. A commercial auto policy provides similar coverages to what a private car insurance policy does. Foregoing commercial auto coverage puts you at risk of shouldering the cost of damages to your vehicle or other drivers’ vehicles if you are involved in a collision.
  • Commercial Crime Insurance: Commercial crime insurance protects you from internal theft, forgery, fraud, and employee dishonesty. It can be added as an endorsement to your overall policy or purchased as a standalone product and accounts for temporary, full- and part-time employees.

The cost of a janitorial insurance policy may start at around $450 per year for general liability coverage with a $2 million limit. 

There are several factors insurance companies take into consideration when determining a price for an insurance policy package for janitorial businesses, including:  

  • Number of employees
  • The types of services you provide (residential, commercial, industrial)
  • Your years of experience
  • Your business’s location
  • The tools and equipment you own and use
  • The chemical cleaning agents you use
  • The type of business vehicles you own
  • Your annual and projected revenue

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Common claims scenarios

Vacuum Cleaning

Problem: While vacuuming a residential client’s living room carpet, you accidentally bump into an end table holding an expensive vase that falls from the table and cracks in half.  The client sues your business for the damages.

Outcome: Your commercial general liability insurance may pay to replace the client’s expensive vase.

Janitorial professional working in office

Problem: After mopping a floor in an office building, you forget to place a ‘caution: wet floor’ sign in the area. Unfortunately, a passerby slips, falls and fractures a wrist on the wet floor. They decide to sue you for bodily injury.

Outcome: Your commercial general liability insurance may pay for your legal defence, the injured person’s medical expenses, and any compensation awarded by the court.

 

Back view of the cleaning working van

Problem: While travelling to a client’s property in your company van that contains heavy cleaning equipment and related materials, you are rear-ended by another driver. 

Outcome: The direct compensation-property damage portion of your commercial auto insurance may pay for the damages to your vehicle, and your tools and equipment insurance may pay to repair or replace your damaged cleaning equipment and materials.

Frequently asked questions

Will my janitorial insurance policy cover me if I accidentally lose the keys to a client’s building?

Yes. Losing the keys to a client’s commercial space or home can be frustrating, but the commercial general liability portion of your janitorial insurance policy is designed to pay to replace the lost keys and the matching door locks if necessary.

Does a janitorial insurance policy cover me if I provide residential and commercial cleaning services?

Yes. A janitorial insurance policy will cover you for both commercial and residential cleaning services, however, if you specialize in providing only residential professional cleaning, there is an increased risk for incidents or accidents to occur travelling to multiple homes in a workday whereas commercial cleaning services are typically provided in the same location in a controlled environment, and often after usual office or business hours.

Why does an insurer want to know what equipment and cleaning agents I use?

Your insurer wants to know what equipment you own and the chemicals and other cleaning agents you use as part of your services to determine how much it may cost them to repair or replace your equipment if damaged. Insurers also want to ensure your pollution liability coverage adequately accounts for the toxins and substances you use if an environmental, bodily injury, or property damage claim is brought against you.

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