Contractor & Construction Insurance in Southwest Florida
Roofers, framers, electricians, plumbers, concrete crews, remodelers, site work, HVAC — we write the trades that rebuilt this coast. Coverage placed with carriers who actually want construction risk, and certificates issued out of Fort Myers, Naples and Port Charlotte, usually the same day you ask.
What actually goes wrong on a job
01
The certificate is wrong and the job stops.
The general contractor's contract asks for additional insured status on a completed operations basis, primary and non-contributory wording, and a waiver of subrogation. Your policy has one of the three. Nobody finds out until the day you are supposed to mobilize. The fix is not a certificate — it is an endorsement, and it has to be on the policy before the certificate can say it is.
02
A sub shows up uninsured and it becomes your payroll.
At audit, any subcontractor who cannot produce a valid certificate for the period they worked gets reclassified as your employee. Their labor goes onto your workers' compensation payroll at your rate. On a busy year that single line has been the difference between a manageable audit and a five-figure bill.
03
The building burns down before you finish it.
Your commercial property policy covers your shop and your yard. It does not cover the structure you are building for somebody else. That is builders risk, and it needs to be in force from the day materials arrive, not the day someone remembers.
04
Somebody steals the trailer.
The skid steer, the compressor, the laser level, the generator. Business personal property covers what is at your location. Once it is on a trailer, on a job site, or in a truck overnight, it is inland marine — a contractors equipment floater — and it is a separate schedule.
05
A finished job fails two years later.
Construction defect claims arrive long after the crew has moved on. Whether your policy responds depends on your products-completed operations coverage still being intact, at adequate limits, on the policy that was in force when the work was done. This is why letting a policy lapse between jobs is expensive in ways that do not show up for years.
06
The GC's contract makes you responsible for their negligence.
Broad indemnification clauses show up constantly in Florida subcontracts. Some of what you agree to may not be insurable and may not be enforceable. Send us the contract before you sign it — we can tell you which parts your policy actually backs.
What a contractor's program looks like
The foundation
General liability
Injury and property damage you cause, plus legal defense. Watch the exclusions: many contractor GL policies carry subcontractor warranties, height or depth restrictions, and residential or condo exclusions that can quietly remove coverage from the work you actually do.
Workers' compensation
The skid steer, the compressor, the laser level, the generator. Business personal property covers what is at your location. Once it is on a trailer, on a job site, or in a truck overnight, it is inland marine — a contractors equipment floater — and it is a separate schedule.
Commercial auto
Lettered trucks, trailers, and hired and non-owned coverage for the employee who runs to the supply house in a personal vehicle.
Commercial property
Shop, yard, office, stock. Insured to replacement cost, with wind and flood usually sitting on separate policies.
Commercial umbrella
Extra limits on top of the above. GCs and municipalities frequently require it before you can start, and the required limit has been climbing.
What gets added on top
- Builders risk — the structure under construction, per project or on a reporting form if you keep several open at once.
- Contractors equipment / inland marine — owned, rented and leased equipment wherever it happens to be.
- Installation floater — materials in transit and staged on site before they are installed.
- Pollution liability — required more often than contractors expect, particularly on site work, demolition and anything touching fuel or existing structures.
- Professional liability — if you design as well as build, or hold any design-build responsibility.
- Rented and leased equipment coverage — usually cheaper as a floater endorsement than through the rental yard's daily waiver
What makes this harder in Florida
01
Workers' comp starts at one employee.
Outside construction, Florida’s requirement begins at four employees. In construction it begins at one. Corporate officers can apply for exemption through the state, but exemptions are limited and have to be filed and current — an expired exemption at audit is treated as no exemption at all. Confirm your own situation with us before you rely on it.
02
Uninsured subs become your exposure at audit.
Collect a certificate from every sub, for every period they work, and keep it. Not the day you hire them — for the whole time they are on your jobs. We will tell you what to file and how long to hold it.
03
Wind is its own deductible.
Commercial property policies in this market carry named-storm deductibles calculated as a percentage of insured value, not a flat dollar amount. On a shop and yard insured for a million dollars, a five percent named-storm deductible is fifty thousand out of pocket before the policy pays anything. Know your number before June.
04
Licensing requires proof.
Florida’s Construction Industry Licensing Board requires general liability and workers’ compensation coverage — or a current exemption — to issue and renew a license. Lapsed coverage is a licensing problem, not just an insurance problem.
05
Defect claims have a clock, and it moved.
Florida shortened the statute of repose for construction defect claims in 2023, and changed how the clock starts. It affects how long your completed operations exposure runs. Talk to your attorney about your specific projects — but do not assume the window is what it was five years ago.
What we need to quote it
Send these and we can usually get to a real number rather than a guess:
No cost, no obligation. If your current program is already doing its job we will tell you that.
Current declarations pages for every policy
Five years of loss runs, or as many as you have
Annual payroll broken out by trade or class code
Annual receipts, and the split between residential, commercial and new construction versus remodel
Percentage of work subcontracted out, and whether those subs carry their own coverage
A vehicle schedule with VINs and drivers
An equipment list with serial numbers and values
Any contract language a GC has sent you that you need to satisfy
Contractor insurance questions
Usually the same business day, if the wording the contract asks for is already on your policy. Send us the certificate request and the contract language together. If the wording is not on your policy yet, we will tell you what it costs to add before you are standing at the job site with a stopped crew.
A certificate holder simply receives a copy of the certificate. An additional insured is actually added to your policy by endorsement and gets coverage under it. Contracts routinely ask for additional insured status, and a certificate alone does not create it. If the endorsement is not on the policy, the certificate is describing coverage that does not exist.
In Florida’s construction industry the requirement starts at one employee, which makes it much stricter than the four-employee threshold that applies to most other businesses. Corporate officers can apply to the state for an exemption, but those exemptions are limited in number and have to be filed and current. Call us and we will walk through your specific setup.
No. General liability covers injury and property damage you cause to others. The structure under construction is covered by builders risk, which is a separate policy. It should be in force from the moment materials arrive on site.
At your workers’ compensation audit, any sub who cannot produce a valid certificate covering the period they worked is generally treated as your employee, and their labor is added to your payroll at your class rate. Collecting and filing certificates from every sub, every time, is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.
Not by a standard commercial property policy, which covers property at your described premises. Tools and equipment that move need a contractors equipment floater, which is inland marine coverage that follows the equipment to the job site, into the truck, and overnight.
More commercial questions are answered on our business FAQs page.
Send us your declarations pages. We will tell you what is missing.
Three offices, one commercial team. We have been placing Florida construction risk since 1982, through more than one hard market and more than one storm.