Liability Insurance for Home Inspectors – E&O And GL Insurance

To be fully covered, insurance for home inspectors usually includes both errors and omissions insurance and general liability insurance. By coupling these two insurance products together, home inspectors can rest easy knowing that they are covered from the most common claims against home inspectors.

At EliteMGA, we are committed to our clients. We are constantly striving to offer the most up-to-date, varied coverage, with the most competitive rates, that is why we started our own insurance company just for the Home Inspection business (EliteRE). Our home inspectors work hard, and we believe that they deserve personalized coverage, made just for home inspectors, by the experts that know your business!

EliteMGA’s home inspector insurance is uniquely positioned to offer tailored coverage at competitive rates through their own insurance captive, EliteRE. EliteRE is the first and only insurance carrier 100% dedicated to the home inspection industry and designed with home inspectors in mind. EliteMGA has years of experience providing home inspector liability insurance in all 50 states. By law, certain states require a home inspector to carry insurance. To learn more about your state-specific requirements, visit our State by State Insurance Requirements page.

Errors and Omissions insurance is an important component in a home inspector’s figurative toolbox, but there are several other types of insurance that a home inspector should look into in order to make sure he or she is as fully protected as possible.

Bodily Injury AND Property Damage Insurance

The two types of exposure that a home inspector must be insured against include bodily injury and property damage. Bodily injury is when the inspector’s actions or alleged errors in their inspection report result in someone being physically harmed. Property Damage is when the inspector’s actions or alleged errors in their inspection report result in damage to the property or loss of use of the property. A home inspector needs both types of coverage to be protected.

Commercial Auto Insurance

Commercial Vehicle Insurance is designed to cover physical damage and liability for amounts, situations, and usage not covered by a personal auto policy. This type of business insurance covers a variety of vehicles. You may also have heard of this coverage referred to as commercial auto insurance, commercial car insurance, truck insurance, or fleet insurance.

Drone-Aviation Liability

Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS/UAVs, are the latest technology utilized in varying industries ranging from agriculture to surveillance. As the popularity and list of uses for UAS and UAVs grow, so does the need to properly insure the aircraft for physical damage as well as the risk of liability. EliteMGA now offers coverage for inspectors who use drones and other aerial devices during the course of business. To learn more, please contact us.

Tool & Equipment Coverage

Is your equipment really insured when the unexpected happens? You are eligible to purchase tools and equipment coverage through EliteMGA, LLC. Our policy has better protection than most business policies on your tools, tablets, and even your drones.

Worker’s Compensation Insurance

Worker’s Compensation Insurance can make up the difference for any lost wages and medical expenses incurred and when you are injured on the job. This kind of insurance ensures that you are not held responsible for any medical expenses you encounter from being injured during an inspection. The insurance would also protect you from having to go to court to obtain compensation (the way you would in a Personal Injury case).

Bonding Insurance

Normally referred to as simply “bonding,” this type of insurance protects against loss caused by negligence, fraud, or dishonesty. It means that if something goes wrong with an inspection as the result of another person or company, you and your business will be protected.

Policies for home inspector liability insurance vary greatly in price based on:

• Bodily injury and property damage coverage
• Claims made vs occurrence policies
• Limits and deductibles, and more.

Since liability insurance for home inspectors can be tailored to your specific business’s needs and services offered, annual deductible options range from $1,500 to $10,000 and liability limits range from $100,000 to exceed $1,000,000. At EliteMGA, we are specialists with over 15 years of experience exclusively insuring home inspectors. With EliteRE, our captive carrier, we can offer competitive pricing with the most appropriate limits and deductibles for your business including specialty coverages and discount opportunities.

What Type of Insurance Does a Home Inspector Need?

With a basic understanding of insurance for home inspectors, it’s possible to tie all the components together. To be fully protected by insurance, a home inspector is best served by having both General Liability and Errors & Omissions coverage with sufficient coverage for Bodily Injury and Property Damage exposures.

Requirements for having liability insurance for home inspectors vary from state to state, with some requiring both E&O and General or neither of the two. It is crucial to understand what is required in the inspector’s home state as a baseline so that they can make determinations about what insurance they are required to purchase and provide during a home inspection.

Although an inspector may think it is the responsibility of the insurer to thoroughly lay out all aspects of the insurance policy in a way that they can understand, that responsibility actually falls on the inspector. It is the home inspector’s responsibility to read every line of the policy and ask questions until they thoroughly understand each item. This is the only way to ensure that they know what is covered and what is not covered. Just like a home buyer should read every page of the inspection report, a responsible home inspector will read every page of his or her policy to have a thorough understanding of what their policy covers and what it excludes. This begins with an explanation of whether the policy covers Claims Made and/or Occurrence.

Insurance forms and advertisements are often filled with words that have the same or similar meaning. This question is a case in point. Professional Liability coverage and Errors and Omissions (E&O) coverage are synonymous. This type of insurance indemnifies the policyholder for allegations of negligent acts that result in financial loss. A negligent act could certainly include an error or omission in performing a home inspection service so you could very well state that professional liability insurance for home inspectors covers errors and omissions and vice versa. In either case, the wise Home Inspector professional will want to make sure they have adequate insurance to protect their assets and business from financial loss.