What your general liability actually covers

What general liability is designed to do

A standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy has two main jobs:

• Third-party bodily injury — someone gets hurt because of your operations. The customer who slips on the wet driveway you just washed. A bystander hit by debris your surface cleaner kicks up.
• Third-party property damage — you damage someone's property. The window cracked by a 0° tip. The siding etched by holding the wand too close. The customer's fence your trailer clips pulling out.

It also typically includes products-completed operations (damage discovered after you leave — like water intrusion that shows up as mold three months later) and personal and advertising injury (libel, slander, copyright claims — less central to this trade, but in the form). Typical limits for small operators: $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate.

The three exclusions that matter most in this trade

This is the part that builds trust or breaks it, so here it is straight:

1. Care, custody, or control

Standard GL excludes property damage to property in your "care, custody, or control." In plain terms: damage to the thing you're actively working on can fall into a gray zone. You wash a car, you damage the car — is that "property damage to a third party," or damage to property in your care? Different carriers and forms answer differently, and endorsements exist to fix it. This is the single most important question for mobile detailers.

2. Faulty workmanship

GL covers accidents, not bad work. If damage results from doing the job poorly rather than an accident — the industry calls this the "your work" exclusion — the policy may not respond. The line between "accident" and "workmanship" is where claims get argued, which is why documentation (photos before and after every job) matters as much as the policy.

3. Pollution

Standard forms contain pollution exclusions that can reach chemical runoff. Soft-wash operators using bleach and surfactants: your wash water going into a storm drain is the scenario this exclusion was written for. Some operations need separate pollution liability (~$52/mo industry average). Ask exactly where your form draws the line.

What's typically NOT in a GL policy at all

• Your own equipment — that's inland marine / equipment coverage, not GL.
• Your vehicles — that's commercial auto, not GL.
• Employee injuries — that's workers' comp, not GL.
• Damage you intended — expected or intended injury/damage is excluded everywhere.

The questions to ask before you bind

Copy these into your notes. A good agent answers all of them without flinching:

1. If I damage the surface I'm actively working on, does my GL respond — or does care/custody/control exclude it?
2. Where does my policy draw the pollution line for chemical runoff and overspray?
3. Am I classified as a contractor trade or janitorial — and what changes if I'm reclassified?
4. Does completed-operations coverage apply if damage is discovered months later?
5. What's my deductible per claim, and does defense cost sit inside or outside my limits?

Ask these of any agent — including us. The honest answers are the whole point.