insured/licensed for residential lawns

[AutmgRt]

Is it a good idea to be licensed and insured. With 20-30 mowing accounts. being I just getting starting out in lawn mowing service?

[1MajorTom]

I know this sounds dumb, but I could have sworn that I read a few responses on this post, but now I don't see any replies.
Has anyone else noticed this, or am I imagining things? :)

[Randy Scott]

Yes, I know I responded once already. I don't think it had the word residential in it though. I think it just said insured/licensed. Oh great, the new guy has some "super moderator powers" or something! :rolleyes:

[larrv45390]

Yes Yes Yes!! Windows and paint jobs are not free. For $300 bucks a year i get 1 mill in insurance.

[KirbysLawn]

He must have deleted the thread, I had also replyed once also. Oh well.

Hey AutmgRt, if you need to change something click edit instead of delete, once you delete you erase all replys and we have to re-type our answers again.

To answer the question in a shorter manner - Yes & Yes, get both.

[DMC300]

Yes,get most insurance you can afford.
Last sept.my wife got into an accident,while carrying the trailer and equip.She will never be able to work in the biz. again.Our lawyer told here that her commercial auto policy sucked"and they pay 80% of her hospital bills which are upto $50,000 and still growing.Protect yourself,luckily she was alone or we may be living at the "Y.M.C.A".

[Sammy]

I know a guy that talked to his insurance agent and his cpa, they told him not to bother with insurance if he was not going to do it for a liveing. He wants 8-15 jobs a week only.

[Scraper]

Glad they aren't my CPA and insurance agent...any agent in his right mind WOULD recommend insurance! All it takes is a split second...and anything can happen! Is it worth it to lose everything you have? Even if you're doing 8-15 jobs weekly...any extra money you were making from that would be gone including your other "income".

You want to chance it? That's your own decision, but remember....you were forewarned!

That's why it's called insurance!

Glen

P.S. Insurance is just a cost of doing and being in business. It also makes you legit!

[KirbysLawn]

I would find a new agent and accountant ASAP!

Bad advice in my opinion. If you hit a car, run over an AC unit, or throw a rock and hit someone, it will not matter if you have 1 or 50 yards nor will it matter if your doing it for "a living" or a hobby. You will be responsible and will be paying out of your pocket.

[TJLC]

Who would work without lic/ins? Not me. It just makes sense. My commerical properties would not even consider me without proof of both. Isn't it a law that you must be at least licenced? Commerical ins is rather expensive but I would think it would be more expensive to be w/o it. You may never have to use it but there could be that ONE time. These are just two of the things that separate us from the scrubs,right?

[jdjoe_97]

This may be the dumbest post I have ever written. Sorry for that upfront. But what licensing are you talking about?? Applicators? I carry 1 mil liability.

What about getting bonded?? I have a few companies by me that have "Bonded" on there trucks. What do you think? Thanks Joe

[kutnkru]

Three years ago I was trimming along a sidewalk next to the gravel driveway and didnt notice, nor did the homeowner until he opened the sliding glass door, that a rock had hit it. Once he opened it he was looking at the window in little pieces on my boots. Thankfully he allowed us to settle out of court and to pay out of pocket. My point is, had he not - What would we have done then????

As far as licensing goes. If other applicators in our area see you applying without the proper tags on your vehicles, then they WILL call the D.E.C. and you then face up to $5000 in fines.

Just my .02
Kris

[John DiMartino]

You shouls definetely have insurance if you are mowing anyones yard other than your own or one you rent/lease.Go to your local government agency,register your business,and operate legally.Yo dont have to get a pesticide license-at least not yet,just dont spray-sub it out.Here its not worth having unless you do a lot,because it makes your liabiltiy insurance go up 500,and workers comp goes thru the roof if you spray,its hard to even get workers comp if you spray-at any cost.

[Michael Fronczak]

I've been in business for five years. To date I have damaged:
2- pieces of vinal siding(rocks)
1-car with a rock
For the vinal siding, I left a note at one, the other was home. Told them we would take care of it. A fomer friend does vinal siding, replaced piece for like $ 30, including materials, & showed me how to do it.
For the car, the guy was driving it, gave him bus name address, both phone numbers as well as insurance co & numbers. Told him to get estimates, I would most likly just pay him, because I figured it would be around the same value as my deductible. Never heard anything back?? I don't know, I gave him the info, never got his. Why would I want to question him about it?
I have never had a claim. My insurance co. advise is if it's cheap for you to fix-do it. Alot of small claims show a frequency, leading to higher rates.
In property damage incidents I really don't think people care who pays for the damage to get fixed, they just want it fixed. In all three accidents, all three people were very understanding, we had the vinal repairs done in less than 48 hrs, one guy even had the extra piece in his garage he gave it to us.

[SpringValley]

Anyone mowing just one yard for money needs to have general liability insurance, it is relatively cheap. I must also carry commercial insurance on my trucks as your insurance company has the right to deny your claim if you are doing business, making money on a private auto policy, better check that one out fellas. Regarding bonds, those are usually required by the city for contractors in case they damage curbs, sidewalks, asphalt and the like. The bond would pay for those repairs. Generally you should not need a bond for mowing/landscaping maintenance. The license is a sign your name give us $30 requirement of some cities/counties that makes the consumer feel better as there is no test to take or anything. Pretty much a government scheme to get more money out of us. Check with your local authorities about the requirements (city or county clerk office) for licensing.

Matt

[Greenkeepers]

yes yes yes YES...... You need to be insured if you cut 2 lawns. And if you want to spread fertilizer and pesticides then you need to be licensed. I hear guys around here say that they only put fertilizer down. Then they say that they put "something" down to kill grubs.

It is always better safe than sorry........

[Paradise Yard Service]

Its not if you break a window, its when.
Its not if you dent the car, its when.
Its not if you mow over the AC unit, its when.
Its not if you throw a stone, its when.


The only thing that can take care of the 'whens' in this buisiness, is insurance!
Aloha,
P.Y.S.

[Skookum]

Customers Homeowners Insurance WILL Cover YOU!

You can get by without liability insurance if doing this type work for cash or as a handyman type setup for just a few yards. I WOULD NOT DO IT, but someone might opt to do it that way. The person you are mowing for is liable for you since they are paying you, you are their employee. Federal tax codes even establish this stating housekeepers and gardeners whom are paid cash must have social security paid on their behalf from the homeowner, workmans comp in states where required, etc...

Their homeowners insurance should cover mowing accidents caused BY you or TO you. This is a area that all most all homeowners are unaware of when hiring that little boy down the street for a few dollars a week or that scrub that under cut every LCO by 50%.

I would NEVER do work under a DBA or an actual company name without some sort of liablity insurance. It is too cheap for the actual risk at hand. My first policy was about $160 a year for about 500,000 general liability for strictly mowing.

A few yards for cash without insurance, maybe. Business without insurance, NEVER!

[Edited by Skookum on 02-22-2001 at 11:53 AM]

[Fantasy Lawns]

murphy's law .....if you ain't got it ....than your gonna need it

[eggy]

You need insurance period. However check with your agent when I first started out years ago on the side with a few residentials only they had a policy that could be added to my homeowners policy that covered me for such a side occupation. However if you do commercial or as a full time job you need a buisness policy. Check it out....eggy

[Groundcover Solutions]

i got 11 million for 5000 this year

[kutnkru]

See now thats the problem with some contractor's. They soak up all those ray's and then it goes to their head and they start running over AC Units. I dont know about in your neck of the sunbelt PYS but here in the dismal snowbelt these units are about a 3'x3' square next to the house. Kind of hard to MISS leta alone MOW OVER!!!! LOL.

Im sure that you meant the power supply and we do have to watch for some of them as well.

Just funning :-)
Kris

[Chopper Lover]

I agree with everyone here. Insurance is a must.

When it comes to licensing it depends on where you live and/or are operating. In Maryland there is not license to do services like mowing, trimming, applying mulch, etc. If I wanted to purchase wholesale and sell retail (mulch or flowers), do landscape architecture, apply chemicals (herbicides, pesticides, fertilizer, etc.), I would be required to be either licensed or certified depending on the task I wanted to perform. Check with your state business licensing department to determine what you need. I think you can find that info online by doing a search of the web.

Mark

[Paradise Yard Service]

Kutnkru,
Just testing who is the sharpest readers! We gots um too out hea. Trane most popular. Can't miss um (unless you get sun stroke, but that never happens here with all that blue ocean minutes away from anyplace).
Aloha,
P.Y.S.

[Runner]

Ah yes, the blue ocean~~~~~~.........Anyway! Back to reality! Whether a business or a "hobby", it is imperative. 2 years ago, a friend, full business, put out a kid's eye with a rock on one of his properties near us. Just a year before that, an older gentleman, just to the south of us, was mowing a lawn (one of the few neighborhood lawns he did) the weekend after the 4th of July. He hit a "sparkler" wire, embedded it into a small boy's heart. The child was dead on arrival at Genesys Memorial Hospital. I realize that no insurance can cover this loss, but atleast expenses came from the insurance company, not the sale of the old man's house. As far as the people's homeowner insurance covering any damage and so forth you may cause, this is true, but rest assured that insurance company is going to want to collect to recoup. Other than that, do you really want to ask your customers to make a claim like that and potentially raise their rates?

[bobbygedd]

first off, dont bite my head off. i DO carry insurance now, but didnt at first. i called an insurance company my first year, and believe it or not, he talked me out of insurance. he said that if u r not cutting trees, or using pesticides, the odds r greatly in your favor of not having an accident. and of 7 years in ins bus, hes had one claim put in from a grass man. i guess its up to u if u want to take the risk. also, as far as being sued and losing everything u have, if u got nothing, u got nothing to lose. this is only a comment, not advice. as my business has grown, and im treating it like a business and not a hobby, i think back and realize i took an enormous risk not having insurance. it only costs me $500 a year. thats not alot to pay for peace of mind.BOB

[GLM]

Insurance is cheap! Protect your self. Here's a little story that could happen to anyone. I worked for a Public works dept.I was in charge of all parks and public properties and we were mowing a piece of property that sloped up from the road sharply and the leveled off about five feet higher than the road surface all the way back to the building. I've mowed this place probably 30 times a year for ten years and this day was proof that you need insurance. One of my guys made a pass at the top of the slope and I was at street level blowing away from the road and when the guy on the hill turned around something small must have come out of his mower because niether on of us heard anything come out, when we noticed a car pulling off the road just past us. Then I notice glass all over the street and said oh s%^&t! What ever came out of his mower went through the passenger side window(breaking it) hit the drivers right hand on the steering wheel and went out the drivers window beraking it! Both front windows where broken and the elderly gentleman was taken to the hospital for stitches. Brand new car and very nice people that were not very angry considering their new car was a mess. Granted we were covered by the towns insurance but as soon as I started mowing on my own I had a good policy. Just think what a walk behind in a swimming pool would cost you, or some thing similar that would just be bad luck. Sorry for the long post but if I had not been there I would not have belived that a mower could break both front windows out of a car that was traveling 40mph. Cover your self and get some good insurance, its better to have and not need than to need and not have!

[Grassman]

Professionals do not take chances with their livlehood.