Can you explain the ‘your work’ exclusion on my general liability insurance policy?

You are familiar with the ‘your work’ exclusion if you’ve read your general liability policy. And if you’re like most people, you want to know more about how the ‘your work’ exclusion affects your insurance protection.

Although the ‘your work’ exclusion within a general liability may cause concern, the intent of the language makes lots of sense.

In this BLOG ad VLOG, Mike Fusco explains the exclusion and provides insight into a general liability policy that all policyholders should understand. Thank you for reading and watching!

The CGL POLICY

Businesses and commercial organizations purchase Commercial General Liability (CGL) to insure against third-party liability for property damage and bodily injury arising out of the businesses’ operations. When an accident occurs, including negligence, the policy should insure against damages that the business is legally obligated to pay.

CGL IS NOT A WARRANTY

We find that policyholders misunderstand the intent of the CGL policy. In many cases, businesses expect the policy to pay for product or workmanship failures, which is far from the truth. The Commercial General Liability policy is not a warranty, meaning it will not pay for faulty work or a job performed incorrectly.

“YOUR WORK” EXCLUSION LANGUAGE           

When referring to an ISO policy form, exclusions containing “your work” language appear throughout. Examples include:

Damage To Property: That particular part of any property that must be restored, repaired, or replaced because “your work” was incorrectly performed on it.

Damage To Your Work: “Property damage” to “your work” arising out of it or any part of it and included in the “products-completed operations hazard.” This exclusion does not apply if the damaged work or the work out of which the damage arises was performed on your behalf by a subcontractor.

Damage To Impaired Property Or Property Not Physically Injured: A defect, deficiency, inadequacy or dangerous condition in “your product” or “your work.”

Recall Of Products, Work Or Impaired Property: Damages claimed for any loss, cost or expense incurred by you or others for the loss of use, withdrawal, recall, inspection, repair, replacement, adjustment, removal or disposal of:

(1) “Your product”;

(2) “Your work”; or

(3) “Impaired property”;

Insurance Services Office, Inc., 2012 CG 00 01 04 13

Please let us know if you would like a copy of your policy to review the language or sample policy as a reference.

EXPERT COMMENTARY

We rely on many resources provided by IRMI, and one that we recommend highly is ‘Faulty Work and the CGL”. You may find the article by visiting the following link: https://www.irmi.com/articles/expert-commentary/faulty-work-and-the-cgl.

HOW CAN FOA HELP ME?

Although we don’t write the policy language, we inform our clients and help them understand their insurance protection. If your current agent isn’t providing the same level of service, give us a call at (858) 384-1506 . You may also complete the form below. Thank you for visiting!