MR. ELECTRIC

The 2025 Mr. Electric FDD requires four core coverages: general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence (including Products/Completed Operations and Personal Injury and Advertising Injury) and $2,000,000 aggregate; commercial auto liability at $1,000,000 minimum combined single limit (up to $2,000,000 if Mr. Electric specifies) on owned, non-owned, and hired vehicles; workers' compensation regardless of state law at state-required minimums; and cyber liability at $500,000 per claim and $500,000 aggregate. You must name Mr. Electric SPV LLC and any other entity Mr. Electric designates as Additional Insured on all required liability policies. Your insurance must apply as primary and non-contributory, with waiver of subrogation in favor of all Additional Insureds. Carriers must hold an A.M. Best rating of A-VIII or better. The Mr. Electric FDD does NOT specify occurrence form, specific endorsement form numbers, or separate Employers Liability limits — those are not franchise-agreement requirements.

For Mr. Electric specifically, the general liability minimum is $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate. Commercial auto is $1,000,000 minimum CSL covering owned, non-owned, and hired vehicles. Workers' compensation must meet your state's statutory limits. Cyber liability is $500,000 per claim and $500,000 in the aggregate. These are the franchisor minimums as stated in the FDD. Whether they are adequate for your actual operations depends on the scope of work you perform, the states you operate in, and the revenue and fleet size of your business.

Most states require either the business owner or a designated employee to hold a master electrician license — and that license is what allows the operation to perform electrical work legally. The franchise agreement does not waive this requirement. Confirm your specific state's licensing rules before purchasing a Mr. Electric franchise. The license requirement is operational, not just regulatory: if your master electrician's license is suspended or revoked, your operation cannot legally perform electrical work regardless of your franchise status.

Generally yes — third-party bodily injury arising from your operations is covered under the general liability policy. The carrier will defend the claim. What can complicate coverage: whether the work being performed legally required a master electrician's direct involvement, whether lockout-tagout procedures were documented, and whether contributory negligence by the customer affects the settlement. The policy responds, but defense costs and settlement leverage depend heavily on your operational documentation.

The standard general liability policy includes a provision excluding claims arising from work that violated applicable law. Performing electrical work that required a permit, without obtaining one, is a violation of applicable law in most jurisdictions. The carrier can deny on that basis. Some carriers interpret permit lapses as triggering the exclusion; others do not. In a contested claim, the carrier's interpretation controls — and you find out which interpretation applies only when the denial letter arrives. The prevention is operational: every job that requires a permit gets one, every job ticket records the permit number.

Standard general liability policies typically exclude claims arising from work that violated the applicable building code. Code-compliant work performed correctly is covered. Work that violated the code at the time it was performed is typically not covered. The exclusion exists because the policy is not designed to cover knowingly substandard work. Your operational discipline — pulling required permits, passing required inspections, documenting code compliance — is what keeps the policy responsive.

The primary NCCI code for residential and light commercial electrical service work is 5190 — Electrical Wiring Within Buildings and Drivers. Commercial tenant improvement work and new construction electrical installation triggers NCCI 5183 — Electrical Apparatus Installation, which carries a higher rate. If your declarations page shows a different code for service work, ask your agent why. If your operation starts taking commercial installation work, notify the carrier at the time the work is signed — not at year-end audit.

This is the scenario where general liability and professional liability overlap. The general liability policy will defend the claim, but the carrier may simultaneously argue the loss does not fit the coverage — because professional judgment errors are excluded under standard GL. Contractors Errors and Omissions insurance responds to professional judgment claims, including diagnostic and inspection-related allegations. Operationally, what protects you is the inspection record — a service ticket documenting what was inspected, what was found, what was recommended, and what the customer declined.

Yes — if your general liability policy is written on an occurrence form. Occurrence form covers claims arising from work performed during the policy period, regardless of when the claim is reported. A circuit installed in 2023 that fails in 2025 is covered by the 2023 policy if that policy was written on occurrence form. The Mr. Electric FDD does not specify occurrence form, but Rikor strongly recommends it. A claims-made form leaves you exposed every time you change carriers — a real problem for electrical work where claims often surface years after the original installation.

The standard ISO general liability j5 exclusion removes coverage for property damage to the specific part of real property your operations are being performed on. If the wall your technician damaged is the wall they were working on, the damage may be excluded. If the damage is to a clearly separate area — a customer's furniture, an adjacent room — the coverage applies. The line between "the area being worked on" and "adjacent property" is where most fishing-wire damage claims end up in dispute.

The general liability policy covers property damage arising from your operations. If your installation caused or contributed to the surge, the policy responds. If the surge originated outside the building and your work was alleged to have failed to prevent damage, the claim becomes a professional advice question — which standard general liability does not cover. Contractors Errors and Omissions addresses the professional advice gap. A documented recommendation for whole-house surge protection — even when the customer declines — converts a professional advice claim into an unaccepted-recommendation claim.

If your apprentices were paid as electricians but worked unsupervised on jobs where state law required master involvement, the audit may reclassify their payroll into a higher-rated code, or the carrier may apply an audit penalty for misclassification. The prevention is documented supervision — a job log showing which master electrician supervised each apprentice on each job. Without supervision documentation, every apprentice payroll dollar is a potential audit bill.