IN-HOME WINDOW COVERINGS · BUDGET BLINDS, LLC
BUDGET BLINDS
FRANCHISE
INSURANCE
Your crew installs 50,000 window treatments a week across the system — shutters, motorized shades, cordless blinds — and almost all of it goes perfectly. The customer signs off, the van pulls away, the COI is on file. The box is checked.
Here is what most Budget Blinds franchisees do not think about until it happens: you are not just a service business. You sell and install a manufactured product, and that product keeps living on the customer's wall long after your tech leaves. When a motorized shade shorts, a cord fails, or a heavy plantation shutter pulls its mounting out of the wall, the claim that follows is not about your install day. It is a products-and-completed-operations claim — and it can arrive months later.
BUDGET BLINDS, LLC sets the minimum coverage in your franchise agreement. Knowing what it requires — and where an installed product outlives the job — is where real protection starts.
BUDGET BLINDS, LLC
READY TO GET COMPLIANT?
Confirm your coverage stack in one call. We will check that your general liability includes the products-and-completed-operations coverage your installed treatments demand, that your install-day property damage is covered, and that the umbrella and employment practices coverage your FDD requires are actually in place.
JUMP TO SECTION
COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
AN INSTALLED PRODUCT THAT FAILED LATER
DAMAGE DURING THE IN-HOME INSTALL
WORKING ALONE IN A CUSTOMER'S HOME
THE CONTRACTOR'S LICENSE BOND QUESTION
WHAT IT COSTS
BEYOND THE MINIMUM
FAQs
$1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate
GL MINIMUM
$1,000,000 (REQUIRED)
UMBRELLA
Full replacement cost (general casualty)
VEHICLE COVERAGE
Required
EPLI
Occurrence basis
GL FORM
ON THIS PAGE
COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
AN INSTALLED PRODUCT THAT FAILED LATER
DAMAGE DURING THE IN-HOME INSTALL
WORKING ALONE IN A CUSTOMER'S HOME
THE CONTRACTOR'S LICENSE BOND QUESTION
WHAT IT COSTS
BEYOND THE MINIMUM
FAQs
WHAT A COMPLETE BUDGET BLINDS FRANCHISE INSURANCE PROGRAM LOOKS LIKE
SUBCONTRACTOR CERTIFICATE COMPLIANCE ACROSS YOUR FRANCHISE
Budget Blinds operators lean on 1099 installers during peak window-covering seasons to keep measure-and-install volume moving. When an installer cannot produce a current certificate of insurance, the year-end general-liability audit adds their payments to your exposure base, and a mounting failure on their work can fall back on you.
A lapsed certificate is invisible until a claim or the audit finds it. Rikor's subcontractor compliance monitoring tool tracks active certificates in real time. When a certificate lapses, you know before the next install, not after the bill.
FRANCHISEE QUESTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT INSURANCE DOES A BUDGET BLINDS FRANCHISE REQUIRE?
+
The 2025 franchise disclosure document, Item 8, requires general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate on an occurrence basis, a commercial umbrella of $1,000,000, general casualty insurance covering the full replacement cost of your vehicle, and employment practices liability insurance. BUDGET BLINDS, LLC must be named as an additional insured under each required policy. A contractor's license and bond are required only in states that require a contractor's license.
DOES A WINDOW-COVERING FRANCHISE REQUIRE DIFFERENT INSURANCE THAN A TREE SERVICE OR INSPECTION FRANCHISE?
+
Yes. Window-covering install is a lower-hazard trade than tree care, so the workers' compensation rates are far lower, and it does not carry the professional missed-defect exposure a home inspector faces. The distinctive Budget Blinds exposure is products and completed operations — you sell and install a manufactured product that keeps operating on the wall after you leave, which a pure service trade does not.
WHAT HAPPENS IF A WINDOW TREATMENT I INSTALLED CAUSES PROPERTY DAMAGE OR INJURY AFTER THE JOB IS COMPLETE?
+
That is a completed-operations claim — harm caused by your finished work after you have left. Your general liability's products-and-completed-operations coverage answers it, and the occurrence form the FDD requires means the policy in force when you installed responds, even if the claim arrives months later. Confirm the "your work" exclusion has not been broadened to strip that coverage.
DOES MY BUDGET BLINDS POLICY COVER DAMAGE I CAUSE AT A CUSTOMER'S HOME DURING INSTALLATION?
+
Yes, accidental property damage you cause during the install — a cracked window, splintered trim, a drilled pipe — is the kind of sudden, accidental loss general liability is built to cover. Damage to the customer's belongings your tech was directly handling can fall under the care, custody, and control exclusion, so add a CCC endorsement to close that gap.
DOES BUDGET BLINDS INSURANCE COVER SUBCONTRACTORS OR 1099 INSTALLERS?
+
Only if your general liability does not carry a subcontractor exclusion. Budget Blinds operators commonly use 1099 installers in peak season, and a mounting failure by a sub can reach back to you. Confirm your GL extends to your subcontractors and collect each installer's certificate of insurance before the work.
DO I NEED A CONTRACTOR'S LICENSE BOND FOR MY BUDGET BLINDS FRANCHISE?
+
Only in states that require a contractor's license to perform the work, per the FDD. A license bond is a surety bond the state requires to hold a license — it is not insurance and does not protect you. Confirm your state's licensing rule before opening, and do not treat the bond as a substitute for liability coverage.
WHO NEEDS TO BE LISTED AS ADDITIONAL INSURED ON MY BUDGET BLINDS INSURANCE POLICY?
+
BUDGET BLINDS, LLC must be named as an additional insured under each policy the franchisor requires, along with its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, successors, and assigns. Commercial accounts you serve — property managers, builders — may also require to be named additional insured on the jobs you do for them.
DOES BUDGET BLINDS REQUIRE AN UMBRELLA POLICY?
+
Yes. The FDD requires a commercial umbrella of $1,000,000, which is unusual for a low-hazard install trade. The reasoning holds up: a heavy treatment that fails and injures someone, or an installer's serious auto accident, can exceed your general-liability limit, and the umbrella is the layer that absorbs it. Raise it above the floor as you take commercial accounts requiring higher certificates.
HOW MUCH DOES BUDGET BLINDS FRANCHISE INSURANCE COST PER YEAR?
+
A full program — general liability with completed operations, the required $1,000,000 umbrella, vehicle coverage, EPLI, and workers' compensation where you have employees — commonly runs about $4,000 to $8,000 per year for a newer single-territory operator, rising with revenue, added installers, and crews. Window-covering install is a comparatively light insurance class.
DO I NEED WORKERS' COMPENSATION FOR MY BUDGET BLINDS INSTALLERS?
+
If you have employees, your state's workers' compensation law applies, and workers' compensation pays an injured installer's medical bills and lost wages. Its sister coverage, employers liability, responds when an injured worker sues the employer. The Item 8 insurance list does not separately state workers' compensation, so it follows your state's law — confirm your requirement and carry employers liability alongside it.
What a complete Budget Blinds franchise insurance program looks like
A properly built Budget Blinds program starts with compliance — the coverages the franchise agreement requires — and then closes the gaps an in-home install business that sells a manufactured product actually creates.
The compliance requirement gives you the frame: $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate general liability on an occurrence basis, the required $1,000,000 umbrella, vehicle coverage at full replacement cost, and employment practices liability — with BUDGET BLINDS, LLC named additional insured, and a contractor's license bond where your state requires a license. Meeting all of that satisfies the franchisor.
The protection lives beyond it. Confirm your products-and-completed-operations coverage is robust, because the product you installed keeps living on the wall after you leave. Add a care, custody, and control endorsement, confirm your general liability has no subcontractor exclusion and extends to your 1099 installers, and confirm employers liability at $1,000,000. Add cyber at $250,000 with social-engineering coverage, weigh third-party crime at $250,000 as your crews grow, and add inland marine for your tools and inventory. Treat the required umbrella as a floor and raise it as commercial accounts demand higher certificates.
Here is the checklist a complete program follows: confirm the FDD limits, the occurrence form, the additional insured language, and the required umbrella and EPLI; confirm robust products-and-completed-operations coverage; close the care-custody-control and subcontractor gaps; add employers liability at $1,000,000, cyber at $250,000, and inland marine for tools and inventory; weigh third-party crime as crews grow; and confirm your state's contractor's-license bond requirement before opening.
SUBCONTRACTOR RISK
A LAPSED SUB CERTIFICATE IS INVISIBLE UNTIL YOUR CARRIER FINDS IT
Most home service franchisees use independent contractors or 1099 workers at some point. The coverage gap this creates is not obvious until a claim surfaces. When a certificate lapses, your carrier invokes the subcontractor exclusion in your general liability policy. The work was done. The damage is real. The coverage is not there.
Rikor's subcontractor compliance monitoring tool tracks subcontractor certificates in real time. When a certificate lapses, you know before the next job starts — not after the claim comes in.
WADE MILLWARD, CIC
Founder & CEO · Rikor Insurance
Wade Millward has spent 18 years specializing in franchise insurance. He holds the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) designation and has reviewed hundreds of franchise disclosure documents across home service, food service, and commercial franchise verticals. He has built coverage programs for Authority Brands franchisees across electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and restoration trades.