FIVE STAR PAINTING

You need general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, occurrence form, with Five Star Painting Franchisor named as additional insured on a primary and non-contributory basis with waiver of subrogation. Commercial auto at $1,000,000 combined single limit covering owned, hired, and non-owned vehicles. Workers' compensation at statutory plus $1,000,000 employers' liability. Cyber liability at $500,000. All carriers must be rated A-VIII or better by AM Best and admitted in your state. Certificates require 30 days' prior written notice by certified mail before cancellation or material change.

Standard general liability covers accidental property damage to third parties, which is the right category for overspray. Most overspray claims are covered. The risk is a policy-specific overspray exclusion or painting-related property damage limitation in lower-cost placements. Ask your agent whether your policy contains any such exclusion. Adjacent neighbor property damage from wind drift falls under the same provision.

Standard general liability has a pollution exclusion that applies to lead paint disturbance. If your crew disturbs lead during an interior or exterior repaint of a pre-1978 home and a bodily injury claim follows, the general liability carrier will cite the pollution exclusion. Contractors pollution liability fills this gap. It is a separate policy from general liability. RRP certification addresses your regulatory obligations — it does not restore coverage under the general liability policy.

General liability does not pay for the cost of redoing your own work. It pays for property damage resulting from defective work. If the customer claims the product selection or prep work reflected a professional judgment error — particularly given the Five Star two-year warranty — that claim carries an errors and omissions component. Standard general liability does not cover it. Errors and omissions insurance does.

Only if the subcontractor has a current certificate of insurance at the time of the incident. If the certificate has lapsed, your general liability policy's subcontractor exclusion applies. The damage is real. The coverage is not there. This is the most common uninsured claim across painting franchises that use sub crews for overflow or commercial work.

If the 1099 painter meets the legal test for employee status — which franchise-directed painters often do — your workers' compensation policy may be required to respond. If it does not and the painter has no workers' compensation coverage of their own, the injury claim can arrive as a general liability lawsuit. At audit, your workers' compensation carrier will also charge premium for any sub painters whose certificates you cannot produce.

Contractors pollution liability covers bodily injury, property damage, and cleanup costs from pollutant releases during painting operations — primarily lead paint disturbance and solvent fume exposure. The standard general liability pollution exclusion applies to these events regardless of how careful the crew is. For any painting franchise doing residential work in housing built before 1978, contractors pollution liability is the most important coverage gap outside the FDD minimum.

Commercial accounts typically require higher per occurrence limits than the FDD minimum. A per occurrence requirement of $2,000,000 is common from property management companies and facility managers. They may also require additional named insured endorsements for the property owner or management company and separate waiver of subrogation language. A policy built for FDD compliance may not satisfy a commercial certificate of insurance request without adding an umbrella policy and amending the endorsements.

Both interior and exterior painters are classified under NCCI code 5474. The code is the same. The risk that diverges is the experience modification — exterior work involving ladder and scaffolding produces more injury claims over time, which drives the modification upward for operations heavy in exterior work. At audit, your workers' compensation carrier reviews what your painters actually did. A crew classified as interior painters that spent most of the year on elevated exterior work will see a premium adjustment.