Z PLUMBERZ

The Z PLUMBERZ franchise agreement requires general liability insurance on an occurrence form at $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, with a $2,000,000 products and completed operations aggregate. It also requires a $2,000,000 umbrella that sits above your general liability, auto, and employers liability.

The named insured on your certificate is your own legal business entity — the LLC or corporation you operate through. The franchisor side of the certificate is where Z PLUMBERZ is different from most plumbing brands. The agreement requires you to name three entities as additional insured: PLUMBERZ International, LLC, BELFOR Franchise Group, LLC, and BELFOR USA Group Inc. Miss one and the certificate is not compliant.

The franchisor entity is **PLUMBERZ International, LLC**, a brand within BELFOR Franchise Group. The 2025 franchise agreement (Item 8, Section 8.7) requires you to name PLUMBERZ International, LLC, BELFOR Franchise Group, LLC, and BELFOR USA Group Inc. — plus their designated affiliates, employees, officers, and directors — as additional insured. An additional insured is a person or company added to your policy so your coverage protects them too. The agreement also requires a waiver of subrogation in their favor, which is a promise from your insurer not to chase them for money after it pays a claim.

What the agreement requires you to carry:

General Liability at $1,000,000 each occurrence, $2,000,000 general aggregate, $2,000,000 products and completed operations aggregate, and $1,000,000 personal and advertising injury. The policy must be on an occurrence form, which covers claims based on when the harm happened, not when the claim is filed. It must be primary and non-contributory — your policy pays first, before the franchisor's coverage. All three franchisor entities must be additional insured, with a waiver of subrogation in their favor.

Commercial Auto Liability at $1,000,000 combined single limit, covering any auto, including hired and non-owned vehicles — rented vehicles and the personal trucks your crew sometimes uses for a job.

Workers' Compensation at the limits your state requires, plus Employers Liability at $1,000,000 each accident, $1,000,000 disease per employee, and $1,000,000 disease policy limit. Workers' compensation pays medical bills and lost wages for an injured employee. Employers liability covers lawsuits outside that no-fault system.

Umbrella Liability at $2,000,000 per occurrence and aggregate, written follow-form over your general liability, auto, and employers liability. Follow-form means the umbrella covers the same things the policy beneath it covers, just with a higher limit. For a plumbing brand to require an umbrella at all is uncommon. Z PLUMBERZ requires it.

All coverage must be written by an admitted carrier — one licensed in your state — rated A- or better by A.M. Best, with 30 days written notice before cancellation or material change. The agreement also prohibits any policy provision that reduces coverage when a claim is brought by one of the named additional insured entities.

The Z PLUMBERZ FDD does not require cyber, employment practices, or business interruption coverage. Those are addressed in the gap-coverage section below.

Z PLUMBERZ franchisees run full-service plumbing — repair, drain and sewer, water heaters, leak detection. During busy stretches, most bring in a licensed 1099 plumber to keep up. That is where a common coverage gap opens.

Most general liability policies contain a subcontractor exclusion. The exclusion removes coverage for damage caused by an independent contractor working on your jobs. It does not matter that you dispatched him. It does not matter that he wore your brand. If the 1099 plumber caused the damage and the exclusion is in your policy, the claim is denied.

The exclusion is removed by endorsement — a change to your policy that restores coverage for damage caused by subcontractors who carry their own current general liability insurance. The word current is the trap. A certificate that was valid when you hired him and has since lapsed gives you no protection. At claim time, an expired certificate is treated the same as no certificate.

Most full-service plumbing franchisees bring in a licensed 1099 plumber during overflow weeks. When that plumber causes a loss and his certificate has lapsed, your carrier finds the gap before you do. Rikor's subcontractor compliance monitoring tool tracks those certificates in real time, so you know before the next job starts. See how subcontractor compliance works →

Require a current certificate from every 1099 plumber before they start. Keep it on file. Verify the renewal date before work begins — not after a claim arrives.

Full-service plumbing includes sewer and drain work, and on some jobs that means trenchless repair or pipe lining. Two coverage issues follow that work.

The first is pollution. The standard general liability policy contains a pollution exclusion that removes coverage for damage caused by the release of pollutants — and insurers treat sewage, drain chemicals, and sewer gas as pollutants. A sewer backup that floods a basement with contaminated water can be denied under that exclusion. The coverage written for this is Contractors Pollution Liability, or CPL, which covers bodily injury, property damage, and cleanup from pollution conditions your work causes. The Z PLUMBERZ FDD does not require it. For any operator doing real sewer and drain volume, it is a gap worth closing.

The second is damage to your own work. General liability excludes the cost to repair the pipe or liner you installed if it fails. The damage that failed work causes to other property may be covered. The cost to redo your own work usually is not. That distinction surprises franchisees who assume a warranty claim and an insurance claim are the same thing. They are not.

If your operation includes trenchless, lining, or heavy sewer work, build the policy around it. A general plumbing form was not written for the chemical and underground exposure that work creates.

Completed operations coverage extends your general liability policy to damage that surfaces after your crew has left the job. The Z PLUMBERZ FDD requires it specifically — a $2,000,000 products and completed operations aggregate — because the largest plumbing claims often arrive long after the work was done.

Here is how it works. The occurrence form your agreement requires covers a claim based on when the damage-causing event happened, not when the claim is filed. A connection that fails eight months after you installed it traces back to work done during that policy period, so that period's policy responds — even if the claim arrives much later.

The risk is not the coverage. It is continuity. If your policy lapses for any stretch, work done during that gap is uncovered. If you switch carriers, confirm your completed operations carries forward before the old policy ends. And confirm your completed operations aggregate is not quietly set below your per-occurrence limit, which would cap a late-surfacing claim below what you expected.

For Z PLUMBERZ, this question has a specific answer, because the franchise agreement asks for more than most agents put on a certificate by default.

Pull your current certificate of insurance and check four things against your agreement. First, the additional insured line. It must name PLUMBERZ International, LLC, BELFOR Franchise Group, LLC, and BELFOR USA Group Inc. — all three. Many certificates name only the brand a franchisee recognizes and miss the BELFOR entities. That certificate is not compliant.

Second, the umbrella. Your agreement requires a $2,000,000 umbrella over your general liability, auto, and employers liability. Confirm the umbrella appears on the certificate and lists those underlying policies.

Third, the endorsements. Primary and non-contributory and a waiver of subrogation in favor of the named entities both need to be in place — and the actual endorsement forms, not just a checkbox on the certificate, are what a careful franchisor or commercial client will ask to see.

Fourth, the carrier rating. The agreement requires an admitted carrier rated A- or better by A.M. Best.

"My agent said I'm covered" is not the same as "my certificate matches my agreement." The first is a conversation. The second is a document you can verify line by line.

The honest answer is that your premium depends on details specific to your operation that no published estimate can capture. What you can understand is how the number is built — and the part most franchisees never hear about until a bill arrives.

Workers' compensation is usually the most variable line. Carriers price it with a simple formula: your payroll divided by 100, multiplied by your state's rate for the plumbing classification (NCCI code 5183), multiplied by your experience modification. The rate itself is set by your state's rating bureau, not the carrier — the insurer applies the state's number. Your experience modification starts at 1.0 for a new operation and moves with your claims history.

Here is the part that surprises people: both workers' compensation and general liability are auditable. An audit is the carrier's year-end review that compares what you estimated when the policy started against what actually happened, then adjusts the premium up or down. General liability for a contractor is usually rated per $1,000 of gross revenue, though some classes use payroll or subcontractor cost instead.

Two examples make it concrete. Say you estimate $300,000 in payroll for the year and actually run $420,000. At a plumbing rate near $4.50 per $100 of payroll, the workers' compensation audit adds about $5,400 on that $120,000 difference. Separately, if you pay $60,000 to a 1099 plumber during a busy stretch and cannot produce his certificate of insurance, that $60,000 gets added to your exposure base at audit and premium is charged on it — the same as if it were your own payroll.

Across plumbing franchise disclosure documents, Item 7 estimates consistently understate the real annual cost once workers' compensation for a working crew, commercial auto for a real fleet, and the required umbrella are included. For a single territory running two to three vans and four to six technicians, a complete plumbing program commonly lands in the range of $12,000 to $20,000 per year — and the mandatory umbrella pushes Z PLUMBERZ toward the higher end.

The practical move on audits is to estimate revenue and payroll close to reality, and if the business grows fast mid-year, ask your carrier for a mid-term adjustment. Spreading the increase across your remaining payments is far easier on cash flow than absorbing a surprise lump-sum bill months after the year closes. The audit is not a penalty — it is the carrier collecting the premium that was always owed once your real exposure is known, and it can adjust in your favor too if you overestimated.

The Z PLUMBERZ FDD already requires more than most plumbing brands — general liability with full completed operations, auto, workers' compensation and employers liability, and a $2,000,000 umbrella. Where experienced operators go further depends on the franchisee's profile: revenue, payroll, subcontractor use, fleet size, and how much sewer and commercial work the operation takes on. The recommendations below are Rikor's baselines for newer franchisees, and they scale with your exposure.

Contractors Pollution Liability. The FDD does not require it, but full-service plumbing includes sewer and drain work, and the standard general liability pollution exclusion removes sewage, chemical, and contamination losses. Rikor recommends CPL at $1,000,000 each occurrence for any operator doing real sewer volume, sized up for heavy commercial work.

Inland Marine / equipment floater. Sized to the replacement value of your cameras, locators, jetting gear, and diagnostic tools, with high-value items scheduled by name. Standard commercial property does not follow equipment off premises. Inland marine does.

Cyber and Employment Practices Liability. The FDD requires neither. The Rikor home services benchmark starts both at $250,000 for a newer franchisee, scaling toward $500,000 to $1,000,000 as headcount passes ten employees or revenue passes $750,000. Online booking and payment processing make cyber real; any business with employees carries EPLI exposure.

Commercial Crime — $250,000 with a third-party crime endorsement. Covers theft by your own employees, including theft from a customer's property on a job. Plumbing service calls put your crew inside homes and businesses every day. The third-party theft endorsement is the piece that matters.

Independent Contractors Liability endorsement on the general liability policy. Z PLUMBERZ operators commonly use 1099 plumbers. This endorsement keeps work performed on your behalf by a sub from being disputed at claim time.

More umbrella than the required $2,000,000 — when your commercial work calls for it. Your agreement already mandates a $2,000,000 umbrella, which is a strong baseline. The question is whether your exposure has outgrown it. A failed main-line connection that floods a multi-tenant commercial building, or a serious injury on a job, can exceed $2,000,000 once business income and multiple parties are involved. Large commercial accounts, property managers, and general contractors frequently require $5,000,000 or more on the certificate. If your work is mostly residential service with modest property-damage severity, the required $2,000,000 stack is usually sufficient. If you are taking on commercial maintenance contracts and larger structures, size the umbrella to that exposure — the worst realistic loss on commercial work is what sets the number, not a default.