RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL ROOFING · SIDING · GUTTERS · WINDOWS · MDR UNITED LLC
MIGHTY DOG ROOFING
FRANCHISE
INSURANCE
Your team flies an AI-powered drone over a customer's roof to assess storm damage. It is the most modern thing you do — and the one operation your insurance most likely does not cover. A standard general liability policy excludes aircraft. A commercial auto policy covers ground vehicles only. A drone is neither. If that drone clips a window, a power line, or a bystander, the claim falls into a gap between two policies.
Mighty Dog Roofing's franchise agreement is unusually thorough. It requires occurrence-form general liability with completed operations, an equipment floater, contractors professional liability, employment-practices coverage, and an umbrella. It is one of the most complete insurance sections in this trade. And it still does not name the drone.
MDR United LLC sets the minimum. Meeting it lets you open. Knowing what it does not name is how you protect everything you do.
MDR United LLC — Pennsylvania LLC
JUMP TO SECTION
COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
MATERIALS DROPPED OFF A ROOF
SUBCONTRACTORS FOR OVERFLOW WORK
A ROOF THAT FAILS MONTHS LATER
THE WORKERS' COMP AUDIT AFTER STORM SEASON
WHAT IT COSTS
BEYOND THE MINIMUM
FAQs
$1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate (occurrence form, completed ops)
GL MINIMUM
$1,000,000 (professional liability)
CONTRACTORS E&O REQUIRED
$250,000 (third-party endorsement + franchisor co-defendant)
EPLI REQUIRED
$1,000,000 by accident / $1,000,000 by disease
WC / EMPLOYERS LIABILITY
A.M. Best A-VII or better
CARRIER RATING REQUIRED
ON THIS PAGE
COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS
MATERIALS DROPPED OFF A ROOF
SUBCONTRACTORS FOR OVERFLOW WORK
A ROOF THAT FAILS MONTHS LATER
THE WORKERS' COMP AUDIT AFTER STORM SEASON
WHAT IT COSTS
BEYOND THE MINIMUM
FAQs
COMPLETE INSURANCE PROGRAM
SUBCONTRACTOR CERTIFICATE COMPLIANCE ACROSS YOUR FRANCHISE
Mighty Dog's agreement is unusually strict about subcontractors — it requires every sub to carry matching insurance, name the franchisor as additional insured, and decline to exclude principals from workers' compensation. That requirement only protects you if you actually enforce it, on every sub, on every job.
The gap is invisible until it isn't. A sub whose certificate lapsed mid-season falls off a roof, or causes damage, and the liability and the workers' compensation both revert to you. Or the audit finds the undocumented sub pay and adds it to your roofing-rated payroll — the most expensive base there is. The work was done. The exposure was real. The coverage was not there.
Rikor's subcontractor compliance monitoring tool tracks subcontractor certificates in real time. When one lapses, you know before the next roof — not after the claim or the audit bill arrives.
FRANCHISEE QUESTIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHAT INSURANCE DOES A ROOFING FRANCHISE LIKE MIGHTY DOG ROOFING REQUIRE?
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The 2026 Mighty Dog Roofing franchise agreement (Item 8) requires general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate on an occurrence form with products and completed operations; auto at $1,000,000 combined single limit with physical damage; a contractors equipment floater; EPLI at $250,000 with a third-party endorsement and franchisor co-defendant; workers' compensation with $1,000,000 employers liability; contractors professional liability (E&O) at $1,000,000; property at 100% replacement cost; and an umbrella excess over GL, auto, and employers liability. Coverage must be A.M. Best A-VII or better, with MDR United LLC named as additional insured, primary and non-contributory, with a waiver of subrogation.
WHAT ENTITY NAME GOES ON MY CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE FOR A ROOFING FRANCHISE?
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Your own legal business entity is the named insured. The franchisor entity you must name as additional insured is **MDR United LLC**, along with its subsidiaries, affiliates, and respective officers, directors, members, shareholders, and employees.
DOES MY WORKERS' COMP RATE CHANGE IF I USE SUBS FOR THE HIGH-RISK ROOF WORK?
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It can. Subcontractors who cannot show their own coverage get added to your workers' compensation base at the year-end audit, and they are rated on the roofing class code (NCCI 5551) — the most expensive in home services. The FDD requires your subs to carry matching insurance and not exclude principals from workers' compensation; collecting those certificates is what keeps their pay off your audit.
DOES MY INSURANCE COVER SUBCONTRACTORS I USE FOR OVERFLOW ROOFING WORK?
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Only if your general liability includes independent-contractors coverage and your subs carry their own insurance. Many roofing subs are sole proprietors who opt out of workers' compensation, and if one is hurt or causes damage without coverage, the liability reverts to you. Your agreement requires every sub to carry matching coverage and name MDR United LLC as additional insured.
WHAT IF A ROOF I INSTALLED FAILS AND ALLOWS WATER DAMAGE MONTHS LATER?
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That is a completed-operations claim. Mighty Dog's required occurrence-form general liability with completed-operations coverage responds to the resulting interior damage — ceilings, floors, contents — even when the leak surfaces months after the job. It will not pay to redo the roof itself (the "your work" exclusion), and a dispute over whether you should have caught the defect can fall to your contractors E&O.
WHAT HAPPENS AT MY WORKERS' COMP AUDIT IF I ADDED A CREW FOR STORM SEASON?
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Your actual payroll will exceed the estimate you started with, and the audit will bill the difference at the roofing rate — which can mean a five-figure lump sum after the season. Estimate payroll realistically and, if you add crews mid-year, ask your carrier for a mid-term adjustment so the increase spreads across installments instead of landing as one bill.
HOW DOES SPRAY FOAM INSULATION OR STORM RESTORATION WORK CHANGE MY COVERAGE COMPARED TO STANDARD ROOFING?
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Storm restoration adds a professional exposure — disputes over your damage assessment and scope — which is why the FDD requires contractors E&O. If you ever add spray-foam or chemical-application work, that introduces a pollution exposure your standard GL excludes; the FDD allows pollution coverage to be combined with the GL policy, so confirm it is actually included before doing that work.
HOW MUCH DOES ROOFING FRANCHISE INSURANCE COST PER YEAR?
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Roofing is the highest-cost insurance trade in home services. A complete program for a territory with one or two crews commonly runs $20,000 to $40,000 or more per year, with workers' compensation driving most of it. Both general liability and workers' compensation are trued up at a year-end audit.
What a complete Mighty Dog Roofing franchise insurance program looks like
A properly built Mighty Dog Roofing program starts from one of the strongest agreements in the trade and closes the few gaps a thorough agreement still leaves.
The compliance requirement gives you a strong frame: occurrence-form general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence with completed operations, $1,000,000 auto with physical damage, an equipment floater, $1,000,000 contractors E&O, $250,000 EPLI with the third-party and co-defendant endorsements, statutory workers' compensation with $1,000,000 employers liability, property at replacement cost, and an umbrella — all through an A-VII carrier with MDR United LLC named as additional insured. Meeting that lets you open.
The protection lives in what the agreement does not name. Add drone liability for the AI-powered inspections you market, because a drone is neither a covered aircraft under GL nor a vehicle under auto. Put a real dollar limit on the umbrella — at least $2,000,000, follow-form — because a fall, a whole-house water loss, or a commercial storm job can run past your primary limits. Size the equipment floater to your real gear, add cyber at $250,000, and confirm the E&O actually covers your assessment work.
Above all, build the policy for the roofing operator you intend to become — storm work, commercial accounts, drones, and all. The most modern thing you do is the one your standard stack does not name. A complete program, named to your entity and built for what you actually do, is what keeps a single claim from ending the business you built.
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.