1. Worker’s Compensation Insurance
- Mandatory in most states, this insurance covers medical expenses and lost wages for employees who are injured or become ill due to their work in the repair shop.
2. Business Owner Policy Insurance
It combines three types of insurance coverages that many small businesses need to help protect them from different risks.
- General liability insurance to help protect your auto repair business from claims that it caused bodily injury or property damage to someone else’s belongings. For example, imagine a customer visits your auto repair shop to check on the progress of their vehicle. While walking through the shop, they slip on an oil spill that wasn’t properly cleaned up and injure their back. The customer decides to file a lawsuit against your shop, claiming that your negligence in maintaining a safe environment caused their injury. General liability insurance will protect your business from the financial impact of such incidents.
- Commercial property insurance helps protect the owned or rented building and physical assets, including the building, tools, equipment, and inventory, against risks like fire, theft, vandalism, or natural disasters.
- Business income insurance helps recover some of your lost income if you can’t operate your auto repair shop or garage due to a covered loss (like a fire), helping cover lost income, ongoing expenses, and even relocation costs.
3. Garagekeepers Insurance
Garagekeepers insurance can also be included in the Business Owner Policy Insurance (BOP), specifically protects the vehicles in the shop’s care, custody, or control. If a customer’s car is damaged or stolen while on the premises (e.g., in a fire, during a theft, or due to a shop accident), this insurance covers the repair or replacement costs.
Garagekeepers insurance is different from garage liability insurance, which protects the business from claims of bodily injury or property damage that you cause to others while operating your business such as a customer slipping in the shop. Garage liability insurance does not cover the vehicles and equipment that belong to your customers or that you borrow or rent for your business.