In today’s litigious society, whether you are a plumber, an architect or a free-lance artist leasing a space for your first exhibition, often you will come across language in a lease/contract stating they must be listed as “Additional Insured”. What does this mean? How will this verbiage respond? What does this mean for my insurance?
By adding a company to your Commercial General Liability Policy as “Additional Insured”, you are protecting that entity against your company’s negligence. For example, in a standard lease agreement the landlord may require you to list them as Additional Insured. If someone were to get injured due to your negligence, they would most likely file suit against you as well as the owner of the premises. By adding the landlord as Additional Insured, your policy would respond on their behalf. This language is also very important if you were to hire a subcontractor to perform work on your behalf. By requiring the subcontractor to list you as Additional Insured on their General Liability, their policy would respond if you were to be named in the claim caused by their negligence.
Additional Insured status must be added to the Commercial General Liability policy, and some carriers can offer this at a very minimal cost or may include it for free in a broadening endorsement if available. Additional Insured status DOES NOT MEAN the person listed does not need to carry their own insurance. It simply means that they can rely on the other person’s insurance policy to protect them from negligence caused by the Named Insured.
There are many different endorsements that are specific to the type of exposure they are extending liability to, i.e. Vendors, Lessors, Lessors of Equipment, Contractors, Completed Operations Extension, etc. We encourage you to discuss this with your current agent, or contact us here at Henry M. Murray Agency Inc. and we will gladly assist in anyway that we can.
Cynthia D. Hoffman, CIC Account Manager
Posted in: annapolis insurance agency, business insurance policies, commercial insurance, henry murray insurance annapolis