A landscaping company can carry general liability, workers’ compensation, and commercial auto and still have no coverage for the three things most likely to produce a large claim.
The chemicals you spray. The tree you climbed. The equipment in your trailer.
None of those is an unusual exposure. All three are ordinary parts of the work, and all three sit outside a standard landscaping policy more often than owners expect.
Chemicals: The Pollution Exclusion
Most general liability policies contain a pollution exclusion, and it can reach herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers.
That means chemical drift onto a neighboring property, damage from misapplication, or injury alleged from exposure may fall entirely outside the policy — not sublimited, excluded.
Coverage exists, but it has to be asked for. Some carriers offer it through a herbicide and pesticide applicator endorsement. Others decline the risk entirely. And a policy quoted without disclosing chemical application will not have it.
The related exposure is regulatory. Applying any pesticide for compensation in Florida triggers licensing requirements under Chapter 482, and that license requires your carrier to file FDACS Form 16004 directly with the state. A cancellation or non-renewal gets reported to FDACS, which turns a lapse in coverage into a licensing problem rather than only an insurance one.
Tree Work Above the Height Limit
Many landscaping policies restrict tree work, and the restrictions live in the endorsement schedule rather than on the quote.
The common ones: a maximum working height, exclusion of complete tree removal, exclusion of chainsaw work above a stated height, and exclusion of crane or bucket truck operations.
A crew that mows lawns and also prunes a thirty-foot ficus is doing two different jobs. The second is arboriculture, with its own classification, its own rate, and frequently its own policy.
This becomes urgent after a storm, when debris and hanging limb work arrives in volume. It is the most dangerous version of the work — damaged trees behave unpredictably — and many landscaping policies do not contemplate it at all.
More at arborist and tree service insurance.
Equipment Is Not on the General Liability Policy
General liability covers damage you cause to others. It does not cover your mowers, blowers, trimmers, skid steers, trenchers, or trailers.
Commercial property covers what sits at your yard. Everything that travels is inland marine, and three conditions determine whether it responds.
Where it applies — at the job site, in transit, in the trailer overnight, and in the yard. How it settles — replacement cost or actual cash value, which matters because a five-year-old commercial mower is worth very little depreciated and costs the same as always to replace. And what theft conditions attach, since many policies require the trailer to be locked, unhitched, or stored in a secured area.
Read those theft conditions against where equipment actually sits at night, not where the policy assumes it does. Loaded trailer theft in South Florida is persistent, and the conditions are what get examined after one.
Small equipment also frequently carries its own sublimit, often below what a crew loads onto a truck each morning.
Damage to the Thing You Were Working On
General liability excludes damage to property in your care, custody, or control.
That distinction decides a surprising number of claims in this trade. Breaking the neighbor’s irrigation line is covered. Breaking the irrigation line you were hired to repair generally is not, because it was in your care at the time.
The same logic applies to the your work exclusion. The policy does not pay to redo work performed incorrectly. If a planting fails because of how it was installed, replacing it is a business cost rather than a claim.
Employees Using Personal Vehicles
Commercial auto covers vehicles the business owns or leases. It does not cover an employee running to a supply house in their own truck, picking up a crew member, or driving from the yard to a property.
Hired and non-owned auto is what responds for the business, and it is missing from a remarkable number of landscaping programs. The employee’s personal policy generally excludes business use, so there may be no coverage anywhere while the business gets named in the claim.
Uninsured Subcontractors
This one arrives as a bill rather than a denial.
If you subcontract irrigation, tree work, or hardscaping, you are responsible for confirming the subcontractor carries their own workers’ compensation or holds a current exemption. Where they do not, what you paid them can be added to your payroll at audit and rated as though they were your employees — and an injury to their crew can land on your policy.
Collect the certificate before the work starts, not at renewal.
Wear, Tear, and Mechanical Breakdown
Equipment failing from age, use, or deferred maintenance is not a covered loss on any property or inland marine form. A mower that stopped running because it was run to the end of its life is a maintenance question.
Equipment breakdown coverage can be added for mechanical and electrical failure, and for a company whose revenue depends on a small number of machines it is worth pricing.
Employee Theft
Tools and equipment disappearing over months is employee dishonesty, and it requires crime coverage. Property and inland marine forms respond to theft by outsiders, not by your own crew.
Work You Never Declared
This is the exclusion that is not written as an exclusion.
A company that added irrigation installation, hardscaping, landscape lighting, or tree work without updating the policy is performing work the carrier never priced. Several of those services also carry their own licensing requirements — irrigation contractor licensing through the DBPR, and specialty contractor licensing under Chapter 489 for certain hardscape work.
Operating outside your declared operations is the most common way a business ends up insured and uncovered, and it happens gradually rather than all at once.
Plant Failure
A tree or shrub that dies after planting is generally not a covered loss. Warranty on plant material is a business decision and a contract term, not an insurance question.
What to Check on Your Declarations Page
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Is there a herbicide and pesticide endorsement, if you apply chemicals?
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Can your carrier file the FDACS 16004?
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What height limit applies to tree work, and are removals excluded?
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Does inland marine cover equipment at job sites, in transit, and in the trailer overnight?
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What theft conditions attach, and does your storage meet them?
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Is hired and non-owned auto in place?
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Do you collect subcontractor certificates before work begins?
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Is equipment breakdown in place?
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Does the policy describe every service you actually perform?
Review the Gaps Before They Matter
Prestige Insurance Group works with landscaping and lawn maintenance companies, irrigation contractors, and grounds maintenance operations across Miami, Hialeah, Doral, Kendall, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Stuart, Orlando, Kissimmee, Tampa, and throughout Florida.
If you apply chemicals or do tree work, those two answers are worth having before the next job rather than after a claim.
Miami 305-969-8776 · Orlando 407-993-2331 · Stuart 772-247-3788
Se Habla Español.
Related Reading
En español: Seguro para Empresas de Landscaping en Florida
General information only, not legal advice. Policy forms, exclusions, and endorsements vary significantly by carrier. Confirm current pesticide licensing requirements with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and refer to your policy for the terms that apply to your operation.
