An unendorsed policy does not respond to a slip on a lot you cleared.

General liability

Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.

Without it — A slip-and-fall on a lot you cleared is the claim, and without a snow and ice endorsement the policy simply does not answer it.

Commercial auto

Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.

Without it — A plow blade is an attachment your auto policy has to know about, and damage caused while plowing is auto exposure rather than general liability.

Umbrella & excess liability

Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.

Without it — Commercial lots and property management contracts routinely require limits above primary, and a bad ice event produces several claims at once.

Inland marine & equipment

Tools, equipment and property in transit. It picks up exactly where commercial property stops, which is the moment the item leaves the building.

Without it — Plows, spreaders and blades are seasonal equipment worth stealing and expensive to replace mid-storm.

Workers compensation

Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.

Without it — Night work, ice underfoot and long shifts in the cold are exactly when injuries happen.

My landscaping policy is in force. Am I covered for plowing?

Probably not, and this is the most consequential misunderstanding in the trade. Snow and ice operations generally have to be added to the general liability policy explicitly, as an endorsement or a class code, and to the commercial auto policy separately because a plow is an attachment the vehicle rating has to account for. Two policies in force and neither one endorsed is a common way to discover a gap in February.

The property manager wants to be indemnified. Should I sign?

Read the clause and check the state before you do. Several states have passed statutes making indemnity and hold-harmless provisions in snow removal contracts void as against public policy — Illinois has had one since 2016 — precisely because contractors were being asked to accept liability for the property owner’s own negligence. Where no such statute exists, that clause transfers real money, and your policy needs to be built to accept it.

Do I need coverage if I only plow for existing landscaping customers?

Yes. The exposure attaches to the work, not to whether the customer is new. A long-standing maintenance client whose parking lot you clear is exactly as capable of producing a slip-and-fall claim as a new one, and the endorsement question is identical.

What records matter after a storm?

Time-stamped service logs, what was applied and when, and the weather at the time. Slip-and-fall claims are often filed weeks or months later, and the defense is almost always the log. Contractors who keep them win claims that contractors who do not, settle.

What does a snow and ice management insurance application ask for?

The applications for snow and ice management businesses ask about 4 things above all: how many years have you been doing snow removal work; what equipment do you use for snow and ice removal (plows, shovels, salt spreaders, snow blowers, sweeper brooms, or other); how many owners or principals work on the jobs, what do they do, and what's your payroll for them; do you use any subcontractors who don't have their own insurance. Have your receipts or income statements from your snow removal work and your last three to five years of claims history (called loss runs) from your current or prior insurance company ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.