# Insurance for Shoveling Roofs



## Woodland (Sep 17, 2005)

I'm curious as to how some of you handle insurance for shoveling roofs in winter? We do landscaping in the summer months and my policy covers plowing by default (company figures if we play in the dirt in the summer we play in the snow in winter). I found out late last winter, however, that consideration does not carry over to roof shoveling. According to my agent, the only way to get coverage from that company was to carry another, separate "handyman" policy that would have cost more than my income (actual and/or expected) from the actual service. I would like to continue offering that service, but I won't do it uninsured and the aforementioned option wont work. I'm going to another agent next week sometime to see what my options might be (I'm switching companies regardless). Have any of you run in to similar problems? What might I expect to hear from my agent?


----------



## Mick (May 19, 2001)

Premiums for clearing roofs are very high; that's why most don't do it. Generally, you'll find that only roofing companies offer snow clearing from roofs because they already have the insurance. One alternative is to offer summer services that involve climbing - tree work, etc. This would help spread the cost to year-round. As it was explained to me - "The higher your feet leave the ground, the higher the premiums go.".


----------



## Woodland (Sep 17, 2005)

Mick;629311 said:


> "The higher your feet leave the ground, the higher the premiums go.".


I'm only really planning on doing single story homes, so the premiums shouldn't be too bad....

In all seriousness, I'm not holding out a lot of hope that a new carrier will solve this problem. Plan B is to maybe hook up with friend of mine that does carpentry work, thus is covered to have his feet leave the ground! I'll either refer all of my work to him, or perhaps have him "hire" me to help him shovel roofs, so I can be covered under his policy. He carries all the necessary insurance, GL & WC. But we'll see.


----------

