Property damage done by a crew: what insurance departments say general liability pays and leaves out

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It is about the policy a business carries for harm to other people, not for harm to its own crew or machines, and it says nothing about any one claim, insurer or tree company. Examples in the sources are about other trades; no source applies them to tree work. All pages were read on October 9, 2026.

What the policy is said to pay for

The Texas Department of Insurance says commercial general liability insurance, called CGL, protects business owners against claims of liability for bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury. It splits the cover in two. Its premises and operations cover is for bodily injury or property damage on the premises or arising from the business's operations. Its products and completed operations cover is for bodily injury and property damage away from the premises that the business's products or completed work cause.

The California Department of Insurance calls CGL the standard commercial liability policy and says it has three primary sections: premises liability, products liability and completed operations. Premises liability, it says, is liability for accidental injury or property damage that comes from a condition of the premises or from work under way, at the premises or elsewhere. Completed operations covers liability for injury or property damage that arises out of completed work.

The SBA's table puts it more briefly: general liability protects against financial loss from bodily injury, property damage, medical expenses, libel, slander, defending lawsuits, and settlement bonds or judgments. Insurance Bureau of Canada says commercial liability insurance would generally cover amounts the owner is legally obligated to pay for bodily injury or property damage to others, and would pay the legal costs of a lawsuit.

What the sources say is excluded

Both insurance departments warn that policies have exclusions. California lists the major ones: intentional injury, insured contracts, liquor liability, workers' compensation and employers' liability, pollution, aircraft, automobile, watercraft, mobile equipment, war, care, custody and control, damage to your work, impaired property, sistership liability and failure to perform. Texas explains several with examples from other trades.

Exclusion	What the Texas page says
Damage to your work	CGL policies generally exclude property damage to the business's own work. The exception: if a subcontractor working for the business caused the damage, the policy may pay to repair or replace that work
Damage to your product	Not covered for property damage to the product itself arising out of the product or any part of it
Contractual liability	Excludes injury or damage the business must pay because it assumed liability in a contract, with two exceptions: liability it would have had without the contract, and an insured contract as the policy defines it
Recall of products, work or impaired property	The cost of a recall is not paid, though cover may be added by endorsement for an added premium
Workers' compensation and employer's liability	Not intended to be covered by CGL
Pollution	Eliminates cover for injury or damage from a pollution event; the page lists exceptions that may give limited cover, including injury or damage from the escape of fuels or lubricants needed to run mobile equipment

Texas gives an example from building: if a roof built by the business collapses and damages the owner's parked car, the policy may provide coverage for the repair or replacement of the car but may not pay to repair the roof, because the roof is the business's work. The word "may" is the page's own.

Which year's claims are paid

Texas also explains the timing difference between two kinds of policy. An occurrence policy covers claims from injury or damage that happens while the policy is in force, whenever the claim is first made. A claims-made policy covers claims for injury or damage during the policy period that are also reported to the insurer during the period. For claims outside it, the page names two special covers: prior acts coverage, set by a retroactive date, and run-off or "tail" coverage, also called an extended reporting period, which it says is provided for an additional premium.

Limits and who is on the policy

California says a CGL has separate limits for general liability, fire legal liability, products and completed operations, advertising and personal liability, and medical payments, with a stated annual aggregate. It says that once total claims for those areas pass the stated annual aggregate, the limits are used up and the policy pays no further claims until the policy period ends. It adds a separate aggregate for products and completed operations. The same guide describes a commercial umbrella as covering the amount of loss above the limits of a basic policy. See umbrella and excess liability insurance for that.

The California guide adds that claims are to be reported to the broker-agent or insurer in a timely way, because the insurance contract requires it, and that a business trying to handle a claim itself violates its duties under the contract. For neighbour and tree-owner side questions, see who pays when a neighbour's tree falls.