General Liability Insurance
General liability is the foundation of any security or surveillance business. It protects against third-party claims of bodily injury or property damage arising from your operations and job sites.
General Liability for Security & Surveillance Companies
Your technicians work in customers' homes and businesses — drilling, running cable, mounting cameras and panels, and moving through occupied spaces. General liability (GL) responds when a third party is injured or their property is damaged because of your work: a client trips over a tech's ladder, a drilled wall hits a pipe and floods an office, or equipment falls and damages a customer's property.
Why Security Firms Need GL
- Bodily injury: A customer, employee of the client, or visitor is hurt at a job site
- Property damage: Damage to a client's building, fixtures, or property during installation or service
- Premises liability: Slip-and-falls at your own office or showroom
- Products-completed operations: Claims arising after a job is finished
- Defense costs: Legal defense even when a claim is groundless
Contract and Bid Requirements
Commercial clients, property managers, and general contractors routinely require security vendors to carry GL — commonly $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate — and to name them as additional insured before work begins. We issue certificates and additional insured endorsements quickly so you never lose a job over paperwork.
Important: GL Is Not Enough by Itself
General liability covers bodily injury and property damage — but it does not cover claims that your system failed to perform, that an alarm didn't detect a break-in, or that you designed or installed the system incorrectly. Those are professional liability (E&O) exposures, which every security firm should carry alongside GL.
What's Covered
Frequently Asked Questions
No. GL covers bodily injury and property damage from your operations. Claims that your alarm or camera system failed to prevent a loss are professional liability / E&O claims — a separate, essential coverage for security firms.
$1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate is the common baseline required by commercial clients and property managers. Larger integrators and those bidding bigger contracts often add an umbrella. We tailor limits to your contracts.