The claims aren't usually about landscaping. They're about the truck, the trailer, the equipment that walked off it, and what got sprayed.
A landscaping or lawn care company in North Carolina typically needs general liability, commercial auto covering trucks and trailers, an inland marine floater for mowers and equipment, and workers' compensation at three or more employees. Two exposures decide whether the account is easy or hard to place: whether you apply chemicals, and whether you take down trees.
Property damage to irrigation, hardscape, utilities, and neighboring property — plus the thrown-object claim that cracks a windshield or injures a passerby.
Usually the largest single premium line in this class. Trailers must be scheduled, and NC minimum limits rose to 50/100/50 in July 2025.
Mowers, blowers, trimmers, and attachments — covered on and off the trailer. Theft off an unattended trailer is the most common loss in the class.
Required at three or more employees in NC, four in SC. Seasonal and temporary labor still counts toward the threshold.
Chemical drift and misapplication fall under the pollution exclusion on standard general liability. If you spray anything, you need this addressed explicitly.
Damage to the customer's property you are working on — irrigation lines, buried utilities, retaining walls — sits in an awkward spot on a standard policy and deserves a look.
Herbicide, pesticide, and fertilizer application changes the account. Chemical drift onto a neighboring property, misapplication that kills a customer's landscape, and any claim alleging bodily injury from exposure all run straight into the pollution exclusion on a standard general liability policy. Carriers that will write a mow-and-blow operation will sometimes decline a company that sprays. It is placeable — but it has to be disclosed and endorsed properly, and North Carolina requires applicator licensing through the Department of Agriculture for commercial application.
Tree work is a materially higher hazard class than grounds maintenance, and the distinction carriers care about is whether crews climb or use aerial lifts, and whether removal involves work over structures. A landscaper who occasionally drops a tree and is classified as grounds maintenance has a coverage problem waiting to happen — and an audit adjustment behind it. Be candid about the work mix; it is cheaper to be rated correctly than to be denied.
This is the highest-frequency loss in the class, and it is routinely under-insured. A zero-turn mower, a stand-on, and a full complement of handhelds represents real money sitting on an open trailer, and a business property policy will not follow that equipment off premises. Inland marine is the correct form.
Two practical points: schedule equipment at replacement cost rather than actual cash value where the carrier allows it, and update the schedule when you buy. Companies grow their fleet and forget to tell anyone, then discover the gap at claim time.
Two numbers decide whether you are legally required to carry workers' compensation, and they are different on each side of the state line:
That third number is the one that costs people money. Being under the statutory threshold does not mean you can skip coverage in practice. Every general contractor and property manager you work for will require a certificate showing workers' compensation before they let you on site, and if you can't produce one, your payroll gets charged back to their policy at audit. They will notice, and they will stop calling.
Licensed in five states. We write this coverage across North and South Carolina — our primary markets — as well as Tennessee, Virginia, and Florida.