General liability vs workers' comp: what each actually covers

Two insurance policies sit behind almost every home-service job, and homeowners constantly confuse them. General liability and workers' compensation sound like the same protective fog, but they cover two completely different disasters. One is about damage to your stuff and harm to bystanders. The other is about the crew getting hurt. You want a contractor carrying both, and you want to know why.

General liability: the broken window and the bystander

General liability is the policy that pays when the work damages your property or injures someone who is not on the payroll. A ladder goes through your bay window. A stack of materials topples and dents a neighbor's car. A delivery driver trips over a tool left on the walk and breaks a wrist. These are the events general liability exists for, and on a residential job they are the everyday risks.

What it does not cover is the contractor's own employees. That is a common and costly misunderstanding. A homeowner sees the word "insured" on a flyer, assumes it covers everything, and never asks the second question. The second question is the one that protects you most.

Workers' comp: the injured crew

Workers' compensation pays for medical bills and lost wages when a contractor's employee is hurt on the job. Here is why it is your business as a homeowner. If a roofer falls on your property and the contractor carries no comp, the injured worker still needs to be made whole, and one place they can look is the property owner. You. Without comp in place, an accident on your roof can land in your lap.

The subcontractor wrinkle

A lot of small contractors run lean and use subs rather than employees. That does not get you off the hook. If subs are on your property, you want assurance that either the general contractor's policy extends to them or each sub carries their own coverage. Ask the general contractor directly how subs are covered, and get it in writing. A vague "they're all insured" is not an answer you can take to the bank.

How to actually verify

The certificate of insurance, or COI, is the document that lists the policies, the carriers, the limits, and the dates. Get one. Then do the part most people skip: call the insurance company listed on it and confirm the policy is active and the limits are real. Certificates can be stale or, in rare cases, forged. The issuer will tell you the truth in two minutes.

The reason this matters is not that accidents are common. On most jobs nothing goes wrong. It matters because the rare bad day is expensive, and the difference between a covered accident and an uncovered one can be tens of thousands of dollars and a lawsuit with your address on it. Two policies, one phone call. That is the whole job.