Auto Repair and Body Shop Insurance in Connecticut: Garage Liability and Garagekeepers Explained

Short answer: Connecticut repair and collision shops need garage liability (or general liability written for auto service operations) for injuries and damage from their work, garagekeepers coverage for customers' vehicles in their care, property and equipment coverage, workers' compensation, and auto liability for any vehicles they drive, including customer cars on test drives and tow trucks. Garagekeepers is the coverage most often misunderstood, and the one that pays most often.

Garagekeepers: three ways to buy it

• Legal liability: pays only when the shop is legally liable for damage to a customer's car. A fire you did not cause, or a theft despite reasonable security, may not be paid.
• Direct excess: pays regardless of fault, after the customer's own insurance.
• Direct primary: pays regardless of fault, first. The best customer relations, at higher cost.

Set the limit for the maximum value of customers' vehicles you might hold at once, including high-value and electric vehicles, overnight and on weekends.

Liability from your work

Faulty-work claims, such as a brake job that fails or a wheel that comes off, fall under products and completed operations. General liability typically excludes the cost to redo your own faulty work; it responds to the resulting injury and damage. Customer cars driven on test drives or for delivery need auto coverage; confirm how your policy treats them.

Property, tools and environment

• Buildings, lifts, diagnostic equipment and frame machines, with equipment breakdown
• Employee tools coverage, since technicians often own expensive tool sets
• Pollution coverage for used oil, solvents and paint, which general liability excludes
• Spray booth fire protection and paint storage are key underwriting questions

Connecticut-specific points

Connecticut licenses repairers through the Department of Motor Vehicles, and consumers have the right to choose their repair shop, which gives independent collision shops direct relationships with customers and their insurers. Workers' compensation is required from the first employee. If you tow, you need commercial auto with on-hook coverage for the towed vehicle. See commercial auto.

New England Insurance, an independent Connecticut agency in Bridgeport since 2012, places garage programs for repair and collision shops. Request a review.