Are You Properly Covering Customer Vehicles?

As a repair facility, your customers leave their vehicles in your care, custody, and control for service or repair. If their vehicles are damaged while in your care, perhaps by vandalism or theft, you may be liable. Your liability for this exposure can be covered by adding garage keepers coverage to your garage liability policy.

There are different garage keepers options available depending on what is best for your business. You can choose to provide coverage only if your business is determined to be legally liable (Legal Liability), or you can choose to provide coverage regardless of liability (Direct Primary). You should discuss the available options and which ones are most appropriate for your business with our agency.

Interested in Garage Keepers?

You will need to provide us with the maximum value of customer vehicles on your premises at any one time to ensure that you are covered in the case of a major catastrophe, such as fire or flood. The limit shown on your policy declarations is the most that will be paid at the time of loss. It is very important that this limit is reviewed annually. As your business grows, so may the value of customer vehicles in your care. If there is a chance you may exceed the expected maximum limit, you may consider choosing to cover all loss, regardless of the expected maximum (Actual Loss Sustained).

Is Your Repair Shop Adequately Covered?

You spend the majority of your time servicing customers’ vehicles. The cost of the parts you install in those vehicles, coupled with the time and money invested in your mechanics servicing these vehicles, can be significant.

• When your mechanic installs a part in a vehicle such as brakes and rotors, and that part fails causing your customer to drive off the road and damaging the undercarriage of their car, how will your garage liability policy respond?

Your policy probably covers the resulting damage to the undercarriage of the customer’s vehicle, but does it also cover the cost of the brakes and rotors you installed? Will your garage liability policy also cover the costs associated with your mechanic repairing the issue? If not, you will bear the cost of the new brakes and rotors along with the time and money spent on your mechanic to repair the brakes and rotors a second time.

Additional coverage can help at a time like this. Reno Insurance has an optional auto repair insurance coverage package available, Broad Form Products and Completed Operations, that will cover property damage to the part you installed as well as the time and money required to fix the problem again.

Please contact our Dayton, Ohio insurance agency to discuss your current auto repair shop coverage and verify that you are adequately protecting your customers’ vehicles.