Landscaping insurance in Ohio

What Ohio makes a landscaping company carry

Ohio's rules reach landscapers through the Department of Agriculture, not a contractor board. Check three things: licensing for the work itself, the pesticide business license and its insurance filing, and irrigation.

Landscape licensing: nothing statewide, two other layers

Ohio doesn't license landscaping as a trade. The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board has sections only for plumbing and hydronics, electrical, and HVAC and refrigeration.

Two other layers still reach you. Ohio's nursery stock law counts "any landscaper" who sells plants as part of a grounds improvement project as a dealer. Each dealer pays a $125 yearly fee per place of business to the Director of Agriculture and files an affidavit to buy and sell only inspected stock, and the license expires December 31. Sod and turfgrass aren't nursery stock under that law.

The second layer is local tree permits. In Cleveland, a contractor planting in the public right-of-way must supply proof of liability insurance that names the City of Cleveland as an additional insured.

The pesticide business license and its insurance test

Anyone who owns or runs a business applying pesticides for hire needs an Ohio pesticide business license for each location. Each location must employ at least one licensed commercial applicator, and out-of-state companies spraying in Ohio need the license too. It costs $35 per license and per location, and it runs October 1 to September 30.

Your people need their own credentials too. A commercial applicator license is required to apply pesticides for a pesticide business without direct supervision, and to apply restricted-use products. Newer crew members can work as trained servicepersons under the direct supervision of a licensed commercial applicator. Lawn work falls in the "turf pest control" category, and bed and shrub work in "ornamental pest control," which includes ornamental weed control. The owner answers for employees' acts under the business license.

The insurance rule goes past a simple liability minimum. Under OAC 901:5-11-07, the business must carry:

• commercial general liability of at least $300,000 per occurrence, $300,000 general aggregate and $300,000 products-completed operations aggregate, covering bodily injury, property damage and third-party claims
• plus either a separate professional liability policy or an endorsement for property in your care, custody and control during pesticide application, including damage to the property being treated

That second line matters. A standard GL usually excludes damage to the part of a property you're working on, so herbicide burn on a customer's own lawn can fall outside it. Ohio closes that gap by rule.

Proof is a certificate of insurance or binder filed with the license application. It needs a clause promising the insurer will give the department 10 days' written notice before canceling for non-payment and 30 days' notice of any other cancellation, non-renewal or material change. Miss filing proof before October 1 and the renewal fee rises by 50%.

Irrigation: no license, yearly backflow tests

Ohio has no irrigation contractor license. Ohio EPA rules do require a backflow preventer protecting the water system to be tested at installation or repair and at least once every 12 months. A water-only residential-type system without pumps may use a pressure vacuum breaker, but that exception ends once any additive goes into the system.

Ohio comp is a state fund, so add stop-gap

Every private Ohio employer with one or more employees must carry workers' comp, and it has to come from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation unless the business qualifies to self-insure. Private carriers don't sell Ohio comp. You buy it from Ohio BWC.

State-fund coverage leaves out employer's liability, the part of a comp program that defends you when an injured worker or a family sues the company itself. Ohio employers usually add it as a stop-gap endorsement on the general liability policy. The Ohio Supreme Court described that exact setup in Ward v. United Foundries (2011).

What that means for your crews:

• Sole proprietors, partners and one-person corporations with no employees can choose whether to cover themselves.
• Seasonal and H-2B crew members count like anyone else under the one-employee rule.
• Workers of an uninsured subcontractor are treated as employees of whoever hired that sub, so collect a BWC certificate before you hand off a mowing route.
• Crews that cross into Pennsylvania, Michigan or Indiana for a job should ask BWC about its optional Other States Coverage, which an employer elects with a separate notice (form U-131).

Skipping comp lets an injured employee sue you directly, without the usual employer defenses, and it can be a misdemeanor. Our landscaping workers' comp page explains stop-gap and audits in more depth.

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Ohio risks that shape a landscaping premium

A spade counts as excavation

Ohio's dig law defines excavation to include moving earth with hand tools. You must notify the protection service (OUPS, or 811) at least two working days before you start, not counting the day you call, and no more than 16 calendar days ahead. Shallow tilling of 4 inches or less to sow grass is excluded, but hand-dug planting holes and French drains count, and a cut gas or fiber line is a classic third-party property damage claim.

Signs and neighbor notice on lawn routes

For residential lawns in a city, village or subdivided township area, your applicator gives the customer written details at or before the application. Weatherproof signs at least 5 by 4 inches go at conspicuous points, including within 5 feet of common access points, with the bottom edge at least 14 inches off the ground for 24 hours. You must also make a reasonable attempt to warn any abutting neighbor who asked in writing, by the business day before, and keep those requests for three years. A missed sign is a license problem first and a claim problem later.

The employer's liability gap

An injured worker's lawsuit against the employer falls outside BWC coverage. Ohio limits employer intentional-tort suits by statute, and in Ward the court found that a stop-gap endorsement's exclusion for substantial-certainty claims meant the insurer had no duty to defend. Read the stop-gap exclusions with us before a claim, not after.

Ohio cities where we insure landscaping crews

What drives the cost of Ohio landscaping insurance

Two Ohio rules shape the bill. Comp is priced by BWC, so no agency can shop that line; what we can shop is the stop-gap endorsement and everything around it. And a lawn-care firm with a spray license pays for care, custody and control coverage or a professional liability policy on top of GL, which a mow-only account doesn't need. A design-build firm that resells plants also carries the nursery dealer license for each place of business, and if you add a second yard, that's a second $125 fee and possibly a second pesticide business license.

Your price depends on your payroll and class codes, your revenue, the services you offer (especially chemical work), your trucks and trailers, your claims history and the limits you choose. Our landscaping insurance cost guide walks through each one.

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Licensed in Ohio, based in Akron

Landscaper Insurance Group is a brand of The Allen Thomas Group, licensed in Ohio (License #29112, NPN 7642818). Akron is our home office, so Ohio accounts get an agent who knows BWC and ODA paperwork; that agent reviews your answers and talks with you before quoting.