Your liability for the work does not leave the site when you do.
A deck you built last spring fails this winter. The job is closed, the invoice is paid, the crew has moved on. The claim still comes to you, and it is your completed operations cover that answers it. Most trades have it. Fewer know what turns it off.
Build the contractor file Read the short answer firstThe exposure starts when the work ends.
It is a section of your own policy.
Let the policy lapse and it stops.
What is completed operations cover, and when does it apply?
It is the part of your general liability policy that answers for injury or damage caused by work you have already finished and handed over. The Province of BC’s standard construction contract lists it as a required piece of a contractor’s liability cover, under the heading “Products and Completed Operations Liability”. It is not an extra. It is expected.
The important word is occurrence. Your general liability policy pays for damage that happens while the policy is in force, whenever the work was done. So a claim on work finished three policies ago is still covered, as long as you have a policy on the day the damage happens. Let the policy lapse, and every finished job is uninsured from that day forward.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s definition of product liability makes the same point from the other side. The cover is “Also referred to in relation to claims arising out of completed work.” Your finished work is treated like a product you sold. If it fails later, the claim is about that product, and the cover has to be alive when it fails. Read the IBC insurance glossary (opens in a new tab).
Four things that decide whether it pays.
Whether the policy is still in force
Retired, closed the company, or switched to a cheaper policy with completed operations excluded? Every old job is bare from that day.
What the contract asked for
Owners and generals often ask you to keep liability cover running for a period after completion. Read that clause. It is a promise you made.
Your work versus the damage it caused
Completed operations pays for what your work did to other people and other property. It does not pay to redo your own faulty work. That is a warranty question.
Whether a wrap-up covered the job
If the project ran under a wrap-up, its completed operations runs on the wrap-up’s terms, not yours. Ask how long.
Three finished jobs, three claims.
The railing that gave way
A deck built two summers earlier. The railing failed and a guest was hurt. The trade had renewed every year, so the current policy answered it, because the injury happened while it was in force.
The retirement with no tail
A sole proprietor closed the business and let the policy end. A year later a bathroom he had tiled leaked into the unit below. Nothing was in force. The claim came to him personally.
The redo that was not a claim
A finish carpenter’s cabinets warped. The client wanted them replaced. That is the trade’s own work, so completed operations did not pay for it. It would have paid for the floor the warping damaged.
The questions trades ask about this.
Does completed operations cover my own faulty work?
No. It covers what your faulty work does to other people and property. Redoing the work itself is between you and the client.
I closed my company. Am I still exposed?
Yes, for work done while it was running. The exposure outlives the company, and a lapsed policy leaves it uninsured.
The general says the wrap-up covers completed operations. Does it?
For that project, on the wrap-up’s terms. Ask how long it runs after completion. Your own policy still covers every other job.
How long does the exposure last?
As long as the work exists and someone can be hurt by it. Your contract may set a period you promised to keep cover for. Ask us to read it.
Is it a separate policy?
Usually not. It is a section of your general liability policy. Check your certificate shows products and completed operations, and that it is not excluded.
Two that sit next to this one: what a project wrap-up does and does not do for your own company, and what naming someone as additional insured actually gives them.
Not the question you came with? Send it through the short contact form and we will answer the one you actually have.
Finished work is still your work.
Send us your current certificate and the last contract you signed. We will tell you what it promised and whether the cover matches.