Your liability for the work does not leave the site when you do.
A deck you built comes apart a year after you finished it. 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. Products and completed operations is a standard section of a Canadian liability wording. What turns it off is set out below.
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. On projects where the contractor carries the construction insurance, the Province of British Columbia requires it. Its supplementary conditions to the CCDC 2 contract (opens in a new tab) list “Products and Completed Operations Liability (24 months)” inside the commercial general liability cover a contractor has to carry. 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 generally goes to the policy in force on the day the damage happens, whatever year you did the work. Let the policy lapse, and there is nothing in force for damage that happens after that. Two things qualify this. Products and completed operations usually carries its own limit for the year, shared across every finished job. And many wordings limit damage that started before the policy did, which matters most for the slow kind: water, rot and movement.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s glossary notes that product liability is “Also referred to in relation to claims arising out of completed work.” Your finished work is treated like a product you sold. On an occurrence wording the cover has to be alive on the day it fails, and that part comes from the policy rather than from the glossary. 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? Damage that happens after that day has nothing in force to answer it.
What the contract asked for
Your contract may require you to keep liability cover running for a period after completion. On CCDC 2 jobs that clock runs from Ready-for-Takeover. Read the clause. It is a promise you made.
Your work versus the damage it caused
Completed operations is generally written to pay for what your work did to other people and other property, rather than to redo the work itself. There is an exception worth knowing. The standard wording says the exclusion does not apply where the damaged work, or the work the damage arose out of, was performed on your behalf by a subcontractor. So a job you ran with subtrades can sit differently from one you did with your own hands. Check whether your wording carries that exception.
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. All three are illustrations, not client files.
The railing that gave way
A railing on an old deck gives way and somebody is hurt. The trade has renewed every year, so the policy in force on the day of the injury is the one that responds, whatever year the deck was built.
The retirement with no tail
A sole proprietor closes the business and lets the policy end. Later, work the business did leaks into the unit below. Nothing is in force, and a sole proprietor is personally liable for the business obligations.
The redo that was not a claim
A carpenter’s own cabinets warp and the client wants them replaced. Work the trade did with their own hands sits inside the exclusion. The floor the warping damaged is the part a liability wording is written for.
The questions trades ask about this.
Does completed operations cover my own faulty work?
Usually not, and there is an exception worth knowing. The standard wording excludes damage to your own work, but that exclusion generally does not apply where a subcontractor did the work for you. So the answer turns partly on who held the tools. Send us the wording.
I closed my company. Am I still exposed?
Generally yes, for work done while the business was running, and a lapsed policy leaves it uninsured. Whether a claim can still be brought, and against whom, depends on how the business was set up. A sole proprietor is personally liable for the business obligations. A company that has been formally dissolved is a legal question, so ask a lawyer before assuming either way.
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 go through what insurance it requires and how your cover compares.
Checked for technical accuracy by Amrit Sidhu of S&S Insurance Services Ltd. Last checked 28 September 2026.