Coverage Line · Errors & Omissions
Professional Liability Insurance for Contractors
If your business gets paid for advice, design, or estimates — not just physical labor — a mistake in that advice is a different kind of claim than general liability was built to handle. Get a professional liability quote online in minutes.
Professional liability insurance — often called errors and omissions (E&O) coverage — protects contractors from claims of financial harm caused by a mistake in professional advice, design work, estimating, or consulting-adjacent services, rather than physical injury or property damage. It's built for the part of your work that happens on paper and in judgment calls: the specification you wrote, the estimate you provided, the design recommendation you made. If a client claims that advice cost them money, professional liability is the policy built to respond.
Not every contractor needs it — a crew that only performs physical labor under someone else's design and specifications has a smaller professional-judgment exposure. But design-build firms, estimators, consultants, and trades that recommend specific systems or sizing (electrical load calculations, HVAC sizing, structural recommendations) take on a real gap without it. Getting quoted is a short online form, reviewed by a real licensed agent, with no office visit required.
What's Covered
What professional liability insurance actually pays for
Design & Specification Errors
A design-build contractor specifies the wrong materials or a load calculation is off, causing financial loss the client wants recovered.
Estimating & Bid Mistakes
A missed line item or miscalculated scope leads a client to claim they relied on inaccurate professional advice when budgeting a project.
Failure to Perform Professional Duties
A claim that consulting, inspection, or advisory work you were paid to provide was performed negligently, even if no property was damaged.
Legal Defense Costs
Attorney fees and court costs to defend against a professional-negligence claim, even one that's ultimately found to be without merit.
Contract Disputes Over Deliverables
Financial-harm claims tied to plans, specifications, or professional recommendations that didn't meet the standard a client expected.
Professional Liability vs. General Liability
Two different kinds of claims, two different policies
General liability insurance responds to bodily injury and property damage — a third party gets hurt or their property is damaged because of your work. Professional liability responds to a completely different category of harm: financial loss caused by a mistake in professional advice, design, or performance of services, where no one was necessarily hurt and nothing was necessarily broken, but a client lost money because they relied on your professional judgment.
A single project can trigger both kinds of claims from entirely different events. A structural miscalculation that causes a wall to fail could bring a general liability claim for the property damage and a professional liability claim for the design error itself — which is exactly why contractors who provide design, estimating, or advisory services alongside physical work typically need both policies, not one or the other.
Who Needs This Coverage
Contractor roles with real professional-judgment exposure
Design-build contractors
Anyone who provides design services alongside construction carries added exposure General Liability was never built to cover.
Estimators & consultants
Contractors who are paid specifically for estimates, plans, or advisory work face claims tied to that advice, not to physical work performed.
Specialty trades offering specs
HVAC, electrical, and structural trades that recommend specific systems or sizing take on professional-judgment exposure.
Project managers & CMs
Construction managers overseeing subcontractors and budgets are exposed to claims about how the project was managed, not just built.
Real Exposure
What a professional liability claim actually looks like
These are the kinds of claims professional liability is built for — financial harm from a judgment call, not a physical accident.
The undersized HVAC recommendation
You recommend a specific unit size for a commercial buildout. It turns out undersized for the space, and the client wants the cost of the replacement system and lost operating time covered.
The estimate that missed a major line item
A bid omits a required permit or structural upgrade. The client claims they budgeted based on your professional estimate and now faces an unexpected cost overrun.
The design detail that didn't meet code
A design-build contractor's plan passes initial review but is later flagged for a code compliance issue, requiring rework the client says was the designer's error, not the builder's.
Know The Limits
What professional liability typically doesn't cover
Professional liability isn't a catch-all for every dispute with a client. It generally doesn't respond to bodily injury or property damage claims (that's general liability's job), intentional or fraudulent acts, disputes purely over contract price or payment terms with no professional-negligence element, or work performed by a subcontractor you hired but didn't personally advise on. It's built specifically for financial harm tied to a mistake in professional judgment, advice, or performance — not every disagreement that ends up in a demand letter.
Because the line between a workmanship dispute and a professional-negligence claim isn't always obvious, a licensed agent reviewing your specific scope of work during the application process matters — they can flag where your exposure actually sits before you're relying on the policy language during an active claim.
Getting Covered
How to add professional liability to your coverage
Adding professional liability follows the same online process as every other coverage line: a short application reviewed personally by a licensed agent, a handful of extra questions about the professional services you actually provide, and a custom quote built from our carrier partners' appetite for your specific trade and scope of work. There's no separate office visit required, and no different process than adding general liability or a Business Owner's Policy.
Already have a policy with us? Adding professional liability is typically a quicker conversation, since your business details are already on file. Want the full quote-to-certificate process laid out step by step, including exactly who reviews your application and how to reach them? See how our virtual process works.
Cost
What affects your professional liability premium
Professional liability premiums are driven by the type of professional services you provide, your annual revenue tied to those services, your claims history, the coverage limit you select, and how much of your work involves design, estimating, or advisory responsibilities versus straightforward physical labor. A general contractor who occasionally recommends a system is a different risk profile than a full design-build firm, and pricing reflects that.
Because underwriting for professional liability looks closely at the scope of professional services you actually perform, our online application asks a few specific questions about your role on a typical project. A licensed agent reviews every application personally before it goes to our carrier partners, and bundling professional liability with your general liability or Business Owner's Policy can often reduce your combined premium.
Coverage limits are worth thinking through carefully rather than defaulting to the lowest available option. A single design-error claim on a mid-size commercial project can easily exceed a bare-minimum limit once legal defense costs are added on top of any settlement, which is why a licensed agent will walk through realistic project sizes and contract requirements with you before recommending a limit, rather than just quoting whatever the cheapest option happens to be.
Related Coverage
Often paired with professional liability
Frequently Asked Questions
Professional liability questions we hear from contractors
What's the difference between professional liability and general liability insurance?
General liability covers bodily injury and property damage; professional liability (errors & omissions) covers financial harm caused by a mistake in your professional advice, design, or performance of services.
Which coverage do most general contractors require subcontractors to carry?
General liability insurance is almost universally required, with workers' compensation close behind for any subcontractor with employees. Some GCs also require a minimum bond amount or additional-insured status.
What factors affect my commercial insurance premium?
Your trade/risk class, payroll and revenue, years in business, claims history, coverage limits, and location all factor into your premium.
Can I bundle multiple policies to save money?
Yes — bundling general liability and commercial property into a Business Owner's Policy, or writing multiple lines with the same carrier, often results in a lower combined premium.
Protect the advice you give, not just the work you do
Call 844-967-5247 or request a free quote online — a licensed agent will respond within 1 business day.