WA · Contractor insurance
General liability, workers’ compensation, commercial auto and excess for Washington contractors. One thing we will tell you up front: workers’ compensation here comes from L&I and no broker in this state can sell it to you — ours included.
Washington registers contractors through L&I against a surety bond and a liability certificate naming L&I as certificate holder. The required liability limits are low relative to the work most registered contractors actually take on, so the registration figure and the sensible figure are rarely the same. Workers’ compensation is a separate matter entirely: Washington is a monopolistic state.
Worth knowing before you shop it
Washington is one of four monopolistic states, alongside Ohio, North Dakota and Wyoming. Workers’ compensation must be bought from the state fund through L&I and cannot be written by a private carrier — not by ALKEME and not by anyone else. What a broker can do here is the liability, the bond and the rest of the program.
Sources: Washington L&I — Register as a Contractor. Requirements change — confirm with the board before relying on a figure.
How each coverage actually works here, rather than in general.
L&I registration requires only $200,000 public liability and $50,000 property damage, or a $250,000 combined single limit — and the certificate must name L&I as certificate holder using your exact registered business name. That floor is far below what a commercial GC agreement will ask for, so the registration figure and the sensible figure are two different numbers on nearly every Washington account.
General liability across all five states →Washington is one of four monopolistic states, with Ohio, North Dakota and Wyoming. Workers’ compensation must be bought from the state fund through L&I and cannot be written by a private carrier — not by ALKEME and not by anyone else. Any broker offering to place Washington comp is describing something that does not exist. What a broker does here is the liability, the registration bond and the rest of the program, and helps you get the L&I risk classes right, because those drive the rate you pay the state.
Workers’ comp across all five states →Minimum $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident and $10,000 property damage under RCW 46.30.020 — the lowest property damage figure of the five, and low enough that a single at-fault collision with a late-model vehicle will exhaust it. Higher minimums apply by vehicle weight, passenger capacity and cargo class, and for operations regulated by the Utilities and Transportation Commission.
Commercial auto across all five states →The widest gap of the five. L&I registration is satisfied at $200,000/$50,000, while a commercial GC agreement in the Puget Sound market will commonly ask for $1,000,000 primary plus several million excess. In Washington the excess layer is doing almost all of the real work.
Excess liability across all five states →L&I registration requires a bond and general liability only. As with Oregon, a registered Washington contractor doing design-build meets every state requirement while the design exposure sits entirely uninsured unless a contract forces the issue.
Professional liability across all five states →Tell us the trade, the license classification and the payroll. We will tell you which markets fit before we submit anywhere.
