Don’t Care if Your Lawn Service has Insurance? Here's Why You Should.

Hiring a lawn service to mow your lawn and do other yard work for you seems simple, right? Just open up the yellow pages or Google someone, and voila, it’s done.

If only it were that easy.

Imagine coming home after a long day at work or running errands to find a gaping hole in your beautiful bay window, your prized rose garden in shambles, and a nice new dent in the side of your wife’s nice new car.

After picking your jaw up off the ground, you gaze out at your freshly cut lawn and put two and two together. You call your lawn service to see if they can shed some light on things.

“Uhh, yeah, sorry about that,” the guy says. “It was an accident. When we stepped off the mower to look at the damage to your window, it rolled over your garden and into the car. We knocked but no one was home.”

Okay, great, you know who was responsible. They even apologized — kind of. But the BIG question becomes, who’s going to pay for the damages?

Bay windows aren’t cheap, your prized rose garden took years to look this good, and nice new cars don’t look so nice with new dents.

You ask the guy about paying for the damage and… silence. You ask about his business insurance and… again, silence.

“Well, we don’t really have any,” the guy finally says. “We’ll pay for it, but it might be a while.”

And there you are, stuck with thousands of dollars in damages, not really knowing who’s going to pay for it, and when. Chances are you’ll either have to pay out of your own pocket or try filing a claim with your insurance company, which could raise your rates as a result of the claim.

It didn’t have to be this way, but it was the cheapest lawn service you could find (hmm, wonder why) and a friend of a friend used them a few years ago.

The lesson here is, like with any contractor, if you’re going to hire a lawn service to take care of your property, ask for proof of liability insurance. It could save you thousands of dollars of your own hard-earned money if something happens.

As a fully insured lawn service, Johnson Lawn Services invites you to see how we can help keep your property looking its best this year. Just click here.