Moon Insurance Managers, Inc. · TDI license #5595
Contractors General Liability Insurance in Houston, TX
Somebody told you to show up with general liability — a general contractor, a property manager, a registration desk — and they want a certificate proving it, usually by a date that is already close. This is the policy they mean, and the desk that handles both the policy and the paper.
What a trade license makes you carry
- Per occurrence
- $300,000, BI and PD combined
- Aggregate
- $600,000
- Products and completed ops
- $300,000 aggregate
- Filed with
- The license application
- On public projects
- Comp required, § 406.096
- 41years in Houston
- 20+markets compared
- Same dayDPS filing
- #5595TDI license
On the job
What contractors general liability covers
Somebody else gets hurt. A visitor trips over your cord, a homeowner catches a falling tool — bodily injury to people who are not your employees, arising from your work or your jobsite.
Somebody else’s property gets damaged. The pipe behind the wall, the client’s floor, the neighbor’s fence. Property that is not yours, damaged by the work.
The claim that arrives after the job is done. Completed operations — the part of the policy that keeps answering for finished work after you have left the site. It is also the coverage a general contractor’s contract asks about specifically.
Defense. For covered claims the policy pays to defend you, which matters long before anybody decides who was right.
What it is not: your tools and equipment (that is inland marine — ask when we quote), the project itself (that is builder’s risk insurance — physical damage to the structure going up, where this policy answers for liability arising from the work), your truck (commercial auto), and your crew’s injuries. In Texas that last one is the workers’ comp question — and on any governmental building or construction job, workers’ compensation is required for every worker on the project, flowing down to every subcontractor (Labor Code § 406.096). The whole story is on our workers’ compensation page.
Source: Tex. Labor Code § 406.096 — public building and construction contracts. Verified .
Three directions
Who actually requires it, in writing
Texas does not license general contractors — there is no state GC license to hang a policy on. The requirements arrive anyway, from three directions, and they are specific:
- Contracts. General contractors, property managers and commercial clients commonly require liability coverage on a certificate. $1,000,000 per occurrence with a $2,000,000 aggregate is the ask you will see most, often with additional-insured wording attached. That is contract practice, not a statute, and the clause in your contract is the one that counts.
- Trade licenses. Several licensed trades must carry general liability as a condition of the license, at limits the state sets. Electrical contractors, for example, show at least $300,000 per occurrence for bodily injury and property damage combined, a $600,000 aggregate, and a $300,000 aggregate for products and completed operations, with the certificate attached to the license application. Your trade’s own numbers may differ — we check them before quoting rather than after.
- City registrations. Cities, Houston included, attach insurance certificates to contractor registrations trade by trade — roofing, sidewalk and driveway work, and other permit-pulling registrations each carry their own requirement. There is no single citywide figure, whatever you have been told. Which registration applies to your trade, and what it asks for, is a ten-minute check we do with the quote.
Source: TDLR form ELC-LIC-003, rev. Feb 2026 — electrical contractor license application. Verified .
Do not mix these up
The certificate, the additional insured, and the waiver
Three pieces of paper run a trade’s insurance life, and confusing them is how coverage gaps happen:
- The certificate (COI) Evidence
- Proves coverage exists — carrier, limits, dates. It grants nothing and changes nothing. A certificate is a photograph of the policy, not a piece of it.
- The additional-insured endorsement Coverage
- Actually puts the general contractor or property owner on your policy for liability arising from your work. When a contract says “name us as additional insured”, this endorsement is what it means — not a line typed onto the certificate.
- The waiver of subrogation Also an endorsement
- Your carrier agrees not to chase the other party after paying a claim. Contracts ask for it constantly, and like the endorsement above it has to be issued rather than asserted.
We read the insurance clause with you before you sign, and we issue what it demands — certificates through our certificate of insurance request desk, endorsements through the carrier.
Who we quote
Trades we write
Remodelers, roofers, electricians, plumbers, painters, flooring and tile, landscaping, cleanup crews, handyman operations. New ventures with no track record, and trades the standard market prices badly, are ordinary work here — an independent desk exists to knock on more than one door.
Have these ready
What changes your quote
This policy is rated on what you actually do, so the questions are about the work rather than the paperwork:
- Your trade, and the share of each kind of work. A remodeler who does occasional roof work is a different risk from a roofer, and that split matters more than the label on the truck.
- Annual receipts or payroll, which is what most carriers rate on.
- Height and structural work. Roofing, anything above two stories, and structural or foundation work narrow the field of carriers considerably. Narrow is not the same as impossible, and it is exactly where an independent desk earns its keep.
- Subcontractors. Whether you use them, and whether you collect certificates from them. Uninsured subs get charged back to your policy at audit.
- Residential or commercial work, and whether any of it is new construction.
Have those five answers ready and the quote is a phone call rather than a project.
A different desk
Bonds are not insurance — and they are ours
Bid, performance and payment bonds guarantee the work itself to the party that hired you. They are not liability insurance and they do not protect you; they protect whoever asked for them. They live at Moon’s own bond desk, and the handoff is on our surety bonds page.
No obligation
Get covered, then get the certificate where it needs to be
Tell us your trade, your crew size and what the contract demands. We quote the policy, endorse what the clause requires, and send the certificate where it has to go.
Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 5:00; Friday, 9:00 to 4:00. 360 FM 1959, Houston, TX 77034. Policies written statewide — you do not have to be local.
Questions the trades ask us every week
Do I need general liability if Texas doesn’t license general contractors?
In practice, yes. There is no state GC license to hang the policy on, but general contractors, property managers, city registrations and client contracts require liability coverage constantly — and several licensed trades carry the state’s own insurance minimums. The paperwork chain, not a license, is what demands the policy.
What limits do general contractors usually require?
$1,000,000 per occurrence with a $2,000,000 aggregate is the most common certificate ask, often with additional-insured and waiver-of-subrogation wording attached. That is contract practice rather than law — the insurance clause in your own contract is the real answer, and reading it with you is part of the quote.
What’s the difference between a certificate holder and an additional insured?
A certificate holder simply receives proof that you are insured. An additional insured is added to your policy by endorsement and can claim under it for liability arising from your work. Contracts usually want the second and say so in exactly those words, which is why the distinction is worth knowing before you sign.
Does my policy cover my subcontractors?
Your subs’ work rides on their own policies — which is why general contractors collect certificates from every sub, and why your contract probably makes you do the same. Uninsured subs also get charged back to your policy at audit, which is a bill nobody enjoys. We help set the certificate chain up so it is not a claim-time scavenger hunt.
How fast can I get a certificate?
Once your policy is placed, certificates come from our own desk. Tell us the deadline the job gave you and we work to it.
Related
- General liability insurance The version for offices, shops and service businesses
- Workers’ compensation Your crew’s injuries — optional in Texas, required on public jobs
- Commercial auto The trucks, the ladder racks, the crew getting there
- Surety bonds Bid, performance and payment bonds — our own desk
- Certificate of insurance request Where the paperwork goes once you are covered
- Our Houston office FM 1959, on the southeast side