INSURANCE FOR AUTO REPAIR AND SERVICE BUSINESSES
Auto Repair Shop and Garagekeepers Insurance in Michigan
Protection for Your Shop, Your Work, and Customer Vehicles
Repair shops take custody of valuable vehicles while operating lifts, diagnostic equipment, tools, tow trucks, and sometimes customer loaners. We help Michigan auto-service businesses coordinate garage liability, garagekeepers, property, auto, and employee protection around the way the shop actually operates.
Garage Liability
Garagekeepers
Tools and Equipment
Owned and Customer Autos
Garage Insurance Has to Separate Several Different Vehicle Exposures
Damage caused by shop operations, damage to a customer’s vehicle in your care, and liability arising from an owned tow truck or loaner vehicle are not the same exposure. A well-structured program identifies which policy responds to each situation and where deductibles, exclusions, or limits may overlap.
We review garage liability or general liability, garagekeepers, commercial auto, dealers or non-dealers auto exposures, commercial property, tools, equipment breakdown, business income, pollution, cyber, crime, workers’ compensation, and umbrella coverage.
Garagekeepers Coverage Options
Garagekeepers can be written on legal liability, direct excess, or direct primary bases. The difference matters when a customer vehicle is damaged by fire, theft, weather, collision, vandalism, or employee handling, and deductibles may apply per vehicle or per event.
Completed Work and Faulty Workmanship
Liability coverage may address resulting bodily injury or property damage from covered completed work, but it generally does not serve as a warranty for replacing your own faulty work or defective part. Policy wording and exclusions should be explained before a claim.
Tow Trucks, Loaners, and Customer Pickups
Owned service vehicles, tow trucks, loaners, employee road tests, customer pickup or delivery, and non-owned vehicles require careful auto-symbol selection. Driver records, radius, vehicle weight, towing equipment, and emergency operations affect underwriting.
Property, Lifts, Tools, and Pollution
Building improvements, lifts, compressors, diagnostic equipment, customer parts, waste oil, batteries, and other pollutants create property and environmental exposures. Limits, equipment breakdown, business income, and pollution options should match the operation.
Local Insurance Guidance for Michigan Auto-Service Businesses
Customers First Insurance Group works from Clear Creek Plaza in Chesterfield and serves New Baltimore, Macomb County, Metro Detroit, and businesses throughout Michigan. Owner Michael Vereecke has worked in insurance since 2009 and holds the Commercial Lines Coverage Specialist (CLCS) designation.
We work with repair garages, tire shops, detailers, body shops, towing-related operations, and other automotive businesses. We ask how vehicles enter your care, where keys are stored, whether vehicles remain outside overnight, what test-driving occurs, and which owned or customer vehicles can accumulate at one location.
Auto Repair and Garagekeepers Insurance Questions
What is the difference between garage liability and garagekeepers coverage?
Garage liability generally addresses covered liability arising from business operations. Garagekeepers addresses physical damage to customers’ autos left in your care, custody, or control. Both may be needed because they protect different exposures.
What do legal liability, direct excess, and direct primary mean?
Legal-liability coverage generally requires the shop to be legally responsible. Direct excess may respond above the customer’s own coverage even without shop fault, while direct primary can respond first. Exact wording and deductibles vary by carrier.
Does garagekeepers cover tools or the shop building?
No. The building, business personal property, tools, lifts, diagnostic equipment, signs, and business income generally require commercial property, inland marine, or equipment-breakdown coverage.
Are customer vehicles covered during road tests?
They may be, depending on the policy, covered autos, garagekeepers terms, drivers, and circumstances. Road testing, pickup or delivery, and employee use should be disclosed so the correct liability and physical-damage protection can be evaluated.