Auto Detailing Guide

Is The Shop Insured?

If you are a potential detailing or tinting customer, one of the things you need to ask your shop for is their "certificate of insurance". This breaks down exactly what their coverage is in regards to the services they are performing for you. Reputable shops will have one right in the office they can either copy for you or fax to you. Many of our customers will simply ask us to fax them a copy before they bring their car down for service. Why are they looking for this?

Regardless of what kind of vehicle you have, you want to make sure it's protected while under the care, custody and control of the shop and it's employees;
If you have a more expensive vehicle you want to make sure their coverage exceeds the value of your car. For example, a $90,000 BMW 745Li owner would want to look for at least $100,000 in "Garage Keepers Liability Coverage". This means that the shop is covered regardless if they drive your car into a wall or the shop burns down while your car is in it;
General Liability will not cover your car! This is important. A lot of shops will try and get around having Garage Keepers Liability while simply carrying General Liability and telling their customers they are fully insured. They are not. General Liability covers your painter if he drops his ladder through your stained glass window, but he's not in control of your house when he does that damage. Garage Keepers Liability covers the shop while they are in the care, custody and control of your vehicle. There's an important difference. Most reputable shops carry both General and Garage Keepers Liability.
You want to call the insurance agent that is listed on the certificate and make sure the coverage is in force when you bring your car down to the shop. They will verify this for you over the phone. You can also ask them how long they've had the policy and whether or not they've had any claims. Sometimes the agent will tell you and sometimes they won't. They will at least tell you whether or not the policy is good.

It is very important as a customer to make sure you are protected in these situations. Before any business or dealership does business with that shop you can bet they have requested a copy of their certificate of insurance and verified that it is current and in force before they send any work their way. Why should you be any different? Just because you don't have 20 cars to send to the shop doesn't mean your one or two cars worth of business is any less important. Verify insurance, if anything bad does ever happen then you will be glad you did.