General liability, excess towers and Action Over coverage for general contractors, construction managers and trade subs working in the five boroughs. We place through Amwins, RT Specialty, Burns & Wilcox and CRC.
Everything about pricing, limits and carrier appetite in New York construction traces back to these three sections of the Labor Law. Understanding which one a claim is pled under tells you how much room you have to defend it.
| Statute | What triggers it | Who is liable | Comparative negligence? |
|---|---|---|---|
| § 240(1) | Injury from a gravity-related risk — a fall from height, or an object falling on a worker. The “Scaffold Law.” | Owners and general contractors, regardless of whether they controlled the site | No defense |
| § 241(6) | Violation of a specific, concrete provision of the Industrial Code (12 NYCRR Part 23) | Owners and general contractors, non-delegable | Available |
| § 200 | Codified common-law duty to provide a safe place to work | Only parties that actually supervised or controlled the work | Available |
Under § 240(1) an underwriter cannot price in a defense. A worker who was intoxicated, who ignored a direct instruction, or who removed his own harness can still recover in full unless his conduct was the sole proximate cause — a threshold that is very hard to reach. That single feature is why a large share of national carriers will not write New York construction at all, and why so much of this class ends up in the excess and surplus lines market.
This is the claim structure that produces New York’s largest construction losses, and the one most contractors do not understand until it happens to them.
A subcontractor’s employee falls on site and collects workers’ compensation from his employer.
He sues the owner and the general contractor under § 240(1). The comp bar does not protect them — they were never his employer.
Facing absolute liability, the owner and GC bring a third-party action over against the subcontractor-employer.
The subcontractor’s own policy now has to respond — for an injury to his own employee, which he assumed he had already paid for through comp.
Workers’ Compensation Law § 11 bars common-law indemnity against an employer unless the worker suffered a statutorily defined grave injury. It does not bar contractual indemnity. If you signed a subcontract with an indemnity clause — and essentially every New York subcontract has one — § 11 gives you no protection at all.
General Obligations Law § 5-322.1 voids any construction agreement that indemnifies a party for its own negligence. In practice this rarely helps the subcontractor, because New York courts routinely enforce clauses drafted “to the fullest extent permitted by law” as partial indemnity for the portion of fault that is not the indemnitee’s own.
A New York contractor program is almost never one policy. It is a primary layer with several excess layers stacked above it, frequently with a different carrier on each.
Two failure modes we see repeatedly. First, follow-form gaps: an excess layer that does not follow the primary exactly can exclude Action Over or New York Labor Law even though the layer below covers it, which leaves a hole in the middle of the tower. Second, eroding limits: on many excess line placements defense costs come out of the limit rather than sitting outside it, so a $5M layer is not $5M of indemnity once a New York defense has run for two years. Both are worth checking before a renewal, not after a claim.
When an underwriter looks at a New York contractor, the subcontract package carries as much weight as the loss runs. A clean contract with defective insurance requirements behind it is worth very little.
Not a bare indemnity clause, which GOL § 5-322.1 can void outright. The savings language is what keeps the clause enforceable as partial indemnity.
Ongoing operations plus products-completed operations. Requiring only CG 20 10 leaves you exposed the day the job finishes, which is when defect and latent injury claims arrive.
Without it your own policy contributes alongside the sub’s from dollar one, and your loss history absorbs damage that belonged to someone else.
Stops the sub’s carrier from recovering against you after it pays, which otherwise turns a covered loss into a claim on your program anyway.
The contractual liability limitation endorsement deletes paragraph (f) from “insured contract.” Your sub has promised to indemnify you with nothing behind the promise.
If you require $10M of your subs but carry $5M yourself, the gap is yours. Your tower should sit at or above the highest limit you impose on anyone below you.
We review the actual subcontract and the actual certificates — not a summary — before going to market. A submission that shows underwriters a disciplined contract package and a clean AI structure prices differently than the same loss runs presented without it. This is where most of the recoverable premium sits on a mid-size general contractor.
There is no rate table for this class, because two contractors with identical revenue can price four times apart depending on trade, height, subcontracted percentage and losses. What follows are the placement ranges we see, not quotes.
| Profile | Annual revenue | Typical limits placed | Indicative GL + excess |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finishing subcontractor | $1M – $5M | $1M / $2M + $4M xs | $18K – $60K |
| Trade sub, work at height | $5M – $15M | $10M total | $85K – $260K |
| General contractor | $15M – $50M | $10M – $25M total | $150K – $500K |
| General contractor | $50M – $150M | $25M – $50M total | $400K – $900K |
| Construction manager | $150M+ | $50M+ total | Quoted individually |
These are ranges observed on placements, not rates, not quotes and not a guarantee of terms. Actual premium depends on trade classification, work at height, percentage of work subcontracted, the quality of your subcontract package, five years of loss runs, and carrier appetite at the moment you go to market. Nothing on this page is an offer of insurance and no coverage exists until a carrier confirms it in writing.
On larger New York projects the owner or construction manager frequently buys a controlled insurance program covering every enrolled contractor on the site. It solves real problems and creates a few new ones.
| Question to ask | Why it matters in New York |
|---|---|
| What is the completed ops tail? | Many wraps carry two to three years. New York construction claims regularly surface later than that, and when the tail expires the exposure returns to you with no policy behind it. |
| Is Action Over covered inside the wrap? | Some wrap forms restrict or exclude it. If it is excluded, the exposure you most needed covered is the one that fell out. |
| Who controls the deductible or SIR? | Wrap SIRs are frequently large and allocated back to contractors by contract. A “free” wrap can carry a six-figure retained exposure. |
| How is the credit calculated? | You are expected to strip wrap-eligible payroll out of your practice policy. If the credit is understated you are paying twice for the same exposure. |
If you are enrolling in a wrap this year, send us the enrollment package before you sign. The credit you take on your practice policy and the gaps you need to fill are both decided at that moment, and both are difficult to fix afterward.
Labor Law liability is statewide, but underwriting appetite, jury verdicts and defense costs are not evenly distributed. Where you work changes what you pay.
High-rise, facade and interior fit-out. The highest limit demands and the least carrier appetite in the state.
Heavy mid-rise residential and conversion work. Jury venue that carriers price defensively.
Mixed commercial, warehouse and residential. Large concentration of Spanish-speaking trade subcontractors.
Institutional, affordable housing and public work, generally with the highest contractual limit requirements.
Residential and light commercial. Somewhat broader appetite, same Labor Law exposure.
We also place contractors working in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland. The Labor Law applies identically, but appetite and pricing outside the five boroughs are often materially better — which matters if your work is split, because how the exposure is presented to underwriters affects where the account lands.
The questions contractors actually ask us, answered without the marketing layer.
Adjacent lines we place for the same contractors.
The more of this you fill in, the faster we can tell you whether the market will support what your contract requires. We answer every submission, including the ones we cannot place.
We review your subcontract package and loss runs, then go to market through our wholesale partners. Certificates are issued the same day once coverage is bound. If your renewal is inside 30 days, call rather than submit — New York excess capacity moves quickly.
