Florida Contractor Insurance Requirements (2026)

Florida requires licensed general and building contractors to carry $300,000 public/general liability and $50,000 property-damage coverage, plus workers’ compensation OR a filed exemption. All other contractor categories carry $100,000 liability and $25,000 property damage. These minimums come from the DBPR Construction Industry FAQ (Fla. Stat. 489.115(5)(a); Rule 61G4-15.003); always confirm current amounts before buying a policy.

Liability and property-damage coverage

Fla. Stat. 489.115(5) requires public liability and property-damage insurance, with proof furnished to the jurisdiction where work is performed. Per the DBPR Construction Industry FAQ (statutory/rule basis Fla. Stat. 489.115(5)(a); F.A.C. 61G4-15.003), general and building contractors must carry $300,000 public/general liability and $50,000 property damage; all other categories carry $100,000 liability and $25,000 property damage. “All other categories” is where every trade certification sits — the roofing class, the plumbing class, the mechanical class, the three air-conditioning classes, the three pool and spa classes, underground utility and excavation and the solar class — and so is the electrical certification, although that one answers to a different board and a different part of the chapter. These are coverage minimums, not premiums, and can change — verify the current minimums with the DBPR rather than relying on a figure from a vendor page.

Workers’ compensation

Florida requires workers’ compensation coverage OR a filed exemption with the Division of Workers’ Compensation under Fla. Stat. 489.114 and Chapter 440. Owners and officers with no employees typically take the exemption route; confirm your status with the DBPR and the Division of Workers’ Compensation, per the DBPR Construction Industry FAQ.

The exemption route, and its limits

A construction business with one or more employees must secure compensation; the coverage duty starts at four employees everywhere else. An officer may step outside chapter 440 instead, but only within narrow limits — who may elect a workers’ compensation exemption sets out the three-officer cap and the ten percent ownership floor, and how a certificate is filed and renewed covers the two-year cycle. An exemption removes the officer, never the payroll around them.

What it costs

The state sets the minimum, never the price. Fla. Stat. 489.115(5) fixes what has to be carried and proved; what it costs to carry is quoted by a carrier against your own business, and two licensees holding the same class at the same limits routinely pay different amounts. Nothing in the statute or the rule puts a number on the premium, so any figure quoted ahead of an application is an estimate and should be treated as one. The state’s own fees are the part that is fixed and published — those sit in insurance cost inside the total alongside the rest of the budget.

Two situations carry no state coverage minimum because they carry no state license: work below every licensed class, under where a license is not required, and an owner building on their own property, who takes on the exposure personally.

What a quote is built from, in roughly the order it moves the number:

• The work the license covers. Rating follows exposure rather than title, which is why a trade whose jobs involve height, water or heat is priced differently from one whose jobs do not. The roofing class and a general contractor can hold the same limits and see very different premiums, and the scope boundary that drives it is the one worked through under what a building contractor may build.
• Payroll and revenue. Both are the carrier’s proxy for how much work is being done, which is why a quote is re-rated when the business grows rather than held for the life of the license.
• The limits chosen. The pair in the DBPR Construction Industry FAQ (Fla. Stat. 489.115(5)(a); F.A.C. 61G4-15.003) — $300,000 and $50,000 for general and building contractors, $100,000 and $25,000 for all other categories, including the CRC residential class — is a floor. Buying at exactly the floor is a decision rather than a default, and a contract or a jurisdiction may ask for more before work starts.
• Claims history and time in business, which is the one input a new licensee cannot improve and simply pays for.
• Whether payroll is covered or exempted. Workers’ compensation is priced on payroll, so filing an exemption changes the shape of the bill rather than deleting the line — the exemption’s narrow limits decide how much of a payroll it can reach.

A payment bond is a different instrument from the coverages above, and Fla. Stat. 713.13(1)(a) says a project having one does not remove the owner’s duty to record a notice of commencement. Where a bond exists, the notice must name the surety and the bond amount — what the notice records about a bond — and the bond sits inside the construction lien framework rather than beside it.

No surety bond belongs in this budget. The financial-responsibility rule for a Florida contractor applicant, Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G4-15.006, reaches the applicant through a FICO-derived credit score or a 14-hour Board-approved course and names no state bond at all. So a bond quoted alongside a policy is being sold against something other than that rule — a project, a contract, or a local requirement that a county sets for itself.

Get a quote

Line up coverage early, because proof of insurance is part of your application file.

Related pages

Insurance is one of the Florida GC license requirements and a required item on the Florida GC license application. For the overview, return to the Florida general contractor license guide.

This page summarizes insurance requirements and is general information, not legal advice. Verify required coverage types and minimum amounts with the Florida DBPR before purchasing a policy.