The Snow Exclusion on Your Landscaping Policy

Two Ways a Landscaping Policy Leaves Snow Out

A landscaper's general liability policy is written around mowing, planting and hardscape. Snow and ice work can fall out of it in two ways, and neither shows up on the declarations page.

A snow and ice removal exclusion

Carriers file endorsements that strip snow and ice removal out of general liability. Sample wording in Risk & Insurance Education Alliance course material defines the excluded work broadly enough to reach plowing, snow blowing, shoveling and salting, whether you do it or a subcontractor does it for you. With that endorsement attached, the fall on a lot you serviced may not be covered at all.

The titles vary, which is why skimming for one name doesn't work. Filed forms listed in the FilingFocus database (seen October 2026) include AAIS form GL 3023, "Snow or Ice Removal Operations," and carrier forms titled "Exclusion – Snow and Ice Removal Services" and "Snow Plow and Snow or Ice Removal Operations Exclusion." At least one filed umbrella form is a "Snow and Ice Removal Limitation," so the excess layer can carry its own carve-out.

A limitation to designated operations

ISO's endorsement CG 21 44 limits coverage to the premises, project or operation shown in its schedule. If the schedule says landscaping and nothing about snow, a snow claim can fall outside the insuring agreement without any exclusion at all. It reads like a description of your business, so it is easy to miss.

Public owners know the problem. Berkeley Heights' 2025–26 snow removal bid (opened September 10, 2025) warns bidders that some general liability and auto policies exclude snow plowing, and requires proof of coverage for snow plow operations and the products-completed operations hazard. A policy that excludes snow, or never included it, can't meet that requirement.

The Fall That Happens After You Leave

Even a policy with no snow exclusion can leave a gap, and it opens after the work is done. Under the standard ISO forms, damage done while you plow with a blade mounted on a covered truck is an auto loss, because operating the plow is use of the auto. The business auto form, though, excludes injury arising out of your work once that work is completed. And the general liability form excludes injury arising out of the use of an auto.

IRMI's Craig Stanovich explained the result on June 1, 2008: some insurers read the general liability auto exclusion to reach a fall on ice that forms after the plowing is done, which can leave a contractor holding both policies with neither one responding. His example was a patron who falls three days after the lot was plowed.

ISO's fix is optional endorsement CG 22 92, titled Snow Plow Operations Coverage. It adds coverage rather than taking it away: within the products-completed operations hazard, the general liability auto exclusion does not apply to an auto used for snow plow operations. Because it is optional, you have it only if your policy lists it. SIMA, the snow industry's trade association, lists it among the key endorsements for snow contractors.

When does plowing count as completed? The general liability form treats work as completed at the earliest of several points, one being when it has been put to its intended use. A plowed lot that reopens to traffic is the natural reading, but we found no court or insurer source applying that trigger to snow, so ask how your carrier reads it.

Your policy has to work on the days you aren't plowing.

The Truck With a Blade on It Is an Auto

Landscapers tend to treat equipment as equipment. ISO's general liability form treats snow gear differently: a self-propelled vehicle with permanently attached snow removal equipment is not "mobile equipment" and is considered an auto. That carve-out is in both the 04 13 and the current 12 25 editions of CG 00 01. The general liability auto exclusion then applies, and its exception for operating attached machinery reaches items like cherry pickers and air compressors, not snow plows. The plow truck belongs on the commercial auto policy, listed as a covered auto, with plowing disclosed.

On the auto side, ISO's business auto form covers physical damage to a covered auto and its equipment. The FC&S editors at PropertyCasualty360 concluded on January 8, 2020 that a plow blade should be covered for physical damage if the truck carries physical damage coverage. That is one expert reading, and forms and valuation vary, so make sure the blade and spreader values are declared.

A skid steer or loader is different. Under the same forms it is usually mobile equipment, so liability for what it hits sits on the general liability policy. The business auto form covers mobile equipment for liability only while a covered auto carries or tows it, so the machine itself needs a contractor's equipment floater, including machines you rent for a big storm.

Plowing with a personal pickup is its own problem. The standard ISO personal auto form doesn't flatly exclude business use of a pickup, but many carriers use their own forms, and Delaware's insurance commissioner warned on January 6, 2017 that a personal auto policy likely won't cover an accident while plowing for pay. No personal auto policy is a general liability policy. See owner-operators.

Workers' Comp: 9402 Versus the Landscape Codes

New Jersey doesn't use NCCI class codes. Workers' comp classifications come from the manual of the New Jersey Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau (NJCRIB). That manual lists snow removal, drivers included, under class code 9402, the same code that carries street cleaning and sewer cleaning. The snow entry carries an "NPD" (no payroll division) restriction tied to 5509, the code for municipal, county and state road departments.

The landscape codes don't mention snow. Code 0042 covers landscape gardening, such as laying out grounds and planting, and 9102 covers commercial or domestic lawn maintenance. Which code your winter payroll lands in depends on the manual's rules. The governing classification is the one, other than the standard exceptions, with the largest payroll. A separate operation that is not normal to or incidental to the governing business can be rated separately, subject to conditions; if the separate class is the lower-rated one, the conditions include no interchange of labor and separate payroll records. Whether winter plowing belongs to a landscaping business or stands apart is the carrier's and NJCRIB's call. Keep separate payroll records by type of work so the question can be answered.

Owners who plow get their own rule. If your company is incorporated and you, as an officer, run a plow at night, the NJCRIB manual assigns an executive officer's entire payroll, without division, to the highest-rated class that describes any of the officer's duties, with narrow exceptions such as construction work.

Two things are not in doubt. Seasonal and part-time workers are employees, because the statute excludes only narrow "casual" employment (N.J.S.A. 34:15-36). And if a subcontractor you hire has no workers' comp, the NJCRIB manual applies your rates to its payroll at audit. We never publish rates. See workers' compensation for snow crews.

Read Your Own Policy

Pull your general liability, auto, umbrella and workers' comp policies, including every page after the declarations, and check each line:

Coverage depends on the policy's actual forms and endorsements. If you can't find a line, send the whole policy and we'll mark it up. For the law behind these claims, read our guide to New Jersey snow removal law, and see general liability for snow contractors for how we write the coverage.