Who we insure · Landscapers who plow

Landscaper Snow Removal Insurance in New Jersey

Your liability policy was written for mowing, planting and hardscape. When the same crew and the same skid steer head out in a January storm, the policy has to say snow and ice too. One line on the forms schedule can settle that long before anyone slips.

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Send the whole policy. The endorsement list is where winter coverage is won or lost.

Who This Is For

Landscape and lawn companies that keep crews working through winter.

You plow commercial lots on year-round maintenance contracts, salt HOA roads, clear residential driveways, or pick up a few winter-only accounts to carry payroll until spring. The trucks, the skid steers and most of the people are the same ones who mow and plant in July. For the summer side, our sister site covers insurance for New Jersey landscapers.

Landscapers run all through New Jersey's snow case law. In Pareja v. Princeton International Properties (2021), the case behind the ongoing storm rule, the owner had hired a landscaping company for plowing, salting and pretreatment; the owner brought the landscaper into the suit, and then the injured man sued it directly. It won its motion, but only after being sued from two directions. In Qian v. Toll Brothers (2015), an association's landscape contractor salted the roads but not the walks, and the trial court refused to let it out of the case.

Why Your Insurance Is Different

The snow exclusion you may already have

Carriers file endorsements that remove snow and ice removal from a general liability policy. Sample wording reaches plowing, snow blowing, shoveling and salting, including work your subcontractors do for you. The forms aren't filed under a single name either: titles include snow or ice removal operations exclusions, snow plow exclusions and snow and ice removal limitations, and at least one filed limitation sits on an umbrella. Read the endorsement schedule line by line.

Sources: Risk & Insurance Education Alliance course material, "Commercial Liability Endorsements To Watch Out For"; FilingFocus filed-forms listing, retrieved November 4, 2026.

The limit that isn't called an exclusion

ISO endorsement CG 21 44 limits liability coverage to the premises, project or operation shown in its schedule. If the schedule says landscaping and says nothing about snow removal, a fall on a lot you plowed sits outside the policy without any exclusion at all. Towns have noticed the problem: Berkeley Heights' 2025–26 snow bid warns that some general liability and auto policies exclude snow plowing and requires proof of snow-plow coverage. Our guide to the landscaper policy snow exclusion shows where to look.

Same crew, different workers' comp code

New Jersey rates workers' comp from its own manual, published by NJCRIB, not from NCCI's. That manual lists snow removal under code 9402, "SNOW REMOVAL—& DRIVERS NPD WITH 5509 STREET OR ROAD MAINTENANCE." The wording for landscape gardening (0042) and lawn maintenance (9102) doesn't mention snow. The manual assigns a governing class by largest payroll and lets a separate operation be rated on its own only under conditions. If that separate class carries a lower rate, the manual also requires no interchange of labor and separate payroll records. It doesn't say whether winter plowing is part of a landscaping business, so the carrier and the Rating Bureau decide. Keep payroll records by type of work. An owner-officer who plows at night generally rates in the highest-rated class among his or her duties.

Seasonal crew is covered crew. New Jersey's workers' compensation law has no seasonal or part-time exemption; it excludes only narrow "casual" employment (N.J.S.A. 34:15-36).

Source: NJCRIB New Jersey Manual (online edition), Part 3 rules on governing classification, single and multiple enterprises and executive officers; Part 4 codes 0042, 9102 and 9402.

Snow revenue changes the underwriting

SIMA reports that most carriers it met with are reluctant to insure companies earning more than 20 to 25 percent of their revenue from snow and ice. For a landscaper, the split between seasons is one of the first numbers an underwriter wants, so give it accurately and keep it current.

This is general information, not legal advice; talk to your own attorney about any claim.

Coverage Priority for a Two-Season Business

One program, two seasons, and every line has to know about both.

Coverage depends on the policy's actual forms and endorsements. Sources: ISO CG 21 44, CG 00 01 and CA 00 01; NJCRIB New Jersey Manual; filed-form titles via FilingFocus.
Coverage	Why it ranks here	Check your policy
General liability →	The policy has to name snow and ice work. A thin description of operations, or a CG 21 44 schedule that lists only landscaping, can leave a winter claim uncovered.	Read the description of operations and every endorsement title.
Workers' compensation →	Winter work may rate under 9402 while summer work rates under 0042 or 9102. Seasonal hires count.	Does the payroll estimate split by type of work and include winter-only hires?
Contractor's equipment →	The skid steer that spreads mulch in May pushes snow in January. The business auto form covers it only for liability while a covered auto carries or tows it, so the machine needs a floater that follows it to every site.	Are pushers, buckets and spreaders scheduled with the machines?
Commercial auto →	Once a blade is permanently attached, the ISO liability form treats the truck as an auto. Business auto physical damage covers a covered auto "or its equipment."	Are plow and spreader values declared on each truck?
Contracts & certificates →	A year-round maintenance contract may fold snow into the same indemnity clause as the mowing.	Does the snow work in the contract match the snow work in the policy?
Umbrella & excess →	A large umbrella with a snow limitation only protects the summer.	Is there a snow or ice limitation on the umbrella form?

What Underwriters Ask

The questions that decide whether the snow side gets quoted with the landscaping side.

Your revenue by seasonSnow's share of the total, and whether it's growing.
Which crews and machines cross overMovement between operations matters for the workers' comp split.
Your local licensesFort Lee, for one, licenses landscapers and snowplowing contractors in the same code chapter (Ch. 258).
Your HIC registration, if you have oneRegistered home improvement contractors must carry at least $500,000 per occurrence in general liability (N.J.S.A. 56:8-142(a)).

Landscaper Questions

Does my landscaping liability policy cover plowing?

Only if its forms say so. Look for an endorsement that excludes or limits snow and ice removal, and for CG 21 44, which limits coverage to the operations in its schedule. Send us the full policy and we'll find the line that decides it.

Which workers' comp class code covers my winter crew?

New Jersey's NJCRIB manual lists snow removal under code 9402. The landscaping codes, 0042 and 9102, don't mention snow. How your payroll is actually split is decided by the carrier under the manual's rules, so keep payroll records by type of work and tell us which people do both.

Do my seasonal snow hires need workers' comp?

Plan on it. New Jersey's workers' compensation law has no seasonal or part-time exemption. The only exclusion that could apply is narrow "casual" employment, meaning work whose occasion arises by chance or is purely accidental (N.J.S.A. 34:15-36). Put every winter hire in the payroll estimate.

Should snow be a separate policy or part of my landscaping program?

Either can work, as long as both seasons appear in the forms, the payroll split matches the work and the equipment schedule follows the machines all year.

Make Sure Winter Is on the Policy

Upload your current policy, endorsements included. We'll tell you whether snow and ice work is covered, limited or left out.

Upload Your Current Policy