Most shops we sit down with in Oklahoma City are carrying a general liability policy and assuming the customer cars are handled. They are not. General liability covers a customer who slips on your floor. It excludes property in your care, custody or control, and a car with the keys in your drawer is exactly that. Garage keepers insurance, also written garagekeepers, is the separate coverage that pays when a customer's vehicle is damaged while you have it. This page explains what it does, the one choice that decides whether a hail claim pays, and what we need to quote it, including the building if you want that covered on the same submission.
Who buys garage keepers
Repair and service shops
General mechanical, transmission, brakes, diagnostics. Cars in the bay and cars waiting on the lot for parts, sometimes for days.
Body and paint shops
Higher values, longer holds, cars sitting outside between stages. Spray booths and welding change the property side of the quote too.
Tire, lube and glass
Short holds, high volume. The exposure is the mistake on the lift or the customer car backed into another customer car.
Detail and wash
Keys handed over all day, staff moving cars constantly. Claims here are almost always driving incidents in the lot.
Towing and storage
On-hook is a separate coverage for the car on the truck. Garage keepers takes over once it is in your yard. You usually need both.
Dealers with a service bay
Dealers carry garage keepers under a garage policy with open lot and garage liability. That whole package is on our dealer page.
What garage keepers insurance covers
Garage keepers pays for physical damage to a customer's vehicle while it is in your care, custody or control: in the service bay, on your lot, being road tested by your tech, or parked overnight waiting for a part. The perils are the ones you would expect. Collision while your staff moves it. Fire and theft. Vandalism. Hail and wind if you carry comprehensive. A falling lift, a dropped hood, a fire that starts in the next bay and takes six cars with it.
It does not cover the work itself. If you install the wrong part and the engine fails a week later, that is a faulty workmanship claim and it belongs to your general liability policy's products and completed operations coverage, not to garage keepers. It also does not cover your own tools, your own vehicles or the building. Those are property and commercial auto, and the form on our quote page asks about them.
Legal liability or direct primary: the choice that decides the hail claim
Legal liability form
Pays only when you are legally responsible for the damage. A hailstorm dents a customer's truck on your lot while it waits for parts. You were not negligent, so a legal liability form may pay nothing, and the customer's own comprehensive has to respond. The customer is now arguing with you.
Direct primary form
Pays for damage to the customer's vehicle regardless of fault, up to your limit, before the customer's own policy. It costs more. In a state where hail is an annual event, most shops we write choose direct primary once they see the difference on paper.
Direct excess form
The middle option. Pays regardless of fault, but only after the customer's own insurance has paid. Useful when price matters and most of your customers carry full coverage.
Ask which form is on your current policy. It is one word on the declarations page and most shop owners have never been told which one they bought.
Limits: two numbers, not one
Garage keepers is written with a per-vehicle limit and a per-location limit. The per-location limit is the one that fails at claim time. A shop that holds twelve customer cars overnight with a $60,000 per-location limit is carrying $5,000 per car. One fire and every customer is under-paid. We ask two questions to size it: the average number of customer vehicles on the premises at one time, and the most valuable single vehicle you see in a normal month. Both are on the quote form.
What the underwriter asks about your shop
- Key control. Where keys live during the day and after hours. A lockbox or key cabinet inside a locked office is the answer that lowers the price.
- Theft protection. Fenced lot, cameras, alarm, exterior lighting, locked building overnight. Each one matters, and the combination matters more.
- Who drives. Every employee who moves a customer car gets listed with a driver's license. A tech with a suspended license moving cars is the fastest way to a declined renewal.
- Type of work. Body and paint, towing and anything involving welding or a spray booth are rated differently from oil changes.
- Loss history. Three to five years of loss runs, or a clean statement that there are none.
Covering the building on the same quote
Most shops either own their building or hold a lease that requires them to insure it. The quote form asks a plain yes or no: do you need the building covered? If yes, it asks for the square footage, year built, roof age and type, construction type, replacement cost value, the value of your tools, lifts, equipment and inventory, how the building is protected, whether you spray paint or weld on the premises, and whether anyone else occupies the building. That is the full property submission, so the garage keepers, garage liability and property can be quoted together as one package or with a specialty carrier for each piece, whichever prices better.
Roof age drives the property price in Oklahoma more than any other single fact. A metal roof or a shingle roof under fifteen years old quotes cleanly. An older roof is still insurable, but expect an actual cash value roof endorsement or a wind and hail deductible, and expect us to tell you which one you are getting before you sign.
How much does garage keepers insurance cost?
For a small independent repair shop holding five to ten customer cars, garage keepers alone often falls in the low thousands per year on a direct primary form with a $100,000 to $250,000 per-location limit. Body shops, tow yards and any operation holding higher-value vehicles run more. The price moves on four things: the form (legal liability is the cheapest, direct primary the dearest), the per-location limit, the deductible, and your theft protection and key control. We quote real numbers from your real answers rather than a range, usually within a day or two of getting the form and loss runs.
Gaps that show up at claim time
- Legal liability form on a hail claim. The most common surprise. Direct primary fixes it.
- Per-location limit sized for the average day, not the full lot. Count the cars on your busiest night.
- Customer cars off premises. A road test is covered. A car your tech drives home overnight usually is not. Ask.
- Tow trucks without on-hook. Garage keepers starts in the yard. The car on the wrecker needs on-hook cargo on the auto policy.
- Faulty work. The wrong part, the stripped bolt, the paint that peels. That is completed operations on your general liability, and some garage liability forms exclude it. Check.
- The building on a lease with no property policy. The landlord's policy covers the landlord. If your lease makes you responsible for the building or the improvements, you need your own.
What we need to quote your shop
The garage keepers quote form asks for everything below, and nothing else. It takes about ten minutes.
- Business name, entity type, EIN and the shop address.
- Description of operations and the types of work you do.
- Average number of customer vehicles on the premises and the highest single vehicle value you see.
- Theft protection and how you control keys.
- Every employee or mechanic who drives customer cars, with a driver's license number.
- Whether you need the building covered, and if so the square footage, year built, roof age, construction and values.
- Current carrier and expiration date, and your current policy or loss runs if you have them.
START THE GARAGE KEEPERS QUOTE
Garage keepers questions we get asked
Is garage keepers the same as garage liability?
No. Garage liability is the liability policy for a vehicle business: injuries and property damage arising from your premises, your operations and your own vehicles. Garage keepers is physical damage to customer vehicles in your care. Most shops need both, and the two are usually written on the same garage policy.
Does my general liability policy cover customer cars?
No. Every standard general liability form excludes property in your care, custody or control. That exclusion is the entire reason garage keepers exists.
Do I need garage keepers if my customers have their own insurance?
Their comprehensive may pay, and then their carrier may come after you for the money. A direct primary garage keepers form pays first and keeps your customer from ever having to file on their own policy for damage that happened at your shop.
Can you cover the building, tools and lifts too?
Yes. Answer yes to the building question on the form and it asks for the property details. Tools, lifts, equipment and inventory go on as business personal property.
Do you write shops outside Oklahoma City?
Yes. We write garage risks anywhere in Oklahoma, and Texas shops through our dealer and garage carriers.