Bailee Insurance Coverage
What Is Bailee Insurance Coverage?
Bailee insurance protects you if a client’s property gets damaged or stolen while it’s in your hands. In insurance speak, this is called care, custody, or control:
- Care: looking after it
- Custody: keeping it safe
- Control: deciding what happens to it
If your business takes charge of someone else’s stuff — to transport, store, repair, or simply watch over it — you’re acting as a bailee. Bailee insurance helps cover the costs if something happens to a client’s property, so you don’t have to pay out of pocket.
Picture this: You’re a pet sitter watching Coco the chihuahua. During a game of fetch, Coco jumps, lands funny, and starts whimpering. Since Coco got hurt on your watch, you’re responsible for the costs of treating her injury.
Did you know? Pets are considered “property” under the law (though not in our hearts). That’s why nearly all pet businesses fall under bailee rules. Insurance Canopy’s pet business general liability insurance includes bailee coverage, so you can care for pets with confidence.
Who Needs Bailee Insurance?
Pet Sitters / Groomers — A dog jumps off your grooming table during a trim and gets hurt.
Commercial Cleaners — A client’s rug gets ruined while you transport it to the dry cleaners.
DJ / Event Vendors — You store a client’s rented lighting overnight, and it’s damaged before the event.
Fitness Studio Owners — A client’s pricey bike is stolen from your storage area.
Photographers — You transport a client’s heirloom wedding veil to a shoot, but it snags on your gear and gets ruined in transit.
Pro tip: Knowing when it’s safe to take care, custody, or control of a client’s property can be tricky. Ask your insurance company whether your general liability or equipment insurance includes or excludes bailee insurance coverage.
What Does Bailee Insurance Cover?
Bailee insurance covers someone else’s stuff while it’s in your care, custody, or control — whether you’re holding it, moving it, or working on it.
For a pet business, that could mean:
- The pet itself (injury, illness, loss, or theft while in your care)
- The pet’s belongings (leashes, carriers, beds, crates)
- Coverage at your business, at a client’s location, or in transit
Examples:
- Two dogs get into a fight at your boarding facility and hurt each other.
Bailee insurance can cover vet bills and potential lawsuits. - You break a client’s expensive dog carrier while loading it into your van.
Bailee insurance can cover repair or replacement costs.
Remember: Bailee insurance covers your responsibility for other people’s property. It doesn’t cover your own stuff, your own pets, or harm done on purpose.
Bailee Insurance vs General Liability vs Inland Marine: What’s the Difference?
| Coverage Type | What It Covers | Pet Business Example | What It Does NOT Cover |
|---|---|---|---|
|
General Liability |
Damage to someone else’s property not in your care, custody, or control; bodily injury to others; some personal/advertising injuries |
You accidentally bang the client’s door into their wall while trying to get Peaches outside for her walk. |
Clients’ pets or pet-related property in your care |
|
Bailee Coverage |
Damage, loss, or theft of a client’s pet or pet-related property in your care, custody, or control |
A bichon puppy flinches under your grooming shears, causing you to nick his tail. |
Your own pets, equipment, or supplies. |
|
Inland Marine |
Your business’s tools and equipment in storage, use, or transit |
Your clippers and dryer are stolen out of your mobile grooming van while it’s parked at a client’s home |
Client pets or property; your building or vehicle; damage caused by you or your employees
|
Get tailored coverage by selecting your industry below.