Residential Home Builder Insurance

Protecting production, custom, and spec builders long after the keys change hands

The last phase just closed escrow and families are unpacking. Seven years later, a defect attorney sends notice on behalf of the owners of 140 homes: stucco cracking, water behind the windows, slabs that moved. Most of the crews who did that work have moved on, and your company's name is on every purchase contract. That is the business of building homes to sell: you sell a finished product, and the law treats you as the party that answers for every trade underneath you. That sets you apart from a general contractor building to an owner's order and from a real estate developer who hires one. Your program sits within our contractor insurance practice.

Properly structured coverage protects your company, your trades, and the homes that carry your name for years after closing.

The Home Builder's Signature Exposures

Your signature exposure is construction-defect liability that outlives the sale by a decade. Defect claims arrive after closing, often from an HOA or a group of owners, and multiply across every home built from the same plan by the same crews. Whether you are covered depends on three things: general liability with completed-operations coverage in force when the damage happens, subcontractors whose own policies name you for completed work, and a policy form that doesn't exclude residential construction in the first place.

Key Risks in Home Building Operations

Home builders face exposure related to:

• Water intrusion at windows, roofs, balconies, and stucco or EIFS cladding years after close of escrow
• Slab, foundation, and soil movement on expansive or poorly compacted lots
• An HOA claim covering an entire phase or subdivision at once
• Subcontractor work you are legally responsible for under right-to-repair statutes
• Subs whose policies exclude residential work, lapse, or never named you for completed operations
• Defective products such as windows, plumbing fittings, roofing, and fire-rated assemblies
• Fire, theft, and wind damage to homes under construction and materials on site
• Visitors injured on active lots, in model homes, and at sales offices
• Workers of uninsured subcontractors who end up on your workers' compensation

Most of these reach you through someone else's work, so contracts and certificates matter as much as your own policy.

Core Coverages for Home Builders

A properly built home-builder program typically includes:

General Liability with Completed Operations — Covers injury and property damage arising from your homes after they are sold, on a form with no residential exclusion and an aggregate sized to your closings.

Subcontractor Additional Insured Coverage — Extends each trade's general liability to you through ongoing and completed-operations endorsements, so the sub's insurer answers first for the sub's work.

Builders Risk — Covers homes under construction, materials, and spec inventory against fire, theft, wind, and vandalism until sale or occupancy.

Wrap-Up Program (OCIP / CCIP) — Provides one liability program for you and enrolled subs on a project, with a completed-operations term that should match your repose exposure.

Umbrella / Excess Liability — Extends limits over general liability, auto, and employer's liability for the multi-home defect claim.

Workers' Compensation & Employer's Liability — Covers your crews and responds when an uninsured sub's injured worker is treated as yours.

Contractors Pollution Liability — Covers mold, soil, and fuel-related claims that the general liability pollution exclusion removes.

Third-Party Structural Warranty — Provides buyers a backed warranty, commonly ten years on structural elements, that resolves many claims outside a lawsuit.

For deeper reading, see builders risk insurance, umbrella and excess liability, subcontractor insurance requirements, ongoing vs. completed operations additional insured, the types of additional insured endorsements, and contractual liability.

When your scope includes engineering, shop drawings, or design-assist work, read our guide to contractors professional liability insurance.

Regulatory & Contract Context

In Nevada, NRS 11.202 bars most construction-defect actions more than 10 years after substantial completion of the improvement, and sets no time limit at all for a defect caused by fraud. That 10-year period comes from the 2019 amendment (AB 421), which reversed the six-year limit the 2015 reform (AB 125) had imposed. Before suing, an owner or HOA must give written notice under NRS Chapter 40 (NRS 40.645). You must forward it to responsible subs within 30 days or risk losing your claim against them (NRS 40.646), you get an inspection and a chance to repair, and you must respond within 90 days (NRS 40.6472). Ignore the process and its damage limits and defenses fall away (NRS 40.650). You are liable for your subs' work (NRS 40.640).

Nevada also voids any residential subcontract clause, in contracts entered into on or after February 24, 2015, that makes a sub indemnify you for your own negligence; indemnity for the sub's own scope stays enforceable, and as an additional insured you must pursue the sub's insurer for your defense costs before going after the sub (NRS 40.693). A Nevada HOA can bring a defect claim only for common elements and property it owns or must maintain (NRS 116.3102), so claims on individual homes come from the owners themselves. Other states differ: California's SB 800 (Civil Code 895 and following) covers new homes sold under purchase agreements signed on or after January 1, 2003, and generally bars actions 10 years after substantial completion, while Texas requires notice at least 60 days before suit (Property Code 27.004).

What's Commonly Overlooked

When a builder's program fails, the cause usually traces to one of these:

• A residential, tract-housing, or multi-unit exclusion buried in the general liability endorsements
• EIFS, stucco, water-intrusion, or subsidence exclusions, such as ISO CG 21 86, on your policy or your subs' policies
• An endorsement like CG 22 94 that removes the subcontractor exception to the "damage to your work" exclusion
• Sub certificates showing ongoing-operations status (CG 20 10) but no completed-operations endorsement (CG 20 37)
• Indemnity clauses drafted to cover your own negligence, which Nevada voids in residential subcontracts
• One products-completed operations aggregate shared across thousands of closed homes

The gap that hurts most is completed-operations coverage that ends before your liability does. A wrap-up whose completed-operations extension runs only a few years, or a general liability program you stop renewing once a subdivision sells out or its project entity winds down, leaves the back half of a 10-year repose window uninsured. The defect claim that surfaces in year eight then lands on no policy but yours.

Real-World Claim Examples

• The owners of 140 homes in one phase serve Chapter 40 notice for stucco and window leaks, and completed-operations additional insured status on the subs' policies spreads the defense across several insurers
• A framer's improperly lapped sheathing lets water rot finished walls, and the subcontractor exception to the "damage to your work" exclusion in CG 00 01 lets the builder's general liability pay for the resulting damage
• A wrap-up's completed-operations term ends at year five, a slab claim arrives at year eight, and the enrolled subs' own policies exclude wrap-up projects, so the builder pays from its balance sheet
• A spec home burns before drywall, and builders risk pays to rebuild while general liability pays nothing
• A plumbing sub's certificate showed additional insured status for ongoing operations only, so when a fitting failed two years after closing the sub's insurer declined the builder's tender

Each turns on paperwork signed years before the claim.

Why Proper Placement Matters

Underwriters look first at closings per year, product type (detached, attached, townhome, or condominium), the states and soil conditions you build in, cladding systems, and how much of the work is subcontracted. They then review your subcontracts, certificate tracking, quality control, warranty program, and every prior defect claim or Chapter 40 notice. Attached product and stucco-heavy desert markets push many builders into specialty and surplus-lines markets, where residential exclusions and short completed-operations terms are common.

Our Approach

At Cory Washington & Co., based in Las Vegas, one of the country's busiest home-building markets, we insure builders around the claim that arrives after closing. We read your subcontract and indemnity language against NRS 40.693 and your other states' rules, audit your trades' policies for residential exclusions and CG 20 37 endorsements, size the completed-operations aggregate to your closings, and match any wrap-up's completed-operations term to your repose exposure. We set up builders risk for every start and plan coverage for each project entity before it winds down. We also insure the trades you rely on, including framing contractors, concrete contractors, roofers, plumbers, waterproofing contractors, and swimming pool contractors.

You build the neighborhood and hand over the keys. We make sure the next ten years of that neighborhood don't land on you alone.

All insurance descriptions on this website are provided by Cory Washington & Co. LLC strictly for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, legal, financial, or insurance advice. The information presented is general in nature and does not guarantee the availability, terms, conditions, or scope of any insurance coverage. Actual coverage is determined solely by the specific policy language issued by the insurer and remains subject to underwriting approval. Nothing on this website creates or implies an agent-client relationship, binds coverage, or alters any existing policy. Cory Washington & Co. LLC expressly disclaims any liability for actions taken, or not taken, based on the content provided here. For advice regarding your particular situation, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional at Cory Washington & Co. LLC or another qualified insurance professional, and always review your policy documents in full.

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