Garage insurance coverage: the garage form family in one place

Garage insurance is a family, not a single coverage: garage liability for the operations, garagekeepers for customers' vehicles in your custody, and physical damage for the vehicles you own, all descended from one ISO form written for dealers. This hub maps the family and routes you to the page that answers your question.

Garage liability vs garage keepers

One policy family, three coverages

IRMI's glossary keeps the definition short: a garage policy is "a commercial auto policy designed to address the needs of auto dealers," and its coverages are garage liability, garagekeepers, and auto physical damage, with everything else added by endorsement (IRMI, garage policy). Those three names are the family. The first answers for what the business does to other people, the second for what happens to the customer's car while you have it, the third for the vehicles the business itself owns.

The document they came from is the ISO Garage Coverage Form, CA 00 05, laid out in six sections: covered autos, liability, garagekeepers, physical damage, conditions, and definitions, per RNC-Pro's archived analysis of the form (RNC-Pro, ISO Garage Coverage Form Archive). In its 2013 forms revision ISO retired that form for dealers in favor of the Auto Dealers Coverage Form, CA 00 25, and stopped supporting it for repair shops, which standard carriers now write on a general liability policy plus a business auto policy with garagekeepers attached by endorsement (RNC-Pro, Auto Dealers Coverage Form overview; Faber, InsNerds, 2019). The coverage names outlived the paperwork, which is why your declarations page still says "garage liability" whichever form sits under it. The depth on each coverage is on its own page below; the decision between them is on the comparison page.

The coverage pages

Garage liability insurance
The form itself: the covered-autos and premises halves of garage operations, who it is written for, and the dealer versus repair shop split.
Garage keepers insurance
Customers’ autos in your care: legal liability versus direct, the three causes of loss, and the exclusion the coverage exists to fill.
Garage liability vs garage keepers
The decision page. Which of the two your operation needs, and why most shops end up carrying both.

Where the coverages land, by operation

The family looks different on every lot. A repair shop carries the liability and garagekeepers halves for the lifts and the lot and rarely faces a legal minimum for either; a dealer usually meets license conditions set by the state motor vehicle agency, commonly a surety bond with insurance alongside, and adds the custody exposure only if it runs a service department. Each type page below applies the family to one kind of operation, and the Texas page works one state through to the statute itself.

Still placing your operation? Start at the overview.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does garage insurance coverage include?

The garage policy, as IRMI defines it, is a commercial auto policy built for auto dealers whose coverages are garage liability, garagekeepers, and auto physical damage, with other coverages added by endorsement. In practice the phrase covers the family of coverages an auto business buys around those three: liability for the operations, coverage for customers’ vehicles in your custody, and physical damage on the vehicles you own, plus property, workers compensation, and commercial auto as the operation calls for them.

Is garage insurance one policy or several?

It depends on how your carrier writes it. The ISO garage coverage form packaged liability, garagekeepers, and physical damage in one document with six sections. Since ISO’s 2013 revision, dealers are written on the Auto Dealers Coverage Form and repair shops on standard carriers are usually written on a general liability policy plus a business auto policy with garagekeepers added by endorsement. The coverages keep their names either way; the paperwork underneath differs.

Which coverage page should I read first?

If you do not yet know which of the two garage coverages your operation needs, start with the comparison page, which exists for that decision. If you already know and want the form-level detail, the garage liability page covers the operations form and the garage keepers page covers customers’ autos in your care. Shop and dealer pages then apply both to a specific operation.

Does every auto business need the whole garage form?

No. A mobile mechanic with no premises, a detailer, and a franchised dealership with a body shop carry different mixes, and the form was written around dealers in the first place. The coverage pages explain what each part does; the type pages say which parts an operation of your kind usually carries and why. Which limits and which options fit is a conversation for a licensed agent who writes garage business.