The job can be finished before the damage occurs
Completed operations is a general liability concept for injury or property damage arising from work after it is completed, as the policy defines completion. Being paid or leaving the site is not the only fact that determines whether the work is complete.
A railing you installed may later give way and injure someone. A plumbing connection may leak after the customer begins using it. The insurance question is whether the resulting injury or damage qualifies under the policy that applies to those facts.
Repairing your work and repairing other damage are different costs
A customer’s complaint can include more than one kind of expense. They may ask you to replace something you installed incorrectly and also repair other property damaged by that failure. General liability commonly treats those expenses differently.
Why the general contractor asks for completed-operations additional insured
A general contractor or property owner can be named in a claim after your subcontracted work is finished. They may therefore ask for additional-insured protection, meaning specified coverage for them under your policy, for that stage of the project.
Your company’s completed-operations coverage and their additional-insured protection are two related but separate questions. An endorsement that adds them only for work in progress may not satisfy a requirement for finished work. An endorsement is the policy document that adds or changes the protection.
How limits and timing affect the review
A products-completed operations aggregate is the shared total available for the claims that count against that part of the policy during the applicable period. The per-occurrence limit still controls one covered event. These numbers can be different from the general aggregate shown elsewhere in the policy.
For an occurrence policy, the date of the covered injury or damage is central to which policy may respond. Completing a job while a policy is active does not automatically insure every injury or damage event that happens in later years. Before canceling, changing insurers or closing the business, discuss protection for your prior work.
A contract may require you to maintain coverage or additional-insured protection for a period after completion. Send that requirement so it can be considered when planning renewals.
If a customer reports a problem
Make sure immediate safety and damage-control needs are addressed. Keep the contract, work orders, completion dates, photographs and correspondence, and report a possible claim through the insurer’s required channels promptly.
Describe what was installed, when it was used, when damage was discovered and what other property was affected. Avoid deciding on your own that the whole complaint is merely a warranty issue. Those details help distinguish the cost of correcting work from a possible liability claim.