Broad Form Property Damage

Broad Form Property Damage is a modification to the property-damage exclusions in a commercial general liability policy that restores certain coverage the base exclusions would otherwise remove. Originally sold as a standalone endorsement, BFPD partially rolls back the care, custody, or control exclusion and, importantly for contractors, provides limited coverage for damage to the insured's completed work that arises out of work performed by a subcontractor. Since the 1986 ISO revision, much of this coverage has been folded directly into the standard CGL form's exclusions and their exceptions.

For a contractor buyer, BFPD is central to understanding what your liability policy does — and does not — cover on your own projects. The general liability form is designed to cover damage your work causes to other property, not to fix faulty workmanship itself. BFPD narrows that gap by allowing coverage in specific situations, most notably where a subcontractor's defective work damages the completed project. This subcontractor exception is one of the most litigated and valuable features of modern products-completed operations coverage for general contractors who rely on trade subs.

The practical nuance is that BFPD does not turn a liability policy into a warranty on your workmanship. The your-work exclusion still removes coverage for damage to your own work when you performed it yourself, and BFPD's carve-back is limited and condition-laden. Because coverage now lives inside the exclusion structure rather than on a separate endorsement, buyers should have their agent confirm exactly which property-damage exceptions their form contains and whether the subcontractor exception is intact, since insurers sometimes attach endorsements that reinstate the broader exclusion.