Insurance for gardeners

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Why is landscape gardening insurance important?

Transforming a garden to fulfil its potential is rewarding, but when you’re dealing with natural materials in an exposed environment, it’s physical and unpredictable too. Whether you focus mainly on maintenance or you take on the design and structure too, all gardeners share common ground in the risks and challenges they face. Mistakes and accidents happen, and gardener insurance can guard you against unexpected costs.

  • Protection against big claims due to injury or property damage
  • Cover against loss, damage or theft of tools, equipment and materials you use for your gardening business
  • Peace of mind if ongoing gardening works are disrupted by a fire, flood or vandals


What does gardening insurance cover?

Do you look after the health of your customers’ plants and gardens? Or do you produce plans and tackle outdoor building work such as patios and driveways to change the layout? We know you’ll have specific concerns based on how you run your gardening business, as well as a general need to cover yourself and your equipment against mistakes and accidents. That’s why we let you choose what goes into your policy.

If you’re a tree surgeon, then unfortunately you won’t be covered under gardeners’ insurance.


How much does insurance for gardeners cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £4.74 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

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Example quotes, real prices

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What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

£100

£2500

Employers’ liability

No excess

No excess

Tools

£60

£500

Stock

£100

£500

Business and office equipment

£50

£750


How it works

Pick what goes into your policy

Get prices from a range of insurers

Buy online in minutes

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How do I choose gardening insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.


Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am – 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am – 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am – 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am – 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am – 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am – 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions


How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.

£51 million in claims paid out in 2023

83% of claims were settled in 2023

Example claim

Having landscape gardening insurance through Simply Business has saved gardeners thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Douglas saved more than £2,730

Douglas (name changed for privacy) is a self-employed landscape gardener. While he was installing a fence for a customer, he hit a power cable and had to get it fixed by the power company. Luckily his insurance covered the costs of the repair.


Chosen by nearly 1 million small businesses and landlords


Landscape gardening insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about insurance for gardeners. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

If you have people working for you, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance in place.

That’s the only legal obligation. However, some landscape gardening customers and trade body memberships may insist that you have public liability insurance or professional indemnity insurance.

To make sure you’re covering the equipment you care about, it’s worth looking into the difference between tools insurance and plant and machinery insurance.

Other covers for gardeners to consider include:

If you’re a landscape gardener who occasionally has to do some tree-felling, then you should be covered. You can find the details of what you’re covered for in your insurance policy.

If you’re a tree surgeon and tree-felling is a major part of your day-to-day job, then unfortunately you won’t be covered under gardeners’ insurance. This is because tree-felling is a higher-risk activity than most gardening activities.

Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may also do building work on certain jobs – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy. When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 0146 683 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work. If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

  • one-off credit or debit card payment
  • BACS payment
  • Direct Debit

If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly installments.

If you change your business legal structure from sole trader to limited company mid-way through your policy, give us a call straight away on 0333 0146 683. It’ll only take us a few minutes to cancel your existing policy and replace it with one that correctly covers your new legal structure. It’s worth bearing in mind that your insurer and premium amount may need to change.

This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions


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