Insurance for gardeners
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Based on 39,130 reviews
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For 80% of settled claims
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.
Public liability insurance
In case you accidentally injure someone or damage their property.
Employers’ liability insurance
In case your employee is involved in an accident or mistake while they’re working for you.
Tools insurance
In case your gardening tools are lost, stolen or damaged.
Stock insurance
In case the products or materials you're responsible for are lost, damaged or stolen.
Business and office equipment insurance
In case your office equipment is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Hired-in plant insurance
In case plant machinery you’ve hired in is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Own plant insurance
In case plant machinery you own is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Contract works insurance
In case your gardening work experiences a setback that means you break the terms of the contract
Legal expenses insurance
In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.
Personal accident insurance
In case you or anyone you've covered has an accident.
Professional indemnity insurance
In case you've made a mistake in your work or provided a service that didn't meet the expected standards.
Public liability insurance
In case you accidentally injure someone or damage their property.
What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for gardeners?
Legal or medical expenses relating to claims against your business for:
- damage you or your team caused to someone else’s property while working at a commercial or residential site, or as a result of a garden feature created
- injury caused to someone else while you or your team are working, or as a result of the work carried out
For example:
- you’re about to prune a tree in a customer’s garden and you drop your ladder by mistake, which smashes a window in their house
- your employee left a wheelbarrow out on the pavement and a pedestrian trips over it, breaking their arm
- a casual labourer you’ve brought in for the day scratches a customer's car as they’re carrying a stack of paving slabs
Read more about public liability insurance
Employers’ liability insurance
In case your employee is involved in an accident or mistake while they’re working for you.
What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance for gardeners?
Legal or medical expenses relating to claims against your business for:
- your employee injuring themselves or getting sick over the course of their work for you
**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**
For example:
- your employee falls down a hole you’ve dug for a water fountain but failed to signpost, and they break their ankle
Tools insurance
In case your gardening tools are lost, stolen or damaged.
What’s typically covered by tools insurance?
- theft of your gardening tools, such as lawnmowers, from a commercial or residential site you’re working at
- accidental damage to your gardening tools from a site you’re working at
For example:
- while you’re working in a customer’s front garden, a group of kids break into the rear garden and steal your petrol hedge cutter and strimmer from the shed
- one of your employees spills their coffee over your electrical on-site radio, so it stops working
Read more about tools insurance
Stock insurance
In case the products or materials you're responsible for are lost, damaged or stolen.
What’s typically covered by stock insurance?
- accidental damage, loss or theft of the materials you use to carry out gardening jobs for your customers
For example:
- you’ve left some mortar pointing mix for a garden path in a bag outside a customer’s house and it gets rained on, so you have to throw the mix away and replace it
- you leave half of the turf in your van and a group of teens break into the van and steals the turf
What you’ll need additional cover for
- stock insurance doesn’t cover you against loss, theft or damage of materials while you’re travelling between jobs – this is covered by goods in transit insurance instead
Read more about stock insurance
Business and office equipment insurance
In case your office equipment is lost, stolen, or damaged.
What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?
- loss, damage or theft of the things you use to run your business (such as your work laptop or a filing cabinet) that you keep at the address you’ve specified in your policy
For example:
- a flood at your business premises results in water damage to the computer you use for invoicing your customers
- there’s a break-in at your business premises and your printer is stolen
What you’ll need additional cover for
- if you own or rent the building that you use as your business premises and you’re responsible for insuring this yourself, you may need buildings insurance
Read more about business and office equipment insurance
Hired-in plant insurance
In case plant machinery you’ve hired in is lost, stolen, or damaged.
What’s typically covered by hired-in plant insurance?
- accidental damage to items of the plant that you’ve hired from someone else
- loss or damage to the hired-in plant
- legal liability for the loss or damage to the hired-in plant and ongoing hiring charges
For example:
- your employee tries to use the wrong key for a digger you’ve hired, causing it to break
- a digger you’ve hired is stolen from your construction site, and the hiring charges still apply while you’re waiting for a replacement
Read more about hired-in plant insurance
Own plant insurance
In case plant machinery you own is lost, stolen, or damaged.
What’s typically covered by own plant insurance?
- theft of the machinery that you own, especially larger items that you use to complete your day-to-day garden maintenance or landscaping activities
- accidental or malicious damage to your own plant items
For example:
- your digger gets stolen from the site you’re working at when you’re on your lunch break
- one of your employees crashes the digger into a wall by accident, so it needs repairing
What you’ll need additional cover for
- wear and tear – in case your own plant equipment breaks down or needs repairing for no particular reason and it’s not covered by your warranty, you could get it insured under mechanical breakdown cover
Read more about own plant insurance
Contract works insurance
In case your gardening work experiences a setback that means you break the terms of the contract
What’s typically covered by contract works insurance?
- works in progress on a construction site for both domestic and commercial premises
- damage caused by things like fires, floods, storms, vandalism or theft to tools and equipment needed to complete a job that are left on site
- repair costs for the work you have in progress on a garden landscaping or garden maintenance site if it’s damaged or destroyed
- labour, materials and tools required to get the job back to the stage it was at before the setback happened
For example:
- you’re the main contractor, and vandals set fire to the site overnight, causing damage to the ongoing work and delaying the completion date
- as a result of a fire, most of the materials for a contracted job – such as wooden decking and shrubs – are destroyed and you need to replace them, delaying the completion date
Read more about contract works insurance
Legal expenses insurance
In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.
What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?
- legal expenses resulting from your day-to-day business activities, like disputes with employees
- the cost of legal claims relating to property damage, nuisance or trespass
- HMRC investigations, and tax and compliance disputes
- includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis PR support to help you protect your business’s reputation
For example:
- if you’re investigated by HMRC (or selected at random for an audit), this cover could help with the tax enquiries – for you and any other directors, as well as for the business
- you need to defend your legal rights following the dismissal of an employee
Read more about legal expenses insurance
Personal accident insurance
In case you or anyone you've covered has an accident.
What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?
- injury or death at work or outside of work, for anyone covered on the policy
- lost income, medical costs and hospitalisation benefit
For example:
- you’re chopping up some wood in a customer’s garden and you lose a finger in the process
- your casual labourer breaks their leg while they’re on a night out
Read more about personal accident insurance
Professional indemnity insurance
In case you've made a mistake in your work or provided a service that didn't meet the expected standards.
What’s typically covered by professional indemnity insurance for gardeners?
Claims against your business for:
- professional negligence that causes your customer to suffer financial loss
- advice you’ve given that turns out to be incorrect
For example:
- you’ve designed a garden for a customer and there’s a problem with the location of the outdoor lighting you’ve installed, so they have to have their house rewired
Read more about professional indemnity 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 £6.79 per month
Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.
Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes
How we work out example prices We take the highest price from the bottom 10 per cent of all our customers paying in monthly instalments (based on data from 1 July - 31 December 2020). Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.
Example quotes, real prices
£8.65 /month
£66.46 /year
A landscaper gardener excluding tree felling who works on residential properties
- 2-3 years' experience
- Sole trader
- No employees
- Based in Derby
Public liability insurance
£1,000,000
Employers’ liability insurance
Not included
Professional indemnity
Not included
£96.12 /month
£854.42 /year
A small landscaping gardening business that offers design advice with two part time casual workers
- 5+ years' experience
- Limited company
- 2 casual workers
- Based in Bristol
Public liability insurance
£1,000,000
Employers’ liability insurance
£10,000,000
Professional indemnity
£50,000
How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 10/09/2020). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.
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 |
The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.
How it works
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We handle claims, so you can get on with business
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.
Is public liability enough for third party property damage?
Can I just cover my most expensive tools?
Which type of workers do I need insurance for?
Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?
Does landscape gardening insurance cover my work correctly?
Do I need cover for other types of work?
Which public liability cover limit should I choose?
Is public liability enough for third party property damage?
In some situations you may need more than public liability to cover certain kinds of property damage. Learn about hired-in plant cover and contract works cover.
Can I just cover my most expensive tools?
Make sure you cover the total cost of replacing all your tools or you’ll only get a proportion of your claim paid out if something happens to them. Learn about tools cover.
Which type of workers do I need insurance for?
Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.
If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.
Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.
Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?
Depending on what you use to do your work, you may need other covers.
You may need more than tools insurance – for example, business equipment insurance if you have a work laptop, plant insurance if you use machinery.
Does landscape gardening insurance cover my work correctly?
Make sure you're picking the right cover to protect you properly. It’s important to know that if you have another trade or job, you'll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider builders insurance or groundworkers insurance?
Do I need cover for other types of work?
If you provide these services alongside building work, make sure you’re covered:
Which public liability cover limit should I choose?
Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.
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 - 05.00pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm
Call our team
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. The figure below is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.
£30 million in claims paid out in 2019
Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2019
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.
Insurance payout
£2,730
Covering the cost of the damage to the power cable
Douglas’s costs
£100
The excess amount stated in Douglas’s policy terms
Chosen by 800,000 small businesses
We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 800,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.
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Landscape gardening insurance FAQ
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.
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 take professional advice. Read our full disclaimer
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