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Pest control insurance

Compare pest control insurance with cover from £3.19 per month*

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pest control worker in a white pest control suit spraying pesticide into a crate

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Rated 4.7/5

Based on 39,755 reviews

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Claims paid in 24 hours

For 80% of settled claims

What's on this page

  • Why is insurance important?
  • What does it cover?
  • How much does it cost?
  • How do I choose insurance?
  • How do claims work?
  • FAQs
  • Helpful articles

Why is pest insurance important?

Harsh chemicals, property damage, specialist equipment, and more – getting rid of pests comes with significant risk, even for the professionals. If a claim arrived and you needed to pay compensation, would you have the funds ready? From public and product liability cover to tools insurance and personal accident protection, a pest control insurance policy can provide a backstop for your business.

  • pest control liability insurance, for third party injuries and property damage
  • rated 4.7/5 based on 39K+ public liability customer reviews
  • optional personal accident cover for your own injuries, or anyone on the policy

Start your quote

Insurance for pest control – what’s covered?

Typically, we’ll start with public and product liability insurance, designed to protect pest control professionals against claims for third party injuries and property damage. From there, you can choose to include employers’ liability insurance, plus other popular covers – tools and stock protection are a priority for many pest professionals, as well as personal accident cover for your own injuries.

Pest control public liability insurance

In case your company causes an injury or property damage.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • damage to someone’s property, caused by your work
  • injuries or illness caused by your business activities and/or products
  • accidental damage or injury caused by your employees, if you have any

For example:

  • a customer suffers an allergic reaction to a product you’ve used while removing mice from their home
  • you damage a customer’s washing machine while trying to gain access to the wall behind

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case an employee gets sick or injured because of working for you.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

  • an employee, including a contractor or casual labourer, suing you after falling ill because of working for your pest control business, or
  • making a claim for an injury they’ve had while working 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 slips and falls on a customer’s wet cellar floor, injuring their lower back
  • an apprentice you’re training trips on a shallow step, falling and fracturing their knee

Business and office equipment insurance

In case essentials like your laptop or phone are lost, stolen, or damaged.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

  • theft, flood, fire, or accidental damage to the equipment you use to run your pest control business
  • operational equipment like your laptop, rather than the trade tools you take out and about

For example:

  • someone steals your laptop from the passenger seat of your locked van, while you’re picking up lunch
  • your phone falls out of your pocket while you complete some paperwork with your customer, and is never recovered

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Tools insurance

In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.

What’s typically covered by tools insurance?

  • loss, damage, or theft of your hand tools, power tools, and specialist equipment

For example:

  • three sprayers you keep in your garage are stolen during an overnight break-in
  • you collect a new order of dust applicators from a local trade merchant, which falls out of your van while you’re driving to a client

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • larger plant items you use to carry out your work – you’ll need to add our specific plant cover for these

Read more about tools insurance

Stock insurance

In case materials you're responsible for, like bricks, are lost, stolen, or damaged.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

  • loss, damage, or theft of your work materials, or items you’re planning to sell

For example:

  • your stock of bait blocks and other poison is damaged in a flood at your business premises
  • someone steals four ultrasonic repellers from the back of your locked van, while you’re talking to a client

Read more about stock insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you’re faced with legal costs in connection with your pest control business.

  • legal costs attributed to your pest control business
  • property damage, nuisance, or trespass – specifically, the associated legal claims and compensation payouts
  • tax and compliance disputes and investigations you need help with
  • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis support to help you protect your reputation as a trusted trade professional

For example:

  • HMRC begin an investigation into your last tax return, and you need to hire legal representation
  • you need to recover legal costs after an employee sues you for unfair dismissal

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at or away from work.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

  • accidental injury or death at work or elsewhere, for anyone covered on the policy
  • lost income, medical costs, and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

  • your employee is in a minor car accident on his way to your business unit, and needs hospital treatment
  • you break your leg at a wedding, and need to take six weeks off work

Read more about personal accident insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does pest control insurance 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 £3.19 per month

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

Get your tailored quotes in 7 minutes

Start your quote

10% of our customers paid up to £38.32 a year for a public liability insurance policy between 1st April 2023 - 30th June 2023. Equivalent to £3.19 per month based on a monthly cost when paying for the policy in one annual payment. Paying monthly is usually more expensive as you'll pay interest. Most customers pay more than this but some pay less.

Example pest control insurance quotes, real prices

elements insurance

£13.40 /month

£114.03 /month

Pest control sole trader that deals mostly in smaller job local to them

  • 2-3 years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Leeds
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    Not included

  • Tools

    Not included

elements insurance

£129.88 /month

£1154.51 /month

Pest control limited company with 2 employees taking contracts nationally

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 employees
  • Based in Luton
  • Public liability

    £5,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Tools

    £5,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 11/08/2021). 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

  • Pick what goes into your policy

    Only pay for what you need

  • Get prices from a range of insurers

    Choose the best fit for you

  • Buy online in minutes

    Get your documents the same day

Start your quote

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How do I choose 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.

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 tool 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 pest control 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 cleaning insurance or carpet cleaning insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide these services alongside building work, make sure you’re covered:

Other types of insurance

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 - 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am - 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

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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.

£39 million in claims paid out in 2022

Paying 80% of settled claims within 24 hours in 2022

The figure above is rounded across our range of products. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis.

Example claim

Having pest control insurance through Simply Business has saved professionals thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Anthony saved more than £12,000

Anthony (not his real name) received a letter from a recent customer’s solicitor, claiming a product he’d used during a bed bug removal had caused a bad allergic reaction. The public and product liability cover in his pest control insurance policy helped cover Anthony’s costs.

  • Insurance payout

    £12,041.00

    Covering the cost of exposure to harmful substances

  • Anthony’s costs

    £100

    The excess amount stated in Anthony’s policy terms

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then with 900,000 customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

  • Compare and buy in minutes

    Documents arrive today

  • Rated 4.7/5

    Based on 39,755 reviews

  • Here to help

    Help from UK-based experts

  • 24/7 claims

    Make a claim any time

Pest control 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 pest control insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • 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 043 8527 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 instalments.

  • 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 043 8527. 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

Helpful articles for pest controllers

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23 Mar 2021 • 7-minute read

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