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Plumbers insurance

Join over 10,700 plumbers like you with cover from £3.19 per month*. Compare tailored insurance from trusted brands.

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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 do you need plumbers insurance?

Plumbers insurance protects you against the cost of accidents and mistakes at work. While you can’t stop them from happening, you can make sure you’re covered. Whether it’s just you or you have others working with you, it’s protection for your business and your customers.

  • Protection from big claims like accidental injury or damage
  • Help to keep going when an unexpected event gets in the way
  • It covers what you need from legal costs, to tools, to personal accidents

Start your quote

What does plumbers insurance cover?

You understand your business best – that’s why we put you in control. Whether you want to cover yourself for accidents that happen while working on plumbing, ventilation or heating jobs, legal disputes with clients, or the tools you need to run your business – you pick what goes into your policy.

Plumbers public liability insurance

In case you or your employees injure someone or damage their property.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

  • accidents while working at your premises, or on a commercial or residential job
  • accidents that happen because of your work, or faulty materials, equipment or parts

For example:

  • you fix a tap and after you’ve left, the customer reports a major leak because of your work
  • you pipe up a house and one of the fittings blows, causing water damage to the wood floor

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • tool cover
  • bedroom, bathroom and kitchen fitter insurance, if you fit the fixtures and fittings rather than just doing the plumbing work
  • if you do work other than plumbing on some standalone jobs – for example, gas fitting or electrical work

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

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

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

  • employee illness or injury caused by working for you
  • medical bills and legal fees due to employee illness or injury
  • some temporary or casual workers may be covered – find out which ones

**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 apprentice develops a repetitive strain injury through working for you
  • your casual labourer gets badly scalded by the hot water supply at a customer’s property

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 equipment

For example:

  • a flood at your workshop causes water damage to your plumbing tools
  • you turn your back on site for a minute and your tool box is stolen

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • tools left in your van overnight, hired plant, machinery, stock or contents

Read more about tools insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.

  • 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 your employee is injured at work and brings a case against you
  • if you bring a case against someone who vandalises your workshop

What you’ll need additional cover for

  • submitting tax returns late
  • VAT
  • using your own lawyer

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at or outside of work.

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 working on a house renovation and a builder drops a hammer on your foot breaking your big toe, so you can't work for a few weeks
  • you're fixing some pipework under a customer's sink and your trainee leaves a toolbox behind you. You trip over it when you stand up and break your arm, so you can't work for a month

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 plumbers 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 plumbers insurance quotes, real prices

churchill insurance

£38.95 /month

£346.26 /year

A plumber working on residential locations – gas safe registered

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Luton
  • Public liability

    £1,000,000

  • Employers' liability

    Not included

  • Tools

    Not included

optima insurance

£99.55 /month

£884.88 /year

A plumber working on residential and commercial locations – gas safe registered

  • 5+ years' experience
  • Limited company
  • Based in Exeter
  • 1 casual worker
  • Public liability

    £5,000,000

  • Employers’ liability

    £10,000,000

  • Tools

    £10,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 21/02/2022). 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 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 plumbers 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 bathroom fitter insurance or kitchen fitter insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, 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 cover – £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

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 team 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 builders’ insurance through Simply Business has saved [profession] thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Andy saved more than £21,080

Andy (not his real name) fitted a new mains water system in an upstairs flat. A fault developed and water leaked into the ground floor flat causing damage to the fixtures and fittings.

  • Insurance payout

    £21,080

    Covering the cost of accidental damage

  • Andy’s costs

    £100

    The excess amount stated in Andy’s policy terms

Chosen by 900,000 small businesses and landlords

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

Plumbers' 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 plumbers insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

  • 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.

  • 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 offers 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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