Tradesman insurance

Public liability insurance

For third party injuries or property damage, if you’re held responsible.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance for tradesmen?

Claims against your business for:

• property damage, caused by your work
• injuries caused by your business activities
• accidental damage or injury caused by your employees, if you have any

For example:

• you forget to wear shoe coverings while nipping into a client’s house, treading mud through their carpet which will need a professional clean
• while working on a bathroom job you leave some debris in the shower tray – your customer cuts their foot on it and develops an infection

What you’ll need additional cover for

• tools cover – pick and choose from our business and office equipment, tools and plant covers to add specific protection for the items you rely on
• if you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

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 temp or casual labourer, suing you after falling ill because of working for your trades 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 contractor falls off some scaffolding while working with you, breaking their leg
• a casual labourer breaks their ankle while climbing down a ladder – they need an operation and time off work

Business and office equipment insurance

In case things 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 bricklaying business
• operational equipment like your laptop, rather than the trade tools you take out and about

For example:

• there’s a break-in at your home office and your laptop, phone and printers are stolen
• your laptop and phone are damaged in a house fire, delaying the rest of the week’s work

What you’ll need additional cover for

• the day-to-day trade tools you use to do your job, like a drill or tool kit – pick and choose from our tools and plant covers to add specific protection for the items you rely on

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 day-to-day trade equipment

For example:

• someone breaks into your van, stealing your electric drills and other tools
• a leak in your static unit causes water damage to your drill kit and other essential tools

What you’ll need additional cover for

• your larger plant items, like a digger or skip – jump to our plant cover to add specific protection for the machinery you own, or our specific hired-plant cover

Read more about tools insurance

Stock insurance

In case something happens to the trade supplies you rely on.

What’s typically covered by stock insurance?

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

For example:

• you’re unloading your van and see that some supplies have been damaged in transit, delaying the day’s work
• the tiles you’ve ordered for a customer’s kitchen are stolen from your locked garage

What you’ll need additional cover for

Read more about stock insurance

Hired-in plant insurance

In case your rented plant machinery, like a cement mixer, is lost, stolen or damaged.

What’s typically covered by hired-in plant insurance?

• loss, damage or theft of things like diggers and cement mixers which you’ve hired in

For example:

• a skip you’ve hired gets damaged while you’re on site with a client
• you’ve hired an extra digger for a larger job, which gets damaged by one of your contractors

What you’ll need additional cover for

• tools and plant machinery which you own yourself – you’ll need to add our specific own plant insurance or tools cover for this

Read more about hired-in plant insurance

Own plant insurance

In case your own plant machinery, like a digger, is lost, stolen or damaged.

What’s typically covered by own plant insurance?

• loss, damage or theft of things like your own dumper or skip

For example:

• your digger gets stolen from the works site over the weekend, holding up next week’s work
• the customer reverses their van into your mini excavator, causing damage and delaying your work for another job

What you’ll need additional cover for

• plant machinery you’ve rented – you’ll need to add our specific hired-in plant cover for this

Read more about own plant insurance

Contract works insurance

In case your work gets damaged by disasters like fire, flood or vandalism.

What’s typically covered by contract works insurance?

• repair costs for the work you have in progress if it’s damaged or destroyed
• labour, materials and tools to get the job back to the stage it was at before it was damaged or destroyed
• damage caused by things like fire, flood, storm, vandalism or theft

For example:

• during a thunderstorm, lightning damages your site’s scaffolding, causing it to fall and render the house you’re working on unsafe for a few days, as well as destroying the work you’ve already done
• a fire on site damages your work, meaning you’ll need to re-hire some plant and start again from scratch

Read more about contract works insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your trade 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, or tax and compliance issues
• includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis support to help you protect your reputation, as a trusted tradesperson

For example:

• your client disputes their contract with you, stating you haven’t fulfilled your obligations and refusing to pay their invoice
• an employee you’ve dismissed brings a legal case against you, and you need to defend your rights

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case anyone you’ve covered is accidentally injured, at work or off-duty.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

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

For example:

• you trip over a log while running at the weekend, breaking your ankle
• a client runs over your employee’s foot while on-site, breaking several bones

Read more about personal accident insurance

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 tradesman 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 joinery insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

• Alarm installers insurance
• Bathroom fitter insurance
• Bricklayers insurance
• Carpet fitter insurance
• Construction insurance
• Flooring contractors insurance
• Gas fitters insurance
• Glazier insurance
• Handyman insurance
• Heating and ventilation engineers’ insurance
• Insurance for gardeners
• Labourers’ insurance
• More tradesmen and construction insurance
• Painters & decorators insurance
• Plasterers insurance
• Plumbers liability insurance
• Roofers insurance
• Tilers insurance
• Welders insurance

Other types of insurance

• Limited company insurance
• Self-employed insurance
• Freelance insurance
• Consultant insurance
• Contractors insurance
• Sole trader 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.