Gutter Cleaning & Clearing Insurance

Public liability is the core cover, at a limit your contracts accept, commonly £5 million and sometimes £10 million for council and housing association work. The critical detail is the working height the policy permits and whether ladder and roof access are allowed, because that is what decides whether a claim is paid. Employers' liability is compulsory from the first employee at a £5 million statutory minimum, including casual help. Then equipment cover for the vacuum system, and legal expenses for the frequent small property damage disputes.

Only up to the height your policy states, and only using the methods it permits. Most liability policies specify a maximum working height, and many deal with ladder work and roof access separately, sometimes excluding them. Work above that height or by an excluded method is not covered. Ask for the stated figure and compare it with the tallest property you actually clear, because this is the single most common reason a claim in this trade fails.

It is normally placed as a cleaning or working at height trade with insurers who write trades business, several of them reached through brokers rather than direct. Availability is reasonably broad, so what separates one placement from another is wording rather than price: the permitted working height, whether roof access and ladders are allowed, how damage to the guttering itself is treated, and whether the vacuum system is covered away from the van.

Often yes, and it is one of the more frequent claims in this trade. Public liability would typically respond to damage to the building, though some wordings treat the gutter, fascia or downpipe you were actually handling as your work rather than third party property, which is handled differently. Brittle plastic guttering and old clay tiles are the usual culprits. Photographing the roof and gutter line before you start is the cheapest protection there is, because existing damage you can prove was already there is what ends these arguments.

It depends on whether the work was done properly, and cover is usually not the sticking point. Gradually operating causes are excluded on most liability policies, so a damp claim arriving weeks later turns on evidence rather than wording. Before and after photographs of each gutter run, a camera shot showing flow down the downpipe, and a dated note of anything you reported as needing repair rather than clearing will settle almost all of these. Where you advised a repair and the customer declined, that note is the most valuable document you have.

Check it rather than assume it. A pole fed vacuum system is often the most valuable asset the business owns and is easy to under insure inside a general tools figure. You want it listed with a realistic sum insured, covered while in use away from the premises, and covered overnight in the vehicle, which normally brings an overnight vehicle condition requiring the van to be locked and sometimes immobilised or garaged.

The policy needs to know about it. Roof cleaning and moss removal mean being on the roof rather than reaching it, which raises the working at height exposure and often the chemical and water run off questions too. Some policies permit gutter clearing from ladders but exclude walking on roofs entirely. Declare it, because work the schedule does not describe is the kind of gap that only appears at claim stage.

Most specify £5 million and some ask for £10 million, along with evidence of employers' liability and increasingly a method statement and risk assessment for the work at height. Ask what the contract requires before you bid rather than after you win, because increasing a limit is inexpensive and quick, while a bid withdrawn over an insurance certificate is a wasted opportunity.