COVERTRADE SERVICES
Contractors All Risks Insurance
Comprehensive protection for your construction projects, equipment, workforce, and liability exposures.
What Is Contractors All Risk Insurance?
Contractors all risk insurance covers the work itself while a job is in progress: the structure being built, the materials on site waiting to go in, and the plant and temporary works around it. If a half-built extension burns down, floods or is broken into before handover, this is the cover that pays to put it back.
It answers a question every contractor eventually faces: until the job is handed over, the work is usually still your responsibility. Public liability will not pay to rebuild your own unfinished structure, and neither will the client's buildings policy in most cases. Without contract works cover, a fire two weeks before completion is a loss you absorb.
You will see the same cover called contract works insurance, construction all risks, or simply CAR. The wording varies between insurers more than the cover does. What matters is the sum insured, whether it matches your largest contract, and whether the policy is written in joint names where your contract requires it. We arrange it UK wide.
What Contractors' All Risks Insurance Covers
Contract Works
Our contract works cover protects the structure and materials of your project while construction is underway. This comprehensive coverage extends across all aspects of your build, from the initial stages through to completion.
Covered Projects & Installations:
- • New build construction
- • Renovations and extensions
- • Temporary works (scaffolding, site huts, hoarding)
- • Materials on site and in storage
- • Materials in transit to your project
- • Materials stored off-site (where specified)
Protection Against:
- • Fire and explosions
- • Flood and weather-related damage
- • Theft and burglary
- • Vandalism and malicious damage
- • Accidental damage during construction
- • Storm damage and natural disasters
How Much Does Contractors All Risk Insurance Cost?
You will see contractors all risks advertised from around £110 a year, and that is a real price. It buys a standalone works policy for a sole trader working on small contracts, and if that is genuinely all you need, it is good value.
Most contractors need more than that. Once you employ anyone, hire in plant, or work to contracts that require public liability at £5m or £10m, the works cover belongs alongside those in a contractors combined policy. Across the contractors combined policies we place, premiums start at around £500 a year for a small contractor and the middle of our book sits near £2,300, with larger contractors well beyond that.
Be wary of comparing that against a headline figure without checking what sits behind it. Trade makes an enormous difference (roofing with heat, scaffolding and groundworks all price well above general building) and a cheap quote often turns out to carry a height restriction, a low contract works limit, or no works cover at all.
What moves the number is your annual turnover, the value of the largest contract you work to, your trade (roofing with heat, or groundworks, rate differently from first-fix carpentry) how much of the work is subcontracted, and your claims record. Sums insured matter more than people expect: setting the contract works figure below your largest job is the most common reason a claim is cut back.
These are premiums arranged for other contractors and are not a quote. Call 02382 000820 and we will go to several insurers for a figure that fits your contracts.
Joint Names And What Your Contract Says
Standard construction contracts do not leave the works insurance to chance. JCT and similar forms set out who insures the works, for how much, and in whose names, and the answer differs depending on whether it is a new build, an extension to an existing structure, or work to a building the employer already owns.
A joint names policy insures the works in the names of both parties, so both have rights under it and the insurer cannot turn round and recover from the other. If your contract calls for joint names, it has to be arranged that way from the start rather than added later, and a policy in your name alone is a breach of contract even if nothing ever goes wrong.
Send us the insurance clause with your quote request. It takes a minute to read and it is the difference between cover that satisfies the contract and cover that merely looks like it does.
Do I Need Contractors All Risk Insurance?
It is not required by law. Whether you need it comes down to one question: if the work you have done so far were destroyed tonight, who pays to do it again?
On most domestic jobs (extensions, loft conversions, refurbishments) that is you, until practical completion. On larger sites the main contractor or the employer may insure the works for everyone, in which case a subcontractor may need only public liability. The contract decides it, not the size of the job, and plenty of contractors carry cover they do not need on one job and none on the next.
If you are not sure which position you are in, that is worth a phone call before the work starts rather than after.
Contract Works At A Glance
The points contractors check before they call.
- Joint names where the contract requires it
- Sums insured matched to your largest contract
- Own plant, hired-in plant and temporary works
- Materials on site, in transit and stored off site
- Written alongside liability as a combined policy
Monthly or annual payment, a named account manager, and an out-of-hours number for claims. A site loss rarely happens between nine and five.
Setting The Sum Insured
The contract works sum insured should reflect the full reinstatement cost of the largest job you will have running, not the profit on it and not the average. That means the labour and materials to build it again from the beginning, including the cost of clearing what is left first.
Set it too low and a claim is reduced in proportion. The policy pays the share of the loss that your figure bears to the true value, which on a serious loss is a large shortfall on top of an already bad week. It is the single most common reason a contract works claim disappoints, and it costs nothing to get right at the outset.
Contractors With Claims Behind Them
Construction claims are rarely small, and one site fire or a serious injury can change what the market will offer you at renewal. A history does not put cover out of reach, but it does narrow the number of insurers willing to look, and the ones that remain price on the detail rather than the headline.
What helps is being able to show what happened and what changed afterwards: the method statement you now use, the hot works permit, the site security. Tell us the full story rather than the claim count. Knowing which insurers will read it is most of the job.
Cover That Follows The Work
Contract works cover is normally written on an annual policy covering every job you run in the year, rather than one policy per project. That suits most contractors: contracts overlap, start dates move, and nobody wants to arrange insurance every time a job is confirmed.
Single-project policies do exist and make sense for a one-off well outside your normal size or type of work, a contract several times larger than anything else you handle, or work of a kind your annual policy was never rated for. If a job like that lands, tell us before you start rather than assuming the annual policy stretches to it. Premiums can be paid monthly or annually.
What We Need To Quote
Your trade and what the work actually involves, annual turnover, the value of the largest contract you work to, how much is subcontracted out, whether any work involves heat or work at height, and your claims experience for the last three to five years. If a contract requires joint names or a specific limit, send us that clause too.
Get Your Contract Works Quoted
Tell us about your contracts and we will take it to the market. One-off builds and contractors with claims behind them are both welcome.
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
Common questions
What does contractors' all risks mean?+
It is cover for the physical work itself while a job is in progress. The structure you are building, the materials on site waiting to go in, and usually the plant and temporary works around it. If a half-built extension burns down, floods or is vandalised before handover, contractors all risks is the section that pays to rebuild it. The name is old-fashioned insurance language: "all risks" means it covers sudden accidental loss or damage generally, rather than listing named perils, subject to the exclusions in the policy.
What is the difference between public liability and contractors all risk insurance?+
They cover opposite sides of the same job. Public liability covers damage you cause to other people and their property. You drop a tile through a customer's conservatory roof. Contractors all risks covers damage to the work you are being paid to build, which is your own responsibility until it is handed over. Public liability will not pay to rebuild your own half-finished structure, and contractors all risks will not pay a third party's injury claim. Most contractors need both, which is why they are usually written together.
Do subcontractors need contractors all risk insurance?+
It depends who carries the risk for the works under the contract. On many sites the main contractor or the employer insures the works and the subcontractor only needs public liability. But if your contract makes you responsible for your own work until practical completion (which is common on smaller domestic jobs where you are effectively the main contractor) then the works are yours to insure. Read what the contract says about who insures the works, and if it is not clear, ask before you start.
How much does contractors all risk insurance cost?+
You will see it advertised from around £110 a year, and that is genuine, but it is a standalone works policy for a sole trader with small contracts. Most contractors need the works cover alongside public and employers' liability, plant and tools, which is a contractors combined policy. Across the contractors combined policies we place, premiums start at around £500 a year for a small contractor and the middle of the book sits near £2,300, with larger contractors well beyond that. What moves it is your turnover, the contract values you work to, the trade (roofing with heat or scaffolding rate very differently from first-fix carpentry) and your claims record.
Is contractors all risk the same as contract works insurance?+
In everyday use, yes. Contract works, contractors all risks, construction all risks and CAR all describe cover for the work in progress. Strictly, "contractors all risks" often describes the wider package including plant, temporary works and sometimes own plant hired in, while "contract works" is the section covering the structure and materials. The words vary between insurers more than the cover does. What matters is the sum insured and what the policy actually lists.
What is a joint names policy, and do I need one?+
A joint names policy insures the works in the names of both parties (typically the contractor and the employer, and sometimes funders or subcontractors as well) so both have rights under the same policy and the insurer cannot recover from the other party. JCT and similar standard contracts specify who insures the works and in whose names, and getting it wrong is a breach of contract quite apart from leaving a gap. If your contract asks for joint names, tell us before cover starts, because it has to be set up that way rather than added afterwards.
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