Scaffolders Insurance

Usually the scaffolding contractor, and for longer than most people expect. You remain responsible for the structure you erected while it stands, not just while you are on site, so a collapse, a falling component, or an injury to a member of the public weeks after handover still comes back to you. That changes if someone else alters it without your knowledge, which is why unauthorised alteration and your handover paperwork matter so much. In practice liability is argued between the scaffolder, the main contractor and whoever last touched it, and a public liability policy will generally fund the defence of that argument as well as any settlement, subject to its terms and limits.

Public liability is the core, starting at £1m, with £5m or £10m where main contractors ask for it. Employers' liability is a legal requirement as soon as you become an employer, subject to limited exemptions, and labour-only subcontractors working under your direction commonly count. Beyond that, cover for the scaffold itself (it is valuable, it sits on open sites and it is stolen regularly) plus contract works, hired-in plant, and tools. If you design scaffolds rather than working to a standard configuration, you also have a professional indemnity exposure.

Realistically it starts at around £800 a year for a scaffolding contractor. Larger contractors run well beyond that, so there is no top figure worth quoting. Scaffolding is priced on the fact that working at height means a claim, when it happens, is rarely small. What moves it is your turnover, how many scaffolders you employ, the height and type of work you take on, whether you design as well as erect, and your claims record.

Very often, yes, and it is the condition scaffolders most frequently breach without realising. Many policies carry a maximum working height, and some restrict specific work such as chimney stacks, church spires, or anything over a certain number of lifts. Take a job above that limit and the policy may not respond at all. Check the height limit on your schedule before you price a taller job, and tell us if your work is changing.

Under the Work at Height Regulations a scaffold must be inspected by a competent person before first use, then at intervals not exceeding seven days, and again after anything that could affect its stability such as high winds or alteration. Insurers treat this as a condition rather than a suggestion. Keeping the inspection records is what turns a defensible claim into a paid one, and their absence is a common reason a claim is disputed.

It extends your public liability policy to cover the main contractor or site owner for claims arising from your work, and most construction contracts require it by name before you are allowed on site. It is not the same as adding them as a joint insured. It protects them for your negligence, not their own. If a contract asks for indemnity to principals, tell us, because it needs to be shown on the certificate the site will ask to see.

Ask any broker three things and you will know quickly. What maximum working height is on the schedule, because scaffolding policies carry one and it is the condition most often breached without anyone noticing. Whether design is covered, because a bespoke scaffold outside a standard configuration is a design liability that public liability was not written for. And whether indemnity to principals is included, since most construction contracts demand it by name before you get on site. CoverTrade Insurance places scaffolding liability specifically rather than through a general trades scheme. Call 02382 000820.

Scaffold public liability insurance is priced on working at height, because that means a claim is rarely small. Whether you search for public liability insurance scaffolding or scaffolding public liability insurance, it is the same cover and the same rating. On the policies we place, cover starts at around £800 a year, and larger contractors run well beyond that, so there is no top figure worth quoting. Larger contractors run well beyond that. Turnover, how many scaffolders you employ, the heights you work to, whether you design as well as erect, and your claims record are what move it. Those are premiums arranged for other scaffolding businesses rather than a quote for yours.

Not as a legal requirement beyond the road traffic minimum, but it is usually the practical answer once you are running more than a couple of vehicles. Scaffolding fleets are awkward to insure one by one because they are rarely uniform: a flatbed, a lorry, often something over 3.5 tonnes, and a van for the yard. A motor fleet policy is not limited to one kind of vehicle, so cars, vans, flatbeds and lorries can all go on one schedule with one renewal date, and you add or remove a vehicle mid-term as the yard changes rather than starting a new policy each time. Tell us what you actually run and how it is used, and we will take it to the markets that write scaffolding.

Not by the motor policy, and this is the split worth understanding. A motor policy covers the vehicle itself and the damage it does to other people, which includes a load coming off and injuring somebody or hitting another vehicle. Your own tube, fittings and boards on the back are your property, so they are covered by goods in transit or by the scaffold section of your trade policy, not by the motor insurance. A lorry loaded and left overnight is exactly where that boundary gets tested, so it is worth checking that the sum insured for scaffold covers material in transit and not only material standing on site.

Look for a broker who understands the trade rather than one working from a general trades panel, because a scaffolding fleet is rarely a uniform set of vans and the load on the back is worth more than most people assume. The question worth asking is where cover for the load sits, since that is not the motor policy. We are a broker rather than an insurer, so we go to several markets and come back with the options, and we arrange scaffolding liability and motor fleet cover for scaffolding contractors. Call 02382 000820 and tell us what you run.

Neither is required by any contract, and neither is what a site will ask to see, but scaffolding is one of the trades where they matter most. Life insurance for scaffolders pays out to your family if you die; income protection pays you a monthly benefit while you are alive but unable to work, which is the far more likely event. Public liability and employers’ liability protect the business and the people around it. They pay nothing to you if you fall and cannot work for six months, and a self-employed scaffolder has no sick pay behind them. Income protection pays a monthly benefit while illness or injury stops you working. We can arrange it alongside the trade cover, so it is worth asking about at the same time rather than separately.