Phone & Computer Repair Shop Insurance
Almost everything of value in a repair shop belongs to somebody else, and that is exactly what a standard liability policy will not cover.
The Exclusion That Defines This Trade
Public liability covers injury and damage to third parties, but it carries an exclusion for property in your care, custody and control. The phone on your bench is the clearest example there is of property in your care. Drop it, lose it, kill the board with a bad reflow, or have the shop burgled overnight, and the customer wants their device replaced. The liability policy most repairers start with will not answer that.
So the cover that matters here is customers' goods, and it needs a limit set on how many devices are actually in the shop at once rather than a token figure nobody checked.
What Phone & Computer Repair Shop Insurance Covers
Customers' goods in your care
Devices left with you for repair, against theft, fire, flood and accidental damage. The single most important section on the policy and the one standard liability wordings exclude.
Damage caused during the repair
The device you damaged while working on it. Often a separate extension from simple custody, and worth confirming, because a cracked screen during a battery swap is the everyday version of this claim.
Data loss liability
The customer's photographs, contacts and documents. Cover is usually for the cost of recovery and the liability arising, rather than for the sentimental value, and it typically depends on you having warned them to back up.
Stock and parts
Screens, batteries and components, plus any refurbished devices you hold for sale. Small individually and substantial in aggregate.
Tools and bench equipment
Microscopes, rework stations, programmers and testing kit. Specialist items that are expensive to replace and often above the single article limit on unspecified contents cover.
Public and employers' liability
Customers in the shop, and staff at work. Employers' liability is compulsory from the first employee, at a £5 million statutory minimum.
Where The Cover Stops
Wordings differ between insurers, so treat these as the usual position rather than as universal fact. Where one of them matters to you, it is worth checking on your own schedule before you need to.
The care, custody and control exclusion
On a standard public liability policy, property in your possession is excluded. Repair shops need it written back specifically, and the limit is what matters, not the fact that it was mentioned.
The customers' goods limit at your busiest
Set it on how many devices are in the shop on your worst Saturday, not on a typical Tuesday. A fire does not wait for a quiet week.
Lithium battery fire
Batteries in storage and on charge are a genuine fire risk and insurers increasingly ask about them. Expect questions about quantity, where they are stored, and whether charging is left unattended overnight.
Data, and what is realistically insurable
Policies cover the cost of recovery and the liability, not the irreplaceable value of lost photographs. A documented warning to back up before work starts is both good practice and usually a condition.
Devices not collected
Uncollected repairs accumulate and are still customers' property. They count towards your limit long after the customer has stopped answering the phone.
Set The Customers' Goods Limit Honestly
The common failure is a limit chosen to keep the premium down, on the assumption that a claim would involve one device. The claims that actually happen involve all of them at once: a burglary, a fire, a flood from the flat above.
Count what is physically in the shop at your busiest, including the repairs waiting on parts and the ones nobody has collected. For a shop turning around twenty devices a week, the figure is routinely several times what the owner first estimates, because the uncollected drawer never gets counted.
The limit is cheap to raise and impossible to argue up after a loss, which makes this one of the few insurance decisions with an obviously correct answer.
Lithium Batteries Have Changed The Underwriting
A repair shop holds more lithium cells than almost any other retail unit of its size: stock batteries, devices awaiting repair, devices on charge. Damaged and swollen cells are routine in this trade, which is precisely the condition in which they fail.
Insurers now ask about it directly. How many batteries are held, where they are stored, whether damaged cells are segregated, whether anything is left charging unattended overnight, and whether there is a metal cabinet or a fire resistant container for the stock.
Segregating damaged cells, charging in a non-combustible container and not leaving anything on charge overnight are the three answers that move terms, and they are the three that prevent the fire as well.
Working On Site And Taking Devices Away
Plenty of repairers collect from customers, work at business premises, or carry devices back to the shop. That movement sits outside a premises policy unless somebody has asked for it.
Customers' goods in transit is normally an extension rather than a standard section, and it carries its own limit and its own overnight vehicle condition. A van with twelve laptops in it parked on a drive overnight is the same problem the tool trades have, with the same answer.
If you do business IT support as well as counter repairs, say so clearly. The exposure is different, the limits need to be different, and professional indemnity may be in play once you are advising rather than only fixing.
What Moves The Price
We do not publish a starting price for this trade, because a figure that is not drawn from policies we actually placed is worth nothing to you. What we can tell you is what the premium is built from.
- The customers' goods limit, which is the main rating factor
- How many devices are in the shop at once
- Stock value, including refurbished devices held for sale
- Lithium battery quantity and how it is stored
- Whether you collect, deliver or work at customer sites
- Security: locks, alarm, shutters and whether anything stays in the window
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 and you will have a real figure rather than a range.
What We Need To Quote
- Maximum value of customers' devices held at any one time
- Stock and parts sum insured
- Value of tools and bench equipment, listing anything expensive
- How batteries are stored and whether charging happens overnight
- Whether you work on site or transport customers' devices
- Any claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Public liabilityWhere the care, custody and control exclusion comes from, and how it is written back.
- Cyber insuranceYour own systems and the customer data you hold, which liability does not answer.
- Shop insuranceThe general retail package, and the sums insured most shops get wrong.
- Business interruptionThe cover that decides whether a shop survives a fire or a flood.
- Talk to a brokerTell us what you sell and we will tell you what actually needs covering.
Common questions
Does public liability cover a customer's phone I damaged?+
No. Public liability excludes property in your care, custody and control, and a device on your bench is the clearest case of it. You need customers' goods cover, written specifically, with a limit set on how many devices are in the shop at once.
What limit should I set for customers' goods?+
Work out what is physically in the shop on your busiest day, including repairs waiting on parts and devices nobody has collected. Most owners underestimate it, because the uncollected drawer never gets counted. The claims that happen are burglaries and fires, which take everything at once rather than one device.
Am I liable if I lose a customer's data?+
Potentially, and cover is usually for the cost of recovery and the liability arising rather than the sentimental value of what was lost. Most policies expect you to have warned the customer to back up before work starts, so make that part of your intake process and keep a record of it.
Do insurers ask about lithium batteries?+
Increasingly, yes. A repair shop holds a lot of cells, often damaged ones, and they are a real fire cause. Expect questions about quantity, storage, segregation of damaged cells and overnight charging. Good answers genuinely move the terms.
Is cover different if I repair at customers' premises?+
Yes. Working away and carrying devices sits outside a premises policy unless it has been added. Customers' goods in transit is normally an extension with its own limit and an overnight vehicle condition, the same shape as tool cover for the trades.
Other shops we cover
What our customers say on Google
5.0average from 169 Google reviews