Tool Insurance
Tool cover insures the kit you carry: hand tools, power tools and small plant, against theft and damage, whether they are on site, in the van or in the workshop.
How Tool Cover Works
It is the most frequently claimed cover a tradesman holds and the one most frequently declined, and the reason is almost never the exclusions. It is the overnight vehicle condition. Nearly every policy that covers tools in a van restricts cover between certain hours unless the van is inside a locked building, and a theft at two in the morning from a van on the drive is the single most common tool claim there is.
Read that condition before you buy, not after. It is usually three lines long and it decides whether the cover is worth anything to you.
What Tool Insurance Covers
Theft from a vehicle
Tools stolen from a locked van, usually requiring visible signs of forced entry and subject to the overnight condition on the schedule. The headline cover, and the one with the most strings attached.
Theft from site or premises
Tools taken from a locked site container, a locked building or your own workshop. Normally requires forced entry and may carry its own security conditions on the container.
Accidental damage
Tools broken rather than stolen. Often optional and often worth having on expensive measuring, testing or cutting equipment.
Specified high value items
Anything above the single article limit has to be listed individually with a value. Laser levels, thermal cameras, core drills and testing equipment usually need listing.
Hired in tools
Your liability for tools and small plant you have hired, including continuing hire charges on many wordings. Easy to forget and cheap to add.
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 overnight vehicle condition
Most policies exclude theft from a vehicle between roughly 9pm and 6am unless the vehicle is locked inside a secure building. Some insurers will relax it for a van on a driveway with an alarm and deadlocks, and some will not relax it at all. This is the most important line on the schedule.
No forcible entry
If the van was unlocked, if the keys were in it, or if there is no damage to show how the thief got in, the claim usually fails. Insurers ask for photographs of the damage and a crime reference number.
Single article limit
Unspecified cover carries a maximum per item, often a few hundred pounds. A £1,800 laser level under a £500 single article limit settles at £500 unless it was specified.
Wear, tear and mechanical breakdown
Tools that simply fail are not insured. Cover responds to sudden damage and theft, not to a motor burning out after six years.
Tools left out on site
Kit left unsecured on an open site overnight is generally excluded. The container needs to be locked and often needs to meet a stated specification.
Specified Or Unspecified?
Unspecified cover gives you a total sum insured for everything, with a maximum payable on any one item. It is simple, it is cheaper, and it works well where the kit is a large number of ordinary tools.
Specified cover lists individual items with their own values. It costs more and it is the only way to properly insure anything expensive, because the single article limit on unspecified cover will otherwise cap the settlement well below what the item cost.
Most trades end up with both: a total unspecified figure for the van full of ordinary kit, with four or five expensive items listed separately. Keeping a photograph of each serial number plate and the original invoice turns a difficult claim into a straightforward one.
New For Old, Or Wear And Tear Deducted?
The basis of settlement matters more on tools than on almost anything else, because tools are used hard and depreciate fast. A policy settling on an indemnity basis will deduct for age and condition, so a five year old drill is settled at five year old value, which is a fraction of what replacing it costs.
New for old, sometimes called replacement as new, pays what a current equivalent costs. On a van full of working tools the difference between the two bases is routinely the difference between being back on site on Monday and not.
Check the age limit as well. Some new for old wordings revert to indemnity once an item passes a stated age, commonly three or five years.
What Actually Reduces Tool Theft Claims
Insurers price tool cover on what you do rather than on what you promise, and the measures that move the premium are the same ones that stop the claim happening.
Deadlocks and slam locks on every door, an alarm, and emptying the van overnight where you possibly can. Marking tools, photographing serial numbers and keeping invoices. A locked cage or toolbox bolted inside the van, which some insurers will take into account. Not advertising the trade on the side of the van is a genuine factor, though most people are not willing to give up the signwriting and that is a fair trade.
Where a van cannot go into a garage, say so when you ask for terms. An insurer who knows the van sits on a driveway and prices for it is far better than one who finds out at claim stage.
What Moves The Price
We do not publish a starting price for this cover, because a figure that is not drawn from a policy we actually placed is worth nothing to you. What we can tell you is what the premium is built from.
- Total sum insured, and the value of specified items
- Where the van is kept overnight
- Vehicle security: deadlocks, slam locks, alarm, tracker
- Whether cover is new for old or indemnity
- Your claims history, which on tools is checked closely
- Trade, since some kit is far more attractive to thieves
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
- Total value of tools to be insured
- A list of anything individually worth more than a few hundred pounds
- Where the van is parked overnight, honestly
- Vehicle security fitted, including any aftermarket locks
- Whether you need cover in a site container as well as the van
- Any tool theft claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Tradesman insuranceTools, liability and van cover arranged together rather than separately.
- Plant insuranceOnce the kit is too big to carry, it is rated as plant rather than tools.
- Goods in transitCover for what you are carrying rather than for what you work with.
- Tradesman insuranceThe trade version of this, with tools and van cover built around it.
- All trades A to ZCover written for your specific trade rather than the general product.
- Talk to a brokerTell us what you do and we will say which of these you actually need.
Common questions
Are my tools covered if they are stolen from my van overnight?+
Only if you meet the overnight vehicle condition on your policy. Most wordings exclude theft from a vehicle between around 9pm and 6am unless it is locked inside a secure building. Some insurers will relax this for a van with deadlocks and an alarm on a driveway, so it is worth asking rather than assuming.
Does my van insurance cover the tools inside it?+
Usually not, or only for a token amount. Commercial vehicle policies cover the vehicle. Tools need their own cover, either standalone or as a section of a tradesman or contractors policy.
What is a single article limit?+
The maximum payable for any one item under unspecified cover, often a few hundred pounds. Anything worth more than that must be listed individually with its value, or the settlement will be capped at the limit no matter what the item cost.
Will I get the full cost of replacing my tools?+
On a new for old basis, yes, subject to the sums insured and any age limit in the wording. On an indemnity basis the insurer deducts for age and wear, which on well used tools is a substantial reduction.
Are hired tools covered?+
Not automatically. Your liability for hired in tools and small plant is usually an add on, and it often includes continuing hire charges while a damaged item is being replaced. It is inexpensive and frequently overlooked.
Other cover we arrange
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