Air Conditioning and Ventilation Insurance
Nearly everything about this trade happens above somebody else's head. Plant sits on the roof, pipework and condensate run through the ceiling void, and directly beneath both there is an office full of desks, servers and people trying to work.
Which is why the claims are almost never about the equipment. They are about what the equipment dripped on. A condensate pump that gave up on a Friday afternoon produces a Monday morning of ruined ceiling tiles, soaked carpet, dead workstations and a tenant who cannot trade.
We price this trade on what is underneath you rather than on what you install, and the difference between an empty shell fit out and a live trading floor is the single biggest factor in it.
How Much Is Air Conditioning & Ventilation Insurance?
Across the 10 air conditioning and ventilation policies on our book, most fall between £545 and £1,303 a year, with the middle sitting around £983. We quote the range rather than the cheapest policy we have ever placed, because the very lowest is always an outlier and tells you nothing about your own business. These are premiums arranged for other firms, not a quote for yours.
What moves the price is the same in every trade: turnover, how many people work under your direction, the work you take on, and your claims record. We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a realistic figure.
What Air Conditioning & Ventilation Insurance Covers
Public Liability Insurance
Covers injury and damage to property belonging to other people, which here means the tenant's ceiling, floor, furniture and IT. £5m is standard on commercial work and £10m is common once you are in managed buildings.
Employers' Liability Insurance
Required by law once anyone works to your instructions, and part of every package. Roof access and plant rooms are where the serious injuries happen, so training records matter to how it is rated.
Contract Works Cover
The installation before handover, plus units and ductwork waiting on site. Condensers are valuable, portable and are lifted off roofs by people who do not work for you.
Tools & Equipment Cover
Recovery machines, vacuum pumps, gauges and leak detection. Specialist enough that a general tools figure usually falls short, so it is worth listing the expensive items.
Professional Indemnity
Where you size plant, design systems or produce reports a client relies on for compliance. Increasingly written into commercial mechanical subcontracts by name.
Gradual Damage Is The Gap To Ask About
Most liability policies are built around damage that is sudden and accidental. A condensate drain does not fail that way. It blocks slowly, weeps for a fortnight into a ceiling void, and the damage accumulates out of sight until a tile gives way.
Some wordings will argue that is not sudden, and therefore not covered. It is the single most useful question to put to whoever currently insures you, and if the answer is vague you should assume the worst. We check it as a matter of course on this trade because it is where the claims actually come from.
What The Policy Will Not Do About Refrigerant
Refrigerants are controlled substances and handling them needs certification, which any insurer will take as read. What they will not generally do is pay the environmental consequences of a release, the regulatory costs that follow, or the value of the gas itself.
On small splits that hardly matters. On larger charge systems it is a real gap, and worth naming rather than discovering. Tell us the systems you work on and we will tell you where the edges are.
Fire Dampers, And The Argument Afterwards
Every time a duct passes through a fire rated wall, something has to keep that wall doing its job. Sometimes that is you, sometimes it is a specialist, and on plenty of jobs each side assumed the other had it in their package.
Nobody finds out until there is a fire, by which point the question is being asked by lawyers. Put it in writing at the start of the contract, and photograph every penetration before the ceiling goes up. Those pictures are the cheapest insurance on the job.
Contractors With Water Claims Behind Them
Water damage claims in occupied offices are frequent, visible and expensive, and two or three in a row will see a renewal quote double or an insurer walk away. Frequency worries underwriters far more than a single large loss does, because it reads as a process problem.
The way back is to show the process changed. Commissioning checks on condensate, a documented service interval, tell-tale alarms on pumps in high value areas. Those are concrete and they are the sort of thing we can put in a submission and have taken seriously.
If your renewal has jumped or your insurer has given notice, call 02382 000820 with the claims detail to hand.
What We Need To Quote
- Turnover, split between installation, service and maintenance
- Your refrigerant certification and the systems you handle
- Whether any work involves cooling towers
- Whether you install ductwork through fire compartment walls, and who fits the dampers
- How roof plant is accessed and lifted
- Five years of claims, particularly anything water related
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Heating and gas engineersHeat pump work sits across both trades and needs both certifications named.
- Shopfitters and fit-outMost commercial air conditioning goes in under somebody else's fit out programme.
- Tradesman insuranceTools cover, and the conditions on theft from a van overnight.
- Contractors all riskCover for the job itself while it is in progress, before it is handed over.
Common questions
How much is air conditioning contractor insurance?+
Most air conditioning and ventilation policies on our book fall between £545 and £1,303 a year, with the middle around £983. Whether you install or only service, and what sits below the plant you work on, move it more than turnover alone. Call 02382 000820 for a figure that reflects your own work.
Am I covered if a condensate leak floods an office?+
The tenant's ceiling, carpet, furniture and equipment would normally be a public liability claim. Two things to check. Repairing the drain that blocked is your own cost, not part of the claim. And because condensate blockages leak slowly rather than suddenly, some wordings will question whether it counts as sudden and accidental damage. That is the question worth asking your current insurer.
Does my policy cover refrigerant loss?+
Usually only in part. Damage caused by an incident may be covered, but the environmental consequences of a release, the regulatory costs and the value of the lost gas generally are not. On small split systems that is academic. On larger charge systems it is a genuine gap, so tell us what you work on and we will show you where it sits.
Who is responsible for fire dampers around ductwork?+
Whoever the contract says, which is precisely the problem, because it often does not say clearly and both parties assume the other has it. A duct through a fire rated wall breaches the compartment unless a damper or fire stopping maintains it, and the failure only appears in a fire. Agree it in writing at the start and photograph every penetration before it is concealed.
Can I still get cover after several water damage claims?+
Yes, though frequency is harder to place than one big loss, because insurers read repeated claims as a process problem rather than bad luck. The answer is to show the process changed: commissioning checks on condensate, a documented service interval, alarms on pumps above high value areas. Bring that to the conversation and it changes the reception. Call 02382 000820.
Other trades we cover
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