Builders Insurance
The two things that go wrong with a builder's policy are both about the passage of time. It was bought when the business was one man and a van, and it has quietly stayed that shape while the business grew to three sites and eight people. And the contract works figure on it was a guess made years ago that nobody has revisited since.
Neither shows up until there is a claim, and by then both are expensive. We would rather ask awkward questions at renewal than discover the answers afterwards.
The other thing worth sorting before a spade goes in the ground is the client's existing house. Most builders assume public liability covers it. It does not, because while you are working on it the policy treats it as being in your charge rather than as somebody else's property, and that is a specific exclusion.
How Much Is Builders Insurance?
Across the 41 builder policies on our book, most fall between £245 and £3,218 a year, with the middle sitting around £547. 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 Builders Insurance Covers
Builders Public Liability Insurance
Pays when your work injures somebody or damages property that is not yours. Almost every contract you sign will name a figure, and £5m has become the working minimum on anything commercial. £1m still turns up on older domestic policies and increasingly gets a job refused.
Employers' Liability Insurance
Required by law from the moment somebody works to your instructions, and included in every package we place. The catch is that a labour-only bricklayer or a lad helping at weekends counts, whatever the payment arrangement says.
Contract Works Cover
The job in progress: what you have built so far, the materials stacked on site, and the temporary works holding it all up. Insure it at the full contract value including materials, not the margin you are making on it.
Existing Structures Cover
The house or building you are working on, which public liability specifically excludes. On extensions and refurbishments this is the largest single thing that can go wrong, and it has to be arranged on purpose.
Plant, Tools And Hired-in Plant
What you own and what you rent. Hire agreements normally make you responsible for the full replacement cost plus the hire charges that keep running while a replacement is found, and both need to be in the figure.
The Building You Are Working On Is Not Third Party Property
This is the single most common uninsured loss we see on builders. A first fix left uncapped over a weekend, a subcontractor's grinder starting a fire, a wall coming down further than intended during a structural opening. All of them damage the client's building, and public liability turns them all down for the same reason: while you are working on it, it counts as being in your charge.
It has to come from either an existing structures extension on your policy or from the owner's own buildings insurance with your interest recorded on it. On a JCT contract the option in force decides which, and amended contracts move that responsibility around more often than people expect. Ten minutes reading it before you start is worth a great deal more than any argument afterwards.
Subcontractors, And The Certificate You Did Not Ask For
If a subcontractor cannot produce a current certificate, most insurers will treat them as your employee for that job. That is fine if you hold employers' liability, and awkward if the wageroll you declared never included them.
The bigger problem is the limit. If your contract requires £5m and theirs carries £1m, that shortfall lands on you, and you will not find out until a claim is being apportioned. Collecting certificates at the start of each engagement, and again if the job runs past their renewal date, costs nothing and is one of the few things that visibly improves how underwriters read you.
When You Have Crossed Into Design
Choosing the steel without a structural engineer's numbers. Deciding how the damp will be dealt with. Telling a client which way to underpin. All of those are design decisions even when nobody used the word.
Public liability answers for injury and damage. It does not pay to put right advice that was wrong, and it will not fund pulling out work that was built to a bad idea. Design and build contracts usually require professional indemnity by name and specify how long you must keep it going after the job finishes.
Builders With Claims Behind Them
Builders get declined more often than most trades, usually because the claims history is read as a number rather than a story. Three tool thefts and one large water claim look identical on a form to something far worse.
We would rather send an underwriter the explanation. What happened, whether it was your work or a subcontractor's, and what changed afterwards. A builder who now checks certificates on every engagement, or who moved to press fit on first fix, is genuinely a different risk from the one who had the claim, and it is worth somebody saying so on your behalf.
If your renewal has jumped or you have been turned down, call 02382 000820 before you accept a price. It is what we are for.
What We Need To Quote
- Last year's turnover, and roughly how it splits between domestic and commercial
- Wageroll, plus what you paid labour-only and bona fide subcontractors separately
- The biggest job you have taken in three years, and the biggest you would take
- How high you work, and how deep you dig
- Any demolition, underpinning, piling or structural alteration
- Whether any of your contracts include design
- Five years of claims, including the ones you settled yourself
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
Common questions
How much is builders insurance?+
Most builders policies on our book fall between £245 and £3,218 a year, with the middle around £547. The spread is enormous because the trade is: it runs from a sole trader doing kitchens to firms turning over millions, and turnover and wageroll drive nearly all of it. We give the range rather than the cheapest policy we ever wrote, because that one is an outlier and tells you nothing. Ring 02382 000820 for a real number.
How much public liability insurance do builders need?+
No law sets a minimum, but your contract will. £1m still appears on small domestic work, £2m is common, and £5m has become the practical floor for commercial jobs and most main contractor requirements, with £10m on larger and public sector work. Read the contract before buying, because raising a limit mid-term is easy and explaining a shortfall after a claim is not.
Do I need employers liability if everyone is a subcontractor?+
Almost certainly. A labour-only subcontractor working to your instructions with your materials or plant is treated as an employee by insurers and under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act, whatever the invoicing arrangement. Only a genuine independent business with its own cover and its own control over the work sits outside it. The penalty for getting it wrong is up to £2,500 for each day you were uninsured.
Does builders insurance cover damage to the client's house?+
Not as standard, and this catches out more builders than anything else. While you are working on the building it counts as being in your charge rather than third party property, which is an exclusion on public liability. It needs an existing structures extension on your policy, or the owner's buildings insurance with your interest recorded. On a JCT contract the insurance option decides which, so settle it in writing before starting.
Am I covered if a subcontractor causes the damage?+
Your public liability normally covers subcontractors while they are working for you, so your business is protected against the claim itself. Insurers will usually then pursue the subcontractor's insurer. Where it hurts is if their cover has lapsed or their limit is lower than your contract required, because then you have absorbed a loss that should have been somebody else's and it sits on your record at renewal.
Can I get builders insurance with claims on my record?+
Yes, and it is a lot of what we do. The difficulty is that claims histories get read as numbers by online systems, so a few small tool thefts can price like something far more serious. We would rather put the explanation in front of an underwriter: what happened, whose work it was, and what you do differently now. Call 02382 000820 before accepting a renewal that has jumped.
Other trades we cover
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