Car Valeting & Detailing Insurance
A valeter spends the whole working day in physical contact with other people's vehicles, and that is precisely the thing a public liability policy is written to exclude.
The Car Is The Risk, Not The Premises
Property in your care, custody and control sits outside most liability wordings. The car on your forecourt, the one you are driving onto a ramp, the paintwork you are machine polishing: while it is in your hands it is not insured by the policy most valeters assume covers it. A swirl mark argument is a nuisance; a car damaged on your premises or burnt out overnight is not.
The second exposure is chemical. Traffic film removers, wheel acids, tar removers and ceramic coatings are aggressive products, and the claims that follow a mistake are damage to trim, glass, wheels or paint rather than injury to a person.
What Car Valeting Insurance Covers
Customers' vehicles in your custody
The section that matters most and the one standard liability excludes. Damage to, or theft of, a vehicle while it is in your care, whether on your premises, on a ramp or being moved.
Road risks, if you drive customer vehicles (not arranged by us)
Driving a customer's car on a public road, even a few yards off a driveway, needs motor trade road risks. Your own motor policy will not extend to a vehicle you do not own and are handling in the course of business. We do not arrange motor trade cover, so that part needs a motor trade specialist. We would rather tell you that now than leave you to find out, and we can still place the rest of the policy around it.
Public liability
Injury and damage to third parties beyond the vehicle: chemical overspray onto a neighbouring car, a slip on a wet forecourt, damage to a customer's driveway.
Employers' liability
Compulsory from the first employee at a £5 million statutory minimum, including casual weekend help, which is common in this trade.
Tools, machines and stock
Pressure washers, extractors, polishers, generators and chemical stock. For a mobile valeter this all lives in a van, so the overnight vehicle condition applies.
Water supply and equipment breakdown
Tanks, bowsers and heaters where you are mobile, and the cost of being unable to work if the machine fails.
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.
Care, custody and control
The defining exclusion. Public liability will not pay for damage to the vehicle you were working on. It has to be written back as customers' vehicles cover, with a limit set on the most expensive car you might realistically have on site.
Driving a customer's car without road risks
Moving a vehicle a few yards on a public road is still driving it. Without motor trade road risks that is uninsured and a motoring offence as well. It is not cover we arrange, so if you drive customer vehicles you will need a motor trade specialist for that section.
Defective workmanship
Redoing a poor valet is never covered. Damage your work caused to the vehicle may be, which is the distinction every swirl mark dispute turns on.
Chemical damage and inappropriate product use
Some wordings restrict damage from using a product outside its intended application. Acid on the wrong wheel finish is the common example.
Single vehicle value limits
Customers' vehicles cover carries a maximum per vehicle. A detailer taking in a car worth well above that limit needs it raised before it arrives, not afterwards.
Detailing Raises The Values And The Stakes
Ordinary valeting and paint correction are different risks even though the same business often does both. A full detail or ceramic coating means hours of machine work on paint, on cars that are frequently worth a great deal more than the average.
Two things follow. The per vehicle limit on customers' vehicles cover becomes the number that matters, not the total, because one car can exceed it on its own. And the nature of a claim changes: burning through paint on a machine polisher is a respray, and on some finishes that is a very large bill.
Where you take in high value cars, say so and have the limit set for the worst case rather than the typical week. Photographing the vehicle on arrival, including existing marks, is the cheapest dispute prevention there is and costs two minutes.
Mobile Work Changes What You Need
A mobile valeter has no premises, so the policy stops being about a building and becomes about the van, the kit inside it and the fact that you are working on other people's property.
Expect the overnight vehicle condition on the equipment, the same as any trade keeping tools in a van. Expect questions about water: where it comes from, whether you carry a tank, and what happens to the run off, because discharge into a drain is a pollution question on some sites.
And expect public liability to matter more than you would think, because you are working on driveways, in car parks and at business premises where overspray and water reach things that are not the car you were booked for.
Contract Work For Dealerships
Valeting under contract to a dealership, a leasing company or an auction site is a different commercial arrangement and usually brings different insurance requirements.
They will normally specify a public liability limit, often £5 million, and they will want to see customers' vehicles cover at a level that reflects their stock rather than yours. Some will require you to be named on or noted to their own arrangements, and some contracts will make you responsible for vehicles on their site in terms broader than the law would impose.
Send the contract with the quote request. Liability assumed under contract is excluded on most policies unless the insurer has seen the terms, and a dealership contract is exactly where that bites.
How To Choose Insurance For A Valeting Business
Valeting is routinely sold a general public liability policy that does not cover the thing the business actually handles. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not claim to be the best choice. These are the questions that decide whether the cover works.
Is customers' vehicles cover on the schedule, and at what limit per car?
If the quote shows only public liability, every vehicle you touch is uninsured. Ask for the per vehicle figure, not the total, and set it on the most expensive car you might take.
Do you drive customer cars, and who is handling road risks?
Moving a car off a driveway is driving it. A broker who does not ask has not understood the trade. We do not place motor trade, so if you need road risks we will say so rather than quoting around it.
Have they asked about detailing and paint correction separately?
Machine polishing on high value paint is a different claim from a wash and wax, and the values involved are different too.
Does the policy contemplate chemical damage?
Acids and solvents on the wrong finish are the everyday claim. Some wordings restrict damage from product misuse, which is worth knowing before it happens.
Have they read your dealership contract?
Contract work usually imposes limits and sometimes liabilities beyond the ordinary, and liability assumed under contract is normally excluded unless agreed.
Factually, we quote customers' vehicles as a named section rather than assuming the liability wording stretches to it, we ask whether you drive customer cars before anything else, and we ask to see dealership contract terms rather than finding them at claim stage. Where you need motor trade road risks we will tell you plainly that it is not something we arrange. We are a broker, so the rest goes to several insurers rather than one.
We do not publish a starting premium for valeting, because our book holds fewer than ten policies in the trade and that is below the threshold where we will put a figure on a page.
What Moves The Price
Every policy is priced on the business behind it. These are the things that move the premium:
- Whether you are mobile, unit based, or both
- The maximum value of any one vehicle in your care
- Whether you drive customer vehicles on the road
- Detailing and paint correction as a share of the work
- Turnover, wageroll and any casual staff
- Security where vehicles are kept overnight
We are a broker, so we take it to several insurers rather than quoting one. Call 02382 000820 for a quote.
What We Need To Quote
- Mobile, premises based, or a mix, and roughly what split
- Maximum number and value of vehicles in your care at once
- Whether you drive customer vehicles, and where
- Whether you do paint correction or ceramic coating
- Equipment list with values, and where the van is kept
- Any dealership or contract work, with the terms
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.
- Tool coverMachines and kit in the van, and the overnight condition.
- All trades A to ZCover written for your trade rather than a general scheme.
Common questions
Does public liability cover damage to a customer's car?+
No, and this is the thing most valeters get wrong. Property in your care, custody and control is excluded from most public liability wordings, and the car you are working on is the clearest example there is. You need customers' vehicles cover written as its own section, with a limit set per vehicle rather than in total, because one high value car can exceed the figure on its own.
Do I need motor trade insurance to move customer cars?+
Yes. Driving a customer's vehicle on a public road at all, including moving it a few yards off a driveway, needs motor trade road risks. Your own motor policy will not extend to a vehicle you do not own that you are handling in the course of business, and doing it without is a motoring offence as well as an uninsured risk. To be straightforward about it: motor trade is not something we arrange, so you would need a specialist for that section. We can place the valeting side around it.
What insurance does a mobile valeter need?+
Customers' vehicles cover first, because the car is the risk. Public liability for everything beyond the vehicle, such as overspray onto a neighbouring car or water across a driveway. Equipment cover for the kit in the van, subject to the usual overnight vehicle condition. Employers' liability from the first person who works with you, including weekend help. Road risks if you move customer cars.
Am I covered if I burn through paint machine polishing?+
The cost of redoing your own work is never covered. Damage your work caused to the vehicle can be, under customers' vehicles cover, and on a respray that is a substantial claim. The distinction between a poor finish and actual damage is where these disputes sit, which is why photographing each car on arrival, marks included, is worth the two minutes it takes.
Who insures car valeters and detailers in the UK?+
A narrower set of insurers than general trades, because vehicles sitting in your custody is a section ordinary liability does not include. Several are reached through brokers rather than direct. Ask specifically how a quote handles vehicles in your care, because that is where the cheap ones are cheap. Worth knowing before you ring round: if you drive customer vehicles on the road you need motor trade road risks, which is a separate specialism and not one we arrange. We place the valeting liability, premises and customers' vehicles side.
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