Handyman Insurance

Public liability first, because the claim that actually happens is damage to a customer's home. £2 million is the sensible floor and £5 million is what letting agents, housing associations and commercial clients generally require. Employers' liability is compulsory from the first employee at a £5 million statutory minimum, and a mate helping for a day counts. Then tools cover for the van, and legal expenses, because disputes in this trade are frequent and small. The part that matters most is not a section at all: it is making sure every type of work you do is declared, because cover follows that list.

Only the electrical work you are competent and certificated to do, and only if it is declared. Changing a light fitting or a socket face is ordinarily within a handyman policy. Notifiable work under Part P, meaning a new circuit, a consumer unit, or work in the special locations around a bath, shower or kitchen, needs the qualification behind it. If a claim arises from work you were not qualified to carry out, an insurer has a straightforward reason to decline, and you will be arguing at the worst moment. Gas is different again and has no grey area: without Gas Safe registration it is uninsurable and an offence.

Less than most trades, because the individual losses are small, and the figure moves on the activity list rather than on turnover. A sole trader doing general repairs and decorating with no work at height sits at the cheap end of trades cover. Adding roof access, electrical work or a second worker moves it. We do not publish a figure for this trade because our own book does not hold enough handyman policies to give you an honest one, and a number taken from a different trade would mislead you. Tell us the real list and you will get a real quote.

It is widely available, which is the opposite of a problem: plenty of insurers write it and the quotes look interchangeable, so the differences are structural rather than priced. Several are reached through brokers rather than direct. What separates one placement from another is whether the activity list genuinely covers your week, what working height is permitted, how damage to the item you were working on is treated, and whether the limit meets the contracts you want. Ask about those four and the cheapest quote frequently stops looking like the best one.

Usually yes for the resulting damage, and this is the most common claim in the trade so it is worth knowing the shape of it. Water or fire damage to the property is ordinarily a public liability claim. The pipe or cable itself, and the wall you drilled, may be treated as the thing you were working on rather than as third party property, which some wordings handle differently. Redoing your own work is never covered. Use a detector every time and photograph the area first, because the argument is almost always about whether the service was where it should have been.

You will not get on the contractor list without it. Letting agents and housing associations typically require public liability of £5 million, evidence of employers' liability if you have anyone working for you, and increasingly a method statement and risk assessment for anything at height. Some ask about DBS checks because you are alone in tenanted properties. None of it is unreasonable for work in occupied housing, and having it ready is usually what separates the businesses that win that work from the ones that get asked and go quiet.

Clearing a gutter from a ladder is normally within scope if the policy's working height allows it. Anything beyond that, meaning walking on a roof, replacing tiles or patching a flat roof, usually is not: most liability policies state a maximum working height and handle roof access separately, and plenty exclude it. Check the figure on your schedule rather than assuming, declare it if you do go up, and if roof work is becoming a real part of the business then it needs rating as roofing rather than as handyman work.