Kitchen and Bathroom Installers Insurance
A kitchen fit is five trades in one week, in somebody's house, while they are living in it. Carpentry, plumbing, tiling, electrics and sometimes gas, and the customer holds you responsible for every part of it regardless of who actually did which bit.
Two claims dominate. Water, because both of the rooms you work in exist to move it around, and worktops, because a templated stone top is heavy, brittle, made for one kitchen and cannot be replaced this week.
The worktop one catches people out, because most fitters assume their public liability covers it and it does not.
How Much Is Kitchen & Bathroom Installers Insurance?
Cover for a sole trader kitchen or bathroom fitter with up to £2m of public liability starts at £86 a year. That is the entry point rather than the average: one person, liability only, with nothing for tools, employees or the job itself. Employ anyone and employers' liability becomes a legal requirement, and from there the price is driven by wageroll and by the work you take on rather than by the trade.
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 Kitchen & Bathroom Installers Insurance Covers
Public Liability Insurance
Injury and damage to other people's property, which here means the customer's home and, in flats, the neighbour's. Limits start at £1m and step up through £2m, £5m and £10m, and working above other people is what takes a contract up it.
Employers' Liability Insurance
Legally required as soon as you become an employer, subject to limited exemptions, and included as standard. On this trade that is usually most of the people on the job.
Contract Works And Goods In Transit
The installation in progress and the goods before they go in. Units, appliances and worktops often sit in a customer's garage for days, which is neither your premises nor covered by default.
Tools & Equipment Cover
Power tools, jigs and tile cutting kit, with the usual overnight vehicle conditions.
Why Flats Change The Number
A leak in a house is a conversation with your customer. A leak in a flat is a claim from the person underneath, their insurer, and often the block's insurer for the communal areas, and none of them have any relationship with you or any reason to be reasonable about it.
That is why £2m stops making sense the moment you work above other homes. Pressure testing and physically checking every connection before you leave is the control that prevents almost all of it, and it takes ten minutes at the end of a job.
The Worktop Is Not Third Party Property
While you are handling it, a worktop is arguably in your care, custody or control rather than being somebody else's property, and public liability wordings commonly exclude exactly that. So the pane you crack carrying it in is not a liability claim.
It has to sit under contract works or goods in transit, and a lot of fitters hold neither. Given that a templated stone top is expensive, unique to that kitchen and weeks away from being replaced, this is worth deciding on purpose. Plenty of fitters choose to carry it themselves with a bigger excess, which is fine as a decision and painful as a surprise.
Wet Rooms And The Tickets Behind The Regulated Bits
A wet room stands or falls on the waterproofing under the tiles. If that fails, water goes into the floor structure and the ceiling below, and putting it right means taking the whole room out again. The strip out is yours; the damage to the building is the claim.
On the regulated work, gas needs registration and unvented cylinders need the ticket. Where you sub either out, take a copy of the certificate and check it runs past the end of your job, because if theirs has lapsed the loss lands with you.
Fitters Who Have Had A Water Claim In A Flat
A leak that reaches two flats below produces a claim large enough to reshape a small fitter's premium for years, and often a letter from an insurer you have never heard of.
The way back is showing that the cause has been removed: pressure testing as standard, checking under units before the doors go on, photographing connections at completion. Those are small, specific and exactly what an underwriter wants to hear.
If a claim like that has followed you to renewal, ring 02382 000820 rather than working through comparison sites, because the systems will simply decline you.
What We Need To Quote
- Turnover across kitchens, bathrooms and wet rooms
- Whether you design and supply as well as fit
- Which regulated work you do yourself and which you sub out
- How you check a subcontractor's registration and cover
- Whether you install wet rooms and how you tank them
- Whether you work in flats
- Five years of claims, especially water
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Plumbers insuranceThe water side of the same job, and where most of these claims originate.
- Flooring and tilingWet room tanking sits across both and carries the biggest rectification cost in either.
- 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 kitchen fitters insurance?+
Cover starts at £86 a year for a sole trader kitchen or bathroom fitter, for up to £2m of public liability alone. Two things push a real installer above that floor. Working in flats, because a leak reaching the flat below is a third party claim rather than a chat with your customer, and doing the regulated electrical or gas work yourself rather than subbing it out. Call 02382 000820 and we will price it against what you actually take on.
Am I covered if I break a stone worktop?+
Not under public liability, because while you are handling it the worktop is arguably in your care, custody or control rather than somebody else's property, which wordings commonly exclude. It needs contract works or goods in transit behind it, and many fitters have neither. Given a templated top is expensive and weeks from replacement, decide this deliberately rather than discovering it.
What happens if a leak damages the flat below?+
It becomes a third party claim rather than a disagreement with your customer, and it is usually larger than expected. The downstairs owner claims for ceilings, decoration, flooring and possessions, their insurer may come after you directly, and the block insurer can join in for the communal parts. This is why £2m is not enough once you work above other homes.
Who is liable if my subcontractor does the electrics?+
Your customer comes to you, because you took the job and brought them in. Your public liability normally extends to subcontractors working for you, so you are protected against the claim, and insurers would then pursue theirs. The problem is if their cover has lapsed or they were not registered for the work, because then the loss stays with you. Take a copy of the certificate every time.
Does my insurance cover a wet room that leaks?+
It covers the damage, not the wet room. Water into the floor structure and the ceiling below is a public liability claim. Stripping the tiles, tray and fittings out to re-tank the room is your own cost, and it is substantial because everything above the waterproofing has to come out.
Other trades we cover
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