Machinery Removal and Installation Insurance
Machinery installation is a trade where almost the entire exposure sits in something that does not belong to you and is worth more than your annual turnover.
The Asset Is Not Yours And Not Cheap
A printing press, an injection moulding machine, a CNC line or a packaging plant can be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, is frequently irreplaceable at short notice, and spends several hours suspended from your equipment. Drop it, twist it, damage a way or a spindle and the loss is not a repair bill; it is a machine out of action, a production line stopped and a customer losing money every day it stays stopped.
That shape has two consequences. The limit has to be sized against the value of the machine rather than the value of the job. And the cover has to deal with property in your care, custody and control, which standard liability wordings exclude by default.
What Machinery Installation Insurance Covers
Customers' property in your care, custody and control
The section the trade lives or dies on, because standard liability wordings exclude exactly this. The machine you are lifting is not third party property in the ordinary sense while it is on your chains, and the limit needs to reflect the most valuable machine you will realistically handle.
Public liability
Injury and damage beyond the machine: the building you are moving it through, the floor, doors, services and anything adjacent. £5 million is a floor and £10 million is common on industrial sites.
Employers' liability
Compulsory at a £5 million statutory minimum. Heavy lifting in confined factory spaces with suspended loads makes this an active exposure.
Lifting equipment and hired-in plant
Gantries, skates, jacks, slings, shackles and chain blocks, plus anything hired. All of it carries statutory inspection and certification requirements.
Goods in transit
Where you also move machines between sites, the value on the trailer is the same value that was on the chains, and transit is a separate heading from lifting.
Consequential loss and downtime
Worth asking about specifically. A damaged machine stops a production line, and the customer's loss is lost output rather than the repair. That is consequential loss and it is frequently sub-limited or excluded.
Professional indemnity for lift planning
Where you plan the lift, calculate floor loadings or specify the method, that is engineering judgement. A plan that was wrong is an advisory failure rather than a handling error.
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 excluded
The default position on a general liability policy, and it removes the whole point of the cover for this trade. The machine in your hands has to be written back in explicitly, with a realistic per-item limit.
Per-item limits below the real machine value
Where custody cover exists, it carries a maximum per item. A contractor who occasionally handles a machine worth several times that limit is uninsured for the job that matters.
Consequential loss
The customer's lost production usually dwarfs the repair, and most policies either exclude it or sub-limit it heavily. This is the gap most often discovered after an incident.
Lifting equipment certification
Statutory thorough examination of lifting gear is a legal requirement and commonly a policy condition. An incident involving a sling or shackle out of date is a clean decline.
Floor loading and building damage
Moving a heavy machine across a floor not designed for a point load cracks slabs and can damage structure. Whether that was a handling failure or a planning failure determines which policy answers.
Commissioning and electrical connection
Installing is one thing; connecting, commissioning and proving a machine is another, and it may need competence and cover you have not declared.
Custody Cover Is The Whole Policy
If you take one thing from this page: find out what your policy says about property in your care, custody and control, and what the per-item limit is.
Standard public liability covers damage to other people's property, then excludes property you are working on or have taken charge of. For most trades that exclusion is an inconvenience. For a machinery installer it removes the only exposure that matters, because the machine on your chains is precisely property in your custody. It has to be written back in as a named section.
Then check the per-item figure rather than the aggregate. A contractor with a £250,000 custody limit who takes on a press worth £800,000 has a job that is substantially uninsured, and the time to discover that is at the quoting stage for the work rather than afterwards. Where a one-off job exceeds your normal limit, it can usually be increased for that contract.
The Customer's Downtime Is The Bigger Number
Damage to a machine is a repair. The claim that frightens customers, and the one your contract may well put on you, is what the stoppage costs them.
A moulding machine or a production line out of action has a daily value measured in output, orders and sometimes contractual penalties with their own customers. Several weeks waiting for a part from overseas, and the loss is an order of magnitude larger than the physical damage. Most liability policies either exclude consequential loss or sub-limit it well below anything useful, while the contract you signed may make you responsible for it in full.
So the two documents need reading together. If the contract puts downtime on you and the policy excludes it, that gap is carried by your business rather than by an insurer. Either negotiate a cap into the contract, or get the exposure covered, or know that you are carrying it. All three are defensible; not knowing is not.
Lift Planning Is Engineering, Not Logistics
On anything substantial, the plan is a piece of engineering and whoever produced it owns the consequences of it being wrong.
Floor loading calculations, point loads through skates, gantry capacity, rigging angles reducing sling capacity, centre of gravity on an awkward machine, and the route through a building with doors and services that were not designed for it. Get any of those wrong and the failure traces back to the plan rather than to the handling.
That matters for insurance because a planning error is advisory. If you produced the lift plan and the floor cracked because the point load was miscalculated, the claim is that your calculation was negligent, which is professional indemnity territory rather than custody or liability. Firms that plan their own lifts and hold liability cover only have a gap, and the bigger the lift the more likely it is to be the half that fails.
Decommissioning Brings Other People's Problems
Removing old plant is a different risk from installing new, and it is the direction where unpleasant surprises live.
An old machine may contain oil, coolant, refrigerant or asbestos lagging, and cutting it up or lifting it can release any of them. The fluids are a pollution question and the asbestos is an exclusion on your policy. Meanwhile the building the machine is leaving has been protected by it for thirty years: lifting it reveals a cracked slab, a stained floor and services that were never properly made off, and the client sees all of that for the first time on the day you remove it.
Photograph before you start, as thoroughly as a strip out contractor would. And where a machine may contain asbestos lagging or contaminated fluid, establish that before quoting rather than after opening it, because both change who should be doing the work.
How To Choose A Broker For Machinery Installation
One clause decides whether a policy is useful for this trade. We are an FCA regulated broker and will not tell you we are the best choice. These are the questions that decide it.
Is property in your care, custody and control covered, and at what per-item limit?
The single question that matters. Standard liability excludes it, and the machine on your chains is exactly that. Ask for the per-item figure, not the aggregate.
How is the customer's downtime treated?
Their lost production usually dwarfs the repair, and most policies exclude or heavily sub-limit consequential loss. Read it against what your contract puts on you.
Will they read the contract alongside the policy?
The gap between what the contract makes you liable for and what the policy covers is carried by your business. A broker should identify that rather than leave it.
Is lift planning separated from lifting?
If you produce the plan, a miscalculated floor loading is an advisory failure needing professional indemnity. Liability cover alone leaves that uncovered.
What are the lifting equipment conditions?
Statutory thorough examination of slings, shackles and chain blocks is both a legal duty and usually a policy condition. An incident with out-of-date gear is a clean decline.
Can the limit be raised for a single large job?
A press worth several times your usual custody limit should not mean turning the work down. Increasing it for one contract is normally straightforward if asked in time.
Factually, here is what we do against those questions. We write customers' property in your custody back in as a named section and quote the per-item limit explicitly, we tell you how consequential loss is treated and read it against what your contract makes you liable for, we separate lift planning from lifting so professional indemnity is a decision, and we will increase the custody limit for a single large job rather than letting you turn it down. We are a broker, so it goes to several insurers rather than one.
Machinery removal and installation is named in the appetite of one of the insurers we deal with. We also insure the fabricators who make heavy plant and the plant hire businesses whose gantries and handlers you use.
What Moves The Price
Every policy is priced on the business behind it. These are the things that move the premium:
- The per-item custody limit, set against the most valuable machine you handle
- Whether consequential loss and downtime are covered
- Whether you plan lifts or work to somebody else's plan
- Turnover and the sectors you work in
- Lifting equipment owned and hired, and inspection records
- Whether you decommission as well as install
- Whether you commission and electrically connect
- Claims history, particularly damage to customers' machines
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
- The most valuable machine you would realistically handle
- Whether you produce lift plans and floor loading calculations
- Whether you commission and connect as well as install
- Whether you decommission or remove old plant
- Lifting equipment schedule and inspection arrangements
- Annual turnover and the sectors you serve
- A sample customer contract, particularly the liability clauses
- Any claims in the last five years
Cover that often goes with this
The gaps we most often find sitting next to this policy.
- Metal fabricatorsWho makes the plant, and the workshop side of heavy engineering.
- Plant hire businessesGantries, handlers and access equipment you hire in.
- Goods in transitThe same value, on a trailer rather than on chains.
- Professional indemnityLift plans and floor loading calculations.
- Plant coverYour own lifting equipment, owned and hired.
- Talk to a brokerAsk us your per-item custody limit before the next big lift.
Common questions
What insurance do machinery installation contractors need?+
Cover for customers' property in your care, custody and control above everything else, because standard liability wordings exclude exactly that and the machine on your chains is precisely property in your custody. Ask for the per-item limit and set it against the most valuable machine you would realistically handle. Then public liability at £5 million as a floor for damage to the building and anything adjacent, employers' liability at a £5 million statutory minimum, lifting equipment cover with its inspection regime, goods in transit if you move machines between sites, and professional indemnity if you plan the lifts.
Am I covered if I damage a customer's machine while lifting it?+
Only if your policy writes back property in your care, custody and control, and only up to its per-item limit. This is the most important thing to check in the trade, because the default position on general liability is to exclude it: public liability covers damage to other people's property and then carves out property you have taken charge of. Check the per-item figure rather than the aggregate, because a contractor with a modest custody limit taking on a press worth several times that is substantially uninsured for the job that matters. A one-off increase for a large contract is normally straightforward.
Who pays for the customer's lost production?+
That depends on your contract and your policy, and the two frequently disagree. Their lost output while a machine is out of action is usually far larger than the repair, especially with parts coming from overseas, and may include penalties under their own customer contracts. Most liability policies exclude consequential loss or sub-limit it well below anything useful, while the contract you signed may put it on you in full. Read them together. Negotiate a cap into the contract, insure the exposure, or know you are carrying it, because all three are defensible and not knowing is not.
Do I need professional indemnity if I plan the lift?+
Yes, and it is the gap most firms in this trade have. A lift plan is engineering: floor loading calculations, point loads through skates, gantry capacity, rigging angles reducing sling capacity, centre of gravity, and a route through a building that was not designed for the machine. If you produced the plan and a floor cracked because the point load was miscalculated, the claim is that your calculation was negligent rather than that you handled the load badly. That is professional indemnity rather than custody or liability cover, and the bigger the lift the more likely it is the half that fails.
What should I watch out for when removing old machinery?+
Two things, and both are other people's problems arriving as yours. First, what is inside it: oil, coolant, refrigerant or asbestos lagging, any of which can be released by cutting or lifting. The fluids are a pollution question and asbestos is excluded on your policy, so establish what is in a machine before quoting rather than after opening it. Second, what is underneath it. A machine that has sat for thirty years has been hiding a cracked slab, a stained floor and badly made-off services, and the client sees all of it for the first time on the day you lift. Photograph thoroughly before you start.
Who insures machinery movers and riggers in the UK?+
A specialist corner of the market, because the custody exposure and the values involved sit outside what a general trades policy contemplates. Machinery removal and installation is named in the appetite of one of the insurers we deal with. What separates placements is less about price than about whether customers' property in your custody is covered and at what per-item limit, how consequential loss is treated against what your contracts demand, and whether lift planning has been recognised as advisory work.
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