Tradesperson insurance

Tradesperson insurance, also called tradesman insurance, can combine different types of insurance for your trade business, including liability, tools, machinery and work in progress. The cover available depends on the policy and options selected.

Compare quotes through Simply Business for the work you do. Choose cover based on your work, who works for you and what you need to protect.

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Insurance for your trade and the work you do

A trade name is a starting point, rather than a complete description of your business.

Choose the relevant trade page for more specific considerations:

Electricians: electrical work and additional services.
Plumbers: plumbing and associated work.
Builders: building activities, project types and structural responsibilities.

Describe the tasks you undertake, where you work and any additional responsibilities. For other businesses, browse insurance by occupation.

Self-employed tradespeople working alone

Even without employees, you may want cover for customer claims, tools and unfinished work.

Your own injury is also a separate question from employers’ liability for an employee’s claim. Check personal accident insurance or other appropriate protection if you want to investigate benefits for yourself.

Businesses carrying out more than one trade

Declare all the services you provide, including occasional jobs. An electrician who also undertakes other building work needs the insurer to understand both activities; the main trade label alone may not be enough.

Ask whether the proposed policy accepts the full combination. Do not assume a broad description or a single tradesperson insurance policy automatically covers every service.

What insurance does a tradesperson need?

The cover you need depends on your trade and how you work. Use the table below to identify options to consider. They are not automatically included or available in every quote.

What could happen?	Cover to consider	Important distinction
Injury to a customer or damage to their property	Public liability	Does not automatically insure your own tools or unfinished work.
Employee injury or work-related illness claims	Employers’ liability	Different from claims made by customers or the public.
Theft or damage involving tools	Tools insurance	Storage, security and vehicle conditions matter.
Loss or damage involving machinery	Owned or hired-in plant insurance	Ownership and hire responsibilities affect the protection needed.
Damage to work in progress	Contract works insurance	Existing structures and defective work need separate consideration.
Claims about professional advice or design	Professional indemnity	Do not assume it is included in a manual-trades package.

The examples below are hypothetical and do not guarantee payment.

Public liability insurance

Public liability can help pay compensation and legal costs if your business is legally responsible for injuring a customer or another member of the public, or damaging someone else’s property. The claim must arise from activities covered by your policy.

Example: you accidentally knock over and break a customer’s television while carrying equipment through their home. Whether a claim is covered depends on liability, the work insured and the policy terms.

Read more about public liability insurance.

Employers’ liability insurance

Employers’ liability can help pay compensation and legal costs if an employee claims their work caused an injury or illness. An employee claiming for their own injury is different from an employee causing harm to a customer.

Tell the provider about employees, casual helpers and subcontractor arrangements. Calling someone a self-employed subcontractor does not determine how the insurer treats their working arrangement. Our pages on employers’ liability insurance and employees and subcontractors explain the relevant checks.

Tools and equipment insurance

Public liability does not replace protection for your tools. Check which hand tools, power tools and other equipment are insured and where the cover applies, including storage, transit and vehicles. Review security conditions, then the total amount available and any limit for a single item.

Example: power tools are stolen from your van. Payment depends on whether you selected cover for those items and whether you meet the policy’s theft, storage and vehicle-security conditions. Do not assume that every policy treats overnight storage in the same way.

Owned and hired-in plant insurance

Plant means machinery used in your work, such as a digger or cement mixer. Owned plant insurance covers machinery your business owns. Hired-in plant insurance covers specified responsibilities for machinery you hire. One section does not automatically protect both.

Check the machinery and values insured, the hire agreement and any storage, security or transit conditions.

You may have to keep paying hire charges while damaged machinery is repaired. Ask whether the policy covers these charges and what limits apply. Cover for the machine itself does not necessarily meet every obligation in the hire contract.

Contract works insurance

Contract works insurance can protect insured work in progress if it is damaged or destroyed. It may help meet the cost of repairing or rebuilding the insured work after damage, subject to the section’s scope and conditions.

Example: a fire damages an extension you are building. Check whether the project and relevant materials are insured. Do not assume the same section also covers the customer’s existing house or the cost of correcting defective work.

Other protection your work may require

Professional indemnity: if you provide advice, designs or specifications, investigate professional indemnity insurance. Cover for manual work does not automatically address an alleged professional error causing a client loss.

Personal accident: where available, this insurance can pay benefits for injuries covered by the policy. It is different from employers’ liability and should not be assumed to replace all lost earnings.

Vehicle insurance: check that the policy covers the business use involved. It is not automatically included in a trade package.

Read the tool insurance guide to check insured items, storage, valuation and limits separately.

For machinery you hire, read the hired-in plant insurance guide to check hire responsibilities, equipment values and continuing charges.

Is tradesperson insurance a legal requirement?

Tradesperson insurance is a package description. Whether insurance is compulsory depends on the type of cover and your circumstances. The package name does not determine the requirement.

Most employers must arrange employers’ liability insurance, subject to applicable exemptions and the rules for Great Britain or Northern Ireland. Motor-insurance obligations also apply where relevant; make sure the policy covers the business use of the vehicle.

A customer, site operator or contract may require public liability or other protection and specify a minimum limit. That contractual requirement is different from legislation. Check any activity-specific rules for your work as well as the insurance clauses in your contracts.

Insurance does not replace health-and-safety responsibilities. Our guide to legally required business insurance explains the different obligations.

What should you declare about your trade activities?

Explain the work as it happens in practice. Some tasks or sites need special terms, a more detailed assessment by the insurer or specialist cover. The following are matters to disclose, not a universal exclusion list:

all trades and services;
work at height or below ground, including excavation;
work involving flames or equipment that produces heat (often called heat work), and gas-related work;
structural work or demolition;
specialist or higher-risk sites;
employees, casual workers and subcontractors;
advice, design or specification responsibilities; and
the geographical areas where you work.

Give accurate details when the provider asks about working methods, project size or site conditions. If a description does not fit, ask for clarification rather than choosing one that leaves out part of the work.

Describe all your activities clearly and accurately. Business insurance requires a fair presentation of the risk. This generally means clearly disclosing material information your business knows or ought to know. Alternatively, give enough information to alert the insurer to ask further questions. Answering the questions alone may not be enough.

Discuss changed activities with the provider before taking them on. Having insurance does not prove that a business holds the licences, qualifications or permissions needed for the work.

For mixed work, read business insurance for multiple trades and activities to prepare your activity description and provider questions.

What exclusions and conditions should you check?

A package can contain several sections with different rules. Use the checks below to compare the protection with how you work and store equipment, rather than relying on the package name.

Issue	Practical check
Faulty workmanship	Correcting faulty work differs from covering resulting injury or damage. Check how the relevant section treats each.
Property being worked on	An item you are repairing or handling may have different restrictions from unrelated customer property. Check the task and item insured.
Unattended tools and overnight storage	Check permitted locations, vehicle and security conditions. If your actual storage arrangement does not meet them, a theft claim may not be covered.
Existing structures	Insuring new work does not automatically insure the building being extended or altered. Confirm who is responsible for the existing structure and which insurance addresses it.
Undeclared activities	Make sure the business description includes the work undertaken. Missing or inaccurate information can affect the terms offered and claims handling.
Subcontracted work	Check your responsibilities, the declarations required and any conditions about subcontractors’ own insurance. Their policy does not automatically cover your business’s liability.
Payment limits and contributions	Check the maximum payment, any sublimit (a smaller limit for a particular item or type of claim) and any excess your business pays. Compulsory employers’ liability has specific rules; check them before assuming a contribution reduces employee compensation.

Read the quote with its wording, schedule and endorsements (documents changing the cover).

How much cover should you choose?

Check each section separately. A liability limit is not a replacement value for your tools or a budget for rebuilding unfinished work. A client’s minimum requirement does not necessarily address every risk.

Liability: compare contractual requirements with the potential harm your work could cause. Check legal-cost treatment as well as the limit.
Employees: check the compulsory requirements and actual limit offered where EL insurance is needed.
Tools and equipment: check how the insurer values tools when paying a claim, then choose the amount to insure. Check any single-item caps.
Owned and hired machinery: check the values, hire-contract responsibilities and any separate limits for continuing charges.
Work in progress: check how the policy defines the required contract value. Include labour, materials and any customer-supplied materials for which you are responsible, as required by that definition. Confirm any maximum contract value and project-duration restrictions.
Section-specific restrictions: review smaller payment limits and contributions, keeping the special rules for compulsory EL cover in mind.

If a value or limit does not fit the work, ask the broker or insurer about the options before buying.

How much does tradesperson insurance cost?

The price depends on your work and the cover selected. A quote for public liability alone does not show what a package including tools, plant and contract works would cost.

Your trade: different tasks create different risks of injury, damage or loss. Specialist work can affect whether cover is available.
Workforce: staffing arrangements and turnover help describe the scale and nature of the work.
Cover selected: liability, tools, plant and contract works cover different losses. Adding or removing sections changes what the price includes.
Insured values: liability limits and the value of equipment or work insured affect the cover being priced.
Claims history: previous claims and relevant problems help insurers assess the risk and may affect their terms.
Storage arrangements: locations, security and working methods matter when assessing tools or machinery cover.

Compare the cover as well as the price. If paying by instalments, compare the total annual amount, including any charges.

Our guide to business insurance costs covers budgeting for different types of business insurance. For the liability part specifically, read about public liability insurance costs.

For budgeting across different types of cover and payment options, read our business insurance cost guide.

What information do you need to compare quotes?

Have the following information ready when you compare quotes through Simply Business:

business details and all trades undertaken;
the nature and locations of the work, including higher-risk activities;
turnover and any other financial figures requested;
employees and subcontractor arrangements;
relevant claims history;
contractual insurance requirements;
tools, equipment and plant values if you want this cover;
project information if you want contract works cover; and
your preferred start date.

Include occasional services as well as your main trade.

Check which package sections are selected. They do not follow automatically from the activities you enter.

Requesting a quote does not start insurance. Confirm cover and its start date before relying on it.

Our guide to comparing business insurance quotes explains how to review your options.

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