Most trades buy insurance the same way: a comparison site, the cheapest result that looks roughly right, renewed on autopilot, and you hope the certificate never has to do anything. Then a customer asks for a copy before a job, or something actually goes wrong, and you find out what you bought.

It’s worth an hour, because the words on that policy decide whether a bad day costs you an excess or costs you the business.

General guidance, not insurance or legal advice. What’s legally required, and what any policy actually covers, depends on your circumstances and the wording in front of you — check gov.uk and talk to a broker who deals with trades before relying on any of it.

Public liability: the one everyone means

When a customer asks “are you insured?”, this is the policy they mean. It covers you if your work injures someone or damages property that isn’t yours — a foot through a ceiling, a nicked pipe that floods the flat below, a dropped tile through a conservatory roof, a passer-by tripping over your cable.

Three things worth knowing before you renew:

It’s sold with a limit — commonly offered at £1m, £2m or £5m. Domestic work rarely needs the top tier, but larger clients set their own minimum in their paperwork, so read the requirement before you pick.
It won’t fix your own bad workmanship. If tiling has to come up and be redone because it was laid badly, that’s generally your cost. Liability cover is for the damage your work does to other people and other things, not for redoing the work itself.
Your trade and activities must match what you told them. Declare yourself a general handyman, then spend a fortnight on a roof, and you may find working at height sat outside the policy.

That last point is the most common way a trade ends up uninsured while holding an insurance certificate. If the work has drifted — more electrical, your first commercial unit, hot works, anything at height — ring them and get the policy caught up.

Employers’ liability: not optional if you have staff

This covers claims from your own people when they’re hurt working for you. If you employ anyone it’s generally a legal requirement, not a judgement call — and who counts as an employee, the certificate you must be able to produce and the penalties for not holding it are all set in law. Get the current position from gov.uk or the HSE, not from a mate on site.

The grey area is the labour-only subbie. A self-employed sparky with his own van, tools and insurance is one thing; a lad you pay daily, direct, using your materials and working under your instruction is often treated as your employee for this purpose whatever you both call him. Gone from working alone to having someone with you most weeks? Ask properly rather than assuming.

Tools and van contents

Separate from liability, and the cover most trades are quietly underinsured on.

Add up what’s actually in the van — SDS, chop saw, lasers, test kit, the cordless family and all the batteries — and the number is usually a lot higher than the figure you put on the form three years ago. Insure £3,000 of tools, lose £6,000, and you don’t get the £6,000.

The small print that matters:

Overnight in the van is the big one. Many policies won’t pay for tools stolen from a vehicle overnight, or only do if it was locked, alarmed, parked a certain way or kept off the street. Check the exact condition before you leave it loaded outside the house tonight.
New-for-old or depreciated? A payout reflecting the value of a five-year-old drill doesn’t replace it.
Hired-in plant is usually separate. Hire a digger and the hire contract makes you responsible for it — that’s an extension, not something tools cover throws in.

Keep a photo list with serial numbers on your phone: it’s the difference between a claim and an argument about what you had.

Professional indemnity: only if you advise

Liability covers physical damage; indemnity covers the cost of getting your advice wrong — a specification that doesn’t do the job, a design that doesn’t work, a figure you gave that something was built on.

Plenty of trades don’t need it. You’re closer to it than you think if you size or specify kit rather than fitting what you’re given — boiler sizing, consumer unit design, ventilation, drainage falls — do design-and-build, survey or write reports as a service, or work for commercial clients who ask for it in their supplier paperwork regardless of your view.

If your quotes routinely say “we recommend” and the customer then relies on that recommendation, have the conversation with a broker.

Contract works: the job itself, mid-build

The gap most people haven’t thought about. You’re three weeks into an extension, frame up and roof half on, and a storm or a fire takes the lot down.

Public liability doesn’t cover that — nothing of anyone else’s was damaged. Tools cover doesn’t; those aren’t tools. The customer’s buildings insurance may well not cover works in progress either. Contract works (sometimes “contractors all risks”) covers the work you’ve done but not yet handed over, plus materials on site waiting to go in.

On day work and small jobs you can probably live without it. On jobs where weeks of labour and a van-load of materials sit exposed on someone’s property it’s the cover most worth asking about — alongside staging payments as the job progresses, so you’re not carrying the whole build at your own risk.

Why “are you insured?” closes jobs

It comes up when the customer is nervous, comparing you against someone cheaper, or has been stung before — and two trades both say yes. One of them also has the certificate in their inbox by that afternoon, cover named and limit on it. That’s the one the customer trusts, because they’ve just watched how you handle paperwork — the only evidence they have about how you’ll handle their house.

Make it frictionless:

keep a PDF of each current certificate on your phone, named properly — PublicLiability-2026.pdf, not IMG_4471.pdf
send it with the quote on bigger jobs, or where they’ve mentioned a previous bad experience, before they ask
say what you’re covered for, with the limit: “two million public liability, employers’ liability for my lad, certificates attached” ends the conversation
put a line in your terms confirming you hold cover, so it’s part of the document they accept

Don’t overstate it, mind. Claiming cover you haven’t got, or letting a policy lapse while the old certificate still circulates, is a far worse position than being honest about what you carry.

Matching cover to what you actually do

Rather than buying everything, or buying blind:

Your situation	Worth a conversation about
Sole trader, domestic jobs, own tools	Public liability, tools cover
Anyone working for you — employed or labour-only	Employers’ liability (check the legal position)
You size, specify, design or advise	Professional indemnity
Multi-week builds, materials stored on site	Contract works
Hiring in plant or access equipment	Hired-in plant extension
Working for contractors, councils, agents, commercial	Whatever their supplier paperwork specifies — ask for it in writing

Then do two things before your next renewal. Read your own schedule rather than the brochure — trade description, activities, any height or hot-works restriction, tools sum insured, overnight conditions. And use a broker who insures trades: when the question is “does this cover me on a flat roof”, you want someone who understands it.

A company structure isn’t insurance, either — if you’ve been weighing going limited for the liability protection, get the cover right first, because that’s what pays out. It’s separate again from a customer’s right to cancel a job agreed in their home.

The takeaway

Public liability for damage you cause, employers’ liability if anyone works for you, tools cover sized to what’s really in the van, indemnity if you advise rather than just install, contract works if you’ve got half-finished jobs sitting out in the weather. That’s the shape of it.

What costs trades money isn’t missing a policy — it’s holding one that doesn’t match the work. Read your schedule once a year, tell your insurer when the work changes, and keep the certificates where you can send them in thirty seconds. Confirm anything legally required on gov.uk and let a trade broker do the rest.

Queezy builds your quotes on site and sends them as a branded, itemised A4 PDF with your terms and insurance wording included, so the customer gets the professional version first time. Download it free on iPhone.

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