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Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
We compare the offerings of several insurers
An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Construction all risks insurance is not liability insurance but insurance on the works in progress. As long as a building or installation has not been handed over, it is not the client's property and not your stock, but an object in the making, exposed to weather, theft, collapse and erection errors. The policy is built up from sections: the works, liability during the work, the client's existing property, ancillary plant and staff property.
You choose between single-project cover for an individual project and continuous cover for all works you carry out within an insurance year. The single-project variant suits a large, unusual or long-running project with its own client and its own contractual requirements. The continuous variant suits a contractor or installation company with many similar works, provided the contract sum per works stays below the agreed limit.
With erection work the emphasis lies elsewhere than in construction. The risk is not in the shell but in the testing: during the test run, installations are under pressure, voltage or load for the first time. Testing and commissioning are therefore a separate cover limited in time, followed by a maintenance period with its own, narrower description. See also liability in the energy sector for work on installations that are in operation.
What does construction and erection insurance cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
Section 1
The works
Damage to the works themselves during construction or installation.
Fire, storm and water
Theft of materials
Inherent defect and design fault
Vandalism on the building site
Section 2
Liability
Damage to property and persons of third parties on and around the works.
Adjoining premises
Injury to bystanders
Cables and pipes
Optional
Extensions
What comes into play alongside the works themselves.
Client's existing property
Ancillary plant and site huts
Maintenance period
What is covered
Situation
Works section
Liability section
Storm or water damage to the works in progress
Yes
No
Theft of materials from the building site
Sometimes
No
Damage to an adjoining building
No
Yes
Injury to a bystander
No
Yes
The client's existing property
Sometimes
Sometimes
Repair of your own defective work
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
Testing and commissioning are a separate period
Have it expressly recorded that testing and commissioning are insured, for what duration and whether that applies with or without load. If a project overruns and the test run shifts outside the agreed period, precisely the phase with the greatest risk falls outside the cover. So report a shift in advance. An extension is usually easy to arrange, but not retrospectively.
The client's existing property
If you work in or on an existing building, a separate section is needed for the property that was already there: the roof you drill through, the floor, the installation next to it. Note the limitation: damage to the very component you were working on is often excluded or limited to a low amount. Discuss for each project whether that amount matches the value of what is there.
Who is named as the insured on the policy
On a CAR policy all parties involved in the works can be included as insured: client, main contractor, subcontractors, consultants and sometimes the supplier of the installation. That is not a formality; it prevents insurers from pursuing recovery against each other while the works stands idle. On a continuous policy, check whether newly engaged subcontractors are included automatically or have to be declared per works.
What the CAR policy does not pay for
Excluded are: putting right work carried out defectively and the defective materials themselves, where only the consequential damage to the rest of the works can be covered; penalties and reductions for late completion; normal wear, discolouration and the gradual effect of the weather; and theft where the prescribed site security was absent. Design faults are only covered if an express clause has been included for them.
What does your premium depend on?
Contract sum or annual turnover from works. The basis of calculation: per project on a single-project policy, per year on a continuous one.
Type of work. New build on an empty site weighs differently from renovation in an occupied or operating building.
Term and maintenance period. The longer the works is open, the longer the risk runs. The maintenance period counts too.
Length of the testing and commissioning phase. On erection work, the most heavily weighted period of the whole project.
Value under existing property and ancillary plant. What was already there and what plant you have standing on site.
Site security and claims record. Fencing, lighting, camera surveillance and the number of previous claims.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
You request a quoteWe take stock of your situation, your risk and your wishes.
We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
No. The liability section of a CAR policy applies while the insured works is being carried out and ends once the works has been handed over and the maintenance period has expired. Your public and employers' liability insurance continues for everything outside that, including damage that only comes to light years after handover. Having both covers alongside each other prevents a loss from falling between two policies.
Is the test phase insured as standard?
Not as a matter of course, and on erection work that is the most important point of the policy. Some conditions cover testing only without load, others for a fixed number of weeks after notification of completion. Have the description and the duration put on the policy and report it if the programme shifts, because the cover ends on the agreed date and not when testing actually starts.
Does the CAR policy pay to put badly executed work right?
Not the repair of the defective component itself. That is your own performance and you should deliver it free of charge. What can be covered is the damage the defect causes to the rest of the works, for example where a wrongly fitted coupling leaks and makes the finishing below unusable. That distinction determines the outcome of virtually every CAR claim.
When do I choose a single-project policy and when a continuous one?
A single-project policy suits a one-off project that differs from your normal work in size, duration or contractual requirements, and cases where the client requires to be named as an insured on the policy. A continuous policy suits a steady flow of comparable works below an agreed maximum contract sum, and saves you an application and an acceptance process for each project.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
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