Business insurance: your business activity determines your cover
Every business policy schedule contains one sentence that decides on cover more often than the sum insured does: the description of what your business does. Work outside it is not insured.
- Several insurers compared objectively
- 9.5 customer rating for a new policy
- AFM licence 12016589
- Personal 072 - 509 24 56, weekdays 9–17
This page in another language: Nederlands
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
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
- Independent advice
- Several insurers
- Switching arranged
- Help with claims
In brief
The description of business activity is the boundary of the risk the insurer has accepted. If it says 'installation firm for mechanical services', that is what is insured. If that same firm also starts buying in and reselling heat pumps, carrying out electrical work or giving training courses, those are different risks that the insurer has not assessed and for which it has received no premium. A claim arising from such a sideline stands a real chance of being rejected, even where the policy otherwise runs perfectly well.
That boundary works through into your whole insurance package. The public and employers' liability insurance covers injury and property damage within that insured capacity; the professional indemnity insurance covers advice falling within that insured capacity. Fire insurance on your premises assumes the business activity taking place there: if you start storing batteries or doing spray work in an office building, the fire risk changes fundamentally. A business interruption insurance also works from the flow of turnover belonging to the activity declared.
A change in activities is legally a change in risk. The declaration in the application falls under Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code, and if the declaration is no longer correct, the insurer can, under Article 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code, reduce or refuse payment and end the policy. So go through the description every year: on a new service, a new market, the first time you work abroad and on a change of legal form. You can see which sectors we serve at business insurance by sector.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare personal liability insurance (AVP).
Personal advice, not a call centre
Finass Verzekert is a licensed, independent firm. You get one advisor who knows your situation — including the moment a claim actually happens and it matters most.
Advice
Personal
ClaimsWhy arrange it through Finass Verzekert?
We look at the terms as well as the premium, and stay your point of contact when there is a claim.
Independent
We are not tied to one insurer and compare on the basis of an objective analysis of several companies.
One fixed adviser
You call or email someone who knows your file. No menu options, no changing call centres.
Switching without hassle
We cancel your old policy and align the start date, so you are never a day without cover.
Help with claims
We report the claim and monitor how it is handled. In urgent cases you can reach us on the emergency line.
What to look out for
Four ways in which a policy quietly stops matching the business.
From carrying out work to supplying goods
As soon as you buy in and supply goods instead of only installing them, product liabilityarises. If you import from a country outside the European Union, you count as the producer towards the customer. That is a different risk from carrying out work and it has to appear separately in the insured capacity and on the policy schedule.
From carrying out work to advising
A business that, alongside the work, also supplies designs, calculations or advice runs the risk of pure financial loss. That is excluded on public and employers' liability insurance. Without professional indemnity cover you pay both the claim and the cost of defence yourself, even where the assignment was small.
Staff, hired-in labour and subcontracting
If you start working with your own people or hiring self-employed professionals on a structural basis, employers' liability arises. The duty of care in Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code also applies, under subsection 4, to hired-in workers. Declare the payroll and hired-in labour. The employers' liability section is calculated and adjusted on that basis.
What the insured capacity never stretches to cover
Even within a correct description, fixed exclusions continue to apply: intent under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code, fines and penalty payments, damage caused with a motor vehicle falling under Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM), damage to property in your care, custody and control and putting your own performance right. Those five come back on virtually every policy.
What does your premium depend on?
- Described activities: the heart of acceptance and of the premium
- Annual turnover: the basis for liability, adjusted afterwards
- Payroll and hired-in labour: decisive for the employers' section
- Locations and use: storage, production or office each carries a different fire risk
- Sales market: supply outside Europe calls for separate assessment
- Claims history: recent years count towards acceptance
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
Where the claim belongs
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| Your engineer lets a joint leak and the floor at the client's premises is ruined | Yes | No |
| An employee falls from scaffolding at a client's site and becomes unfit for work | Yes | No |
| Your capacity calculation turns out to be too tight and the client has to replace the installation | No | Yes |
| A participant in your training course is instructed wrongly and the client suffers a delay | No | Provided that |
| Two years after completion a fire breaks out through your work on the meter cupboard | Provided that | No |
| The client wants you to redo your own installation work free of charge | No | No |
Putting your own performance right is a business risk and appears on neither policy. The consequential loss suffered by someone else does.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Where do I find my insured capacity?
On the policy schedule, usually directly under the name of the policyholder, and sometimes on a clause sheet with a fuller description of the activities. Compare that text with your entry at the Chamber of Commerce and with what you have actually invoiced this year. If they differ, have the description amended.
We occasionally do something outside our description. Is that a problem?
Yes, because the cover follows the description and not the scale of the activity. A single job in another field can lead to the same loss as daily work. Insurers often include additional activities without objection if you report them. The problem only arises where they come up for the first time when you claim.
Does anything change if my sole trader business becomes a private limited company?
Yes. The policyholder is then a different legal entity and that has to be processed on the policy, otherwise the party being held liable is not the same as the insured party. With a private limited company, directors' and officers' liability also comes into play, for which there is a separate policy protecting directors' private assets.
Can I put everything into one package?
A SME insurance package bundles sections on one policy schedule with the same term. That makes administration simpler, but the sections keep their own conditions and exclusions. For a specialist activity, a separate policy with an insurer that knows that risk is sometimes the better choice.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
- Reporting a change as a self-employed professionalActivities, turnover declaration, year-end adjustment
- Business liabilityAVB, BAV, employers' liability
- Liability insurance for an IT companyResale, engineers on the road, key holding
- Insurance for self-employed professionals (zzp'ers)Before, during, after the job