Pipes in the wall · finished floors · measuring
Liability insurance for a self-employed carpenter
Carpentry almost always takes place in a house where somebody already lives. The damage is rarely in the timber itself, but in what you strike while fixing that timber.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zelfstandige timmerman.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
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- 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.
In brief
A carpenter's biggest loss arises at the moment the screw goes through the wall. Behind the plaster there is a water pipe, in the screed there is underfloor heating and in the ceiling there is a circuit cable. What follows is property damage to someone else's belongings: a soaked ceiling board, a warped floor, contents that have to be replaced. That is exactly what public and employers' liability insurance exists for, provided you are liable under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code.
The mirror image is just as hard. Closing up the wall you opened yourself, replacing the frame you set out of true and the hours you spend on it are performance of your own contract and not damage to a third party. On top of that comes the care, custody and control exclusion: the part you are working on and therefore have in your keeping — the staircase you are renovating, the door you are hanging, the kitchen you are dismantling — is excluded, while the rest of the building is included.
Also stay alert to what you say and measure. If you advise on a span, or supply dimensions a supplier then works from, a mistake breaks nothing but does lose money. Such pure financial loss belongs on a professional indemnity insurance. Your own fall from a scaffold falls under disability insurance and your machines under tool insurance for the self-employed.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
What to look out for
Four situations in which a carpenter deals with the policy conditions more often than with the premium.
Fixing into an existing structure
Drilling into underfloor heating, striking a pipe while setting a frame or screwing through a cable behind a skirting: it happens in virtually every house where the drawing is wrong. Ask for the services drawing, use a detector and photograph the wall before you start. Without that image it cannot be established afterwards whether the defect already existed.
The finished home you work in
Scratches on a laid parquet floor, a damaged worktop you saw across and dust in a freshly painted room lead to claims that are not about your carpentry. Whether that damage is covered depends on whether the damaged item was in your in your care or merely stood nearby. Covering up and recording that saves argument.
What falls outside the cover
Excluded are putting right your own work, property in your in your care, damage caused with or by a van or trailer (Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM)), asbestos you come across in old ceiling and facade boards, administrative fines, and intent or deliberate recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Structural work on the building
If you cut an opening in a floor structure, fit a dormer or replace a load-bearing beam, your work affects the safety of the building. If something goes wrong later, the owner is held liable as possessor of a defective structure (Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code) and that claim ends up with you. Report work of this kind when you apply. If it is not in your business activity, it is not insured.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for a sole trader
- Type of carpentry: fit-out and maintenance weigh less than structural work
- Working height: working from a scaffold or mobile tower counts
- Type of client: occupied homes bring more consequential loss than a new-build shell
- Sum insured: often determined by what main contractors require by contract
- Excess per claim: a consideration where there are many small instances of damage
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A plank slides off your trestle and lands on the occupier's foot | Yes | Yes |
| Sawdust in the client's shed catches fire from a hot saw blade | Yes | Yes |
| An antique cabinet you move briefly to reach the wall falls over | No | Provided that |
| Your trailer with waste timber rolls away and hits a parked car | No | No |
| The occupier claims alternative accommodation while the wet floor dries out | Provided that | Yes |
| The client does not pay because the doors do not sit squarely in their frames | No | No |
Extended here means a policy with care, custody and control cover and consequential loss at third parties included.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I have drilled into a water pipe. What is paid?
The consequences at the client's can fall within the cover: the soaked floor, the ceiling below, the contents and the cost of drying out. Sealing the hole and refinishing your own work is not. Report the loss at once and have a loss adjuster look at it before anything is broken out, because after that the cause often cannot be shown.
I have damaged a newly laid floor. Is that care, custody and control?
That depends on whether you had that floor in your keeping for your work. If you only walked across it to fit a frame, it is generally ordinary third-party property damage. If you put materials on it or used the floor as a work surface, the insurer will rely on the care, custody and control exclusion. Record in advance what you covered up.
A frame was measured wrongly. Does the insurance pay for the new one?
No. A wrong measurement leads to a new order and lost hours, and that is not injury or damage but pure financial loss. Public and employers' liability insurance is not intended for that. Anyone who regularly supplies measurements or structural advice insures that on professional indemnity insurance.
The contractor requires insurance before I am allowed on site. Why?
Because his own policy covers only his liability and he will recover from you any damage you cause. Often a minimum sum insured per claim is required and sometimes participation in the project cover as well. For the works themselves there is also Construction all risks (CAR) insurance for carpentry firms, which covers something different from liability.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekeringthe main page
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering stukadoor zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering tegelzetter zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering installateur zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering timmerbedrijf
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering schilder zzp
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering dakdekker zzp
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