Workshop · open facade · joinery supplied
Liability insurance for a carpentry company
A joinery firm makes something in its own workshop that is later installed in a client's house. When there is damage, the first question is always where it went wrong: at the bench or on the scaffold.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een timmerbedrijf.
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
The public and employers' liability insurance covers injury and property damage at others. A joinery firm has two separate risks in that respect, which run into different provisions. In the workshop it is about staff at machines and about fire. On site it is about the client's building, which you temporarily open up to fit frames, a dormer or a staircase.
What you make and supply is also a product. If a staircase supplied, a timber floor structure or a frame construction fails, you can be held liable under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code. The costs of recovering, replacing and remaking the joinery itself are excluded; the damage it causes elsewhere, such as a facade letting in water or someone falling through a tread, is insurable.
Also outside the cover: contractual guarantees and penalties for late completion, administrative fines after an inspection visit, and pure financial loss such as a client claiming you recommended the wrong timber species and that he therefore has to repaint sooner. That last belongs on professional indemnity insurance.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
Where joinery work runs aground
Four subjects that determine the outcome of a claim at a joinery firm.
A facade or roof left open
When replacing frames or fitting dormers, the building stands open for a time. If the weather turns and rain gets in, the damage to floors, ceilings and contents is consequential loss at a third party and insured in principle. What is decisive is whether you took reasonable precautions: covering up, weighting down, and not opening up more than you can close again that day. An insurer will look at the weather forecast from that morning.
The machines in the workshop
Surface planers and thicknessers, circular saws and routers cause the injuries that most often lead to a claim in this trade. Under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code you must show that guards were fitted and used, that there was extraction and that staff were instructed. With young employees, trainees and apprentices that duty to instruct weighs even more heavily; through subsection 4 the same applies to hired-in workers.
Fire in woodworking
Wood dust and cutting oil make a joinery workshop fire-prone, and on site grinding and soldering work creates the same risk. Many policies contain a hot work clause with concrete requirements: clearing up, damping down, a follow-up check afterwards. If those are not met, the insurer can limit or refuse the payment.
What you have in your keeping at the client's house
A poured floor you put your saw horse on, a stairwell you hoist material up, a kitchen in which you fit a run of units: that property is temporarily in your keeping and then the care, custody and control exclusionapplies. Ask for care, custody and control cover with a limit that fits the finishing standards you work in, because in new-build homes that damage quickly exceeds the job itself.
What does your premium depend on?
- Payroll and number of joiners: the main yardstick for employers' liability
- Annual turnover: the basis for the third-party risk, usually with an adjustment at year end
- Ratio of workshop to installation work: manufacturing and installing on site are two risk profiles
- Nature of the joinery: structural work weighs more heavily than fit-out and interiors
- Working at height: dormers and facade work call for additional assessment
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A balustrade you supplied comes away and a visitor falls from the landing | Yes | Yes |
| Remaking and refitting that same balustrade | No | No |
| A joiner falls from a trestle while hanging a door and breaks his hip | Yes | Yes |
| A fire in your workshop spreads to the neighbour's unit | Provided that | Yes |
| A newly poured floor at the client cracks under your saw horse | No | Provided that |
| The client charges a penalty because the dormer was finished two weeks late | No | No |
Extended here means a policy with care, custody and control cover and a hot work condition that has been complied with.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A frame we supplied is rotting. Does the policy pay for replacement?
No. Replacing joinery you supplied or fitted yourself is putting right your own work and falls outside the cover. If the rotting frame has meanwhile caused damage to the facade, the plasterwork or the interior, that consequential loss is insured in principle. If the cause lies in the timber supplied or the coating used, the supplier may be jointly liable.
Rain got in while the roof was open for a dormer.
Report that immediately. The water damage to the house and the contents is third-party property damage and fits within the cover, provided you are liable. The insurer will, however, assess your precautions: were the sheets properly fixed, was a check made in the evening, and should you have opened the roof that day given the forecast? Your own dormer under construction also stays outside the cover.
An employee is injured on the thicknesser. What happens?
That is a claim under the employers' liability section. Under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code you must show that you met your duty of care. A missing guard or a safety device removed makes that virtually impossible. The labour inspectorate can also impose a fine, and that is not insurable anywhere because it is a penalty and not compensation.
We fit interiors for private clients and sometimes damage a floor.
That is the classic care, custody and control question. If you were standing and working on that floor, it is regarded as property in your care and the damage is excluded without additional care, custody and control cover. If it concerns an adjoining room you only walked through, there is generally cover. Insurers word that boundary differently, so have it set side by side expressly when you compare.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
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