Liability insurance for a self-employed gardener
The most expensive loss in landscape gardening is underground. A gas pipe or fibre-optic cable struck costs many times more than the garden you are laying out.
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In brief
Groundwork is the risk that justifies your premium. If you hit a cable or pipe while digging a pond, a foundation or a planting pit, the network operator recovers the cost of repair and sometimes the consequences of the outage from you as well. Your liability follows from Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code and the standard of care is concrete: a valid excavation notification, a trial trench where pipes are expected and digging by hand within the marked zone. Insurers often include those requirements as a clause. If digging takes place without a current excavation notification, cover for exactly that loss can fall away.
The second risk is upright. During pruning, pollarding and felling, material comes down onto cars, greenhouses, fences and sometimes onto people. If a tree is left standing after your work and blows over later, the question is whether you should have recognised its condition. If you work with a chipper, stump grinder or mini excavator, report it; those are the machines that cause the most serious injuries in this trade. There is plant and machinery insurancefor the equipment itself, and for hand tools there is tools insurance.
Three items fall outside the public and employers' liability insurance. The garden you are working on, including the paving you lay and the planting you put in, is property in your care. Planting that fails to take or a terrace that subsides is a defect in your own performance: doing it again is performance of the contract, not an insured loss. And soil contamination from a leaking hydraulic hose or spilt fuel is usually limited on the liability policy; there is environmental damage insurance.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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What to look out for
Four subjects that lead to argument for a self-employed landscape gardener more often than the size of the job.
The excavation notification is a policy condition
The duty to notify mechanical groundwork applies to a small private garden as well. Keep the notification, the drawings and photographs of the trial trench with the job file. When a pipe or cable is damaged, that is the first thing requested, by both the network operator and your insurer.
Work on trees belonging to or near the neighbours
Pruning overhanging branches is only permitted subject to conditions, and a tree on a boundary is rarely owned by your client alone. If you prune too far or remove a tree that turns out not to be your client's, that is property damage to a third party. If in doubt, ask for written confirmation of the ownership position before you start.
Plant protection products and spray drift
Spray drifts onto the neighbours' garden, pond or vegetable plot. Dead plant material and contaminated surface water are property damage and sometimes environmental damage. Work with the correct licence, take wind speed into account and record which product you used and when. Without those records it is virtually impossible to show that you worked with care.
What you build later becomes part of the property
A pergola, retaining wall or decking you build becomes part of the plot after handover. If such a structure fails and someone is injured, the owner is liable under Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code, but he will then seek recovery from you. Keep your structural calculation and the supplier details of the material used.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for a sole trader
- Share of groundwork: digging determines the heaviest risk of loss
- Tree care and felling: climbing work and felling are accepted separately
- Machinery used: mini excavators, chippers and stump grinders count
- Use of crop protection products: this requires a licence and registration
- 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 | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A branch you have cut falls onto the conservatory of your client's neighbours | Yes | No |
| The stump grinder throws a stone through the window of a parked car | Yes | No |
| A tree you pruned last year blows over and damages a shed | Provided that | No |
| The paving you laid subsides within six months and has to be done again | No | No |
| Your planting plan takes no account of the position and the whole hedge dies | No | Yes |
| Hydraulic oil suddenly leaks from your mini excavator into the client's pond | Provided that | No |
Hands-on work that breaks something belongs on the left. A judgement or calculation that costs money belongs on the right.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I hit a fibre-optic cable while planting a hedge. Is that covered?
In principle yes, because it is damage to someone else's property. It goes wrong where there was no valid excavation notification or where you dug through the marked zone mechanically. Many policies have a clause about this. If it is not complied with, cover for that loss falls away and the network operator recovers everything from you.
The planting we put in dies. Does the insurance pay for replanting?
No. Plants that fail to take concern your own performance, and supplying or planting them again is performance of the contract and not damage to a third party. If you offer an establishment guarantee, price that in rather than relying on your policy. If the neighbours' planting dies because of something you did, that is damage to a third party.
A branch falls onto the neighbour's car while I am pruning.
That is property damage to a third party and public and employers' liability insurance is intended for it. The insurer will check whether you had cordoned off the area, whether you had warned the owner and whether the technique used was appropriate. Photographs of the situation before you started and of the barriers make that assessment work in your favour.
I sink into the client's lawn with the mini excavator. What now?
Your client's lawn is part of the work area that you have in your care and therefore falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. Putting it right is at your expense. If you damage the neighbours' lawn, that is damage to a third party. State in your quotation which access damage you regard in advance as unavoidable.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
- Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB)The main page
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