Liability insurance for a massage practice
In a massage practice the damage usually arises under your hands: too much pressure, a heat source or a client stepping off the couch. Whether that is insured depends on one clause.
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In brief
The distinction that determines your policy runs between damage around the treatment and damage by the treatment. A client who slips by the shower, a candle knocked over or a mark on a coat is ordinary injury or property damage to a third party, and the public and employers' liability insurance under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Codeexists for that. A bruised rib from a firm sports massage, a burn mark from a hot stone or a back complaint made worse arises from the work itself. For that category many policies have an exclusion or a separate section treatment damage.
The second provision it comes unstuck on is the business activity. Your policy covers only what is described there. If you offer cupping, dry needling, trigger point treatment, taping or nutritional advice alongside relaxation and sports massage, that has to be stated expressly. If you are held liable for work falling outside the description, there is no cover, however carefully you acted. Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code requires you to be complete about what you do when you apply; under Article 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code an incomplete declaration can affect payment.
You are also a business owner with premises and usually with staff. If you own the practice, you carry the strict liability of Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code for a defective structure: a loose stair tread, a broken handrail. If you rent, ask for the tenants' liability section. For employed masseurs the duty of care under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Codeapplies, and wrist, thumb and shoulder complaints are the best-known occupational illness in this trade.
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 points that lead to argument in a massage practice more often than the level of the sum insured.
Treatment damage is the decisive clause
Do not ask whether you have liability insurance, but whether damage arising from the treatment itself is included. Some insurers regard the body you are working on as property in your care, so that precisely your core risk falls outside cover. Have your insurer confirm in writing how it reads this before you sign.
Intake, contraindications and records
Pregnancy, thrombosis, anticoagulants, varicose veins, recent surgery, a skin condition or fever are reasons to adjust a treatment or not to give it. Your defence consists of what you asked and noted beforehand. Without an intake form and treatment note it cannot be shown afterwards that you were careful, and then even a covered claim becomes hard to defend.
Heat, equipment and the couch
Hot stones, heat lamps, herbal compresses, a sauna or steam cabin and an electrically adjustable couch are the physical causes of damage in this trade. Keep inspection and maintenance records and record temperatures. Defective equipment makes you liable without fault having to be shown, and with such a loss an insurer looks at the maintenance first.
What stays outside in any event
Not covered are: clients' belongings in the changing room or a locker, refunding the cost of treatments and the lost income of a client who cannot work, and your own absence through wrist or shoulder complaints, for which there is disability insurance. Carrying on against a clear contraindication can moreover count as wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code are interpreted.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover of the practice: the usual measure for a treatment practice
- Number of therapists and payroll: decisive for the employers' section
- Type of treatments: sports and deep tissue massage weigh more heavily than relaxation
- Treatment damage included: the cover question that most strongly affects your premium
- Practice premises owned or rented: ownership brings liability as possessor of the building, renting a tenants' section
- Limit and excess chosen: higher limits and a lower excess cost premium
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A client slips on the wet tiles by the shower and breaks a hip | Yes | No |
| A visitor trips over a loose threshold in the waiting area of your practice premises | Yes | No |
| Massage oil leaves a mark on a client's coat | Yes | No |
| An employed masseuse holds you liable for chronic thumb and wrist complaints | Yes | No |
| A client is left with a bruised rib after a firm sports massage | No | Yes |
| A client is left with nerve pain after a dry needling treatment you have started offering | No | Provided that |
Damage around the treatment and damage from the treatment rarely land on the same policy.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A client is left in pain after a firm sports massage. Is that covered?
Only if treatment damage is included on your policy, because the complaint arises from the treatment itself. If that section is there, the insurer looks at your intake, the complaints reported and the arrangements about pressure you made with the client. Without that section you bear both the compensation and the cost of the defence.
A hot stone causes a burn.
This is an injury claim and, depending on the policy, falls under treatment damage or under the ordinary cover, because equipment caused the damage and not your hands. What matters is whether you monitored the temperature and heating time and whether the equipment had been maintained. Report the loss straight away; Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires notification as soon as you know of it.
A client's watch goes missing from the changing room.
The loss of clients' belongings falls outside cover in general. As long as you did not demonstrably take charge of the items, there is no liability. If you did have them in your care, the care, custody and control exclusion applies. Offer lockable lockers and state clearly that valuables are not your responsibility.
I have started offering dry needling and cupping. Does that change anything?
Yes. Cover exists only for the business activity stated on the policy schedule. Techniques that break the skin or can leave visible injury are assessed separately by insurers and are sometimes excluded. Report every extension of your services before you start, and have the new description recorded in writing.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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