Liability insurance for a plastering company
A plastering firm puts teams into occupied houses and onto scaffolds, with machines that move material under pressure. The difference from a sole trader lies in the staff: your heaviest claim will probably come from your own people.
- 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
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.
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 AVB has, for a business with staff, two sections that are assessed separately. The third-party section covers the damage in the houses and to the facades where you work. The employers' liability section covers injury to your own people, and in this trade that is the longest-running item: shoulder and lung complaints are reported years afterwards.
Under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code the burden of proof lies with you. For overhead plastering, machine application and dry sanding that means, in concrete terms, extraction at the machine, respiratory protection against respirable silica and plaster dust, an up-to-date risk inventory and evaluation and demonstrable instruction. For agency workers and hired-in self-employed professionals exactly the same duty of care applies through subsection 4, whoever holds the contract.
What structurally stays outside the cover: the redoing of rejected plasterwork, fines and penalty payments from the labour inspectorate or the municipality, and liability you extend by contract beyond the law, for example through a guarantee period in the subcontract. If you work on projects, also look at how it fits with Construction all risks (CAR) insurance of the main contractor.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
Independent, personal, sorted quickly
We compare your business liability insurance (AVB) across dozens of insurers, explain where the real differences lie, and arrange the switch from start to finish — without you having to chase it yourself.
Business liability insurance (AVB)
Compare
Get coveredWhy 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 makes a plastering firm different
Four subjects on which a business with teams is assessed in a claim.
Long-tail exposure to dust
Silica and plaster dust lead to respiratory conditions that only appear after years. The claim may then come in to an insurer you left long ago. Watch the prior acts and run-off periods at every change, therefore, and keep the risk inventory and evaluation, the exposure assessment and the records of respiratory protection issued; those are the documents with which you can meet a claim under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Machine plastering in an occupied building
A mortar pump moves material under pressure through hoses running right through the house. A coupling that comes loose or a hose that bursts floods a whole floor in seconds. Damage to contents and finishes is third-party property damage, but the floor or staircase you had covered can fall under the care, custody and control exclusion. Have that provision expressly adjusted for occupied buildings.
Facade work, scaffolds and the street below
With external wall insulation and decorative render you work on a facade that was already there and above a public space. Falling tools and splashes on parked cars are classic claims. If you work from someone else's scaffold, record who erected and inspected it. If an employee falls, the question of who managed the scaffold is the first one asked.
Hired-in teams and the stated capacity
Many firms work with regular teams of self-employed professionals. That affects your policy twice: they fall under your duty of care and their mistakes can be attributed to you. Report the extent of hired-in labour, and report it too when you extend your range of work with, say, poured floors or facade insulation. If reality differs from the described business activity, Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code can affect the payment.
What does your premium depend on?
- Payroll and number of plasterers: the main yardstick for employers' liability
- Annual turnover: the basis for the risk towards third parties, usually with an adjustment at the end of the year
- Indoor or outdoor work: facade finishing at height is assessed more strictly
- Share of machine work: spray render and poured floors give a different claims profile
- Hired-in labour and subcontracting: number of hired-in workers and work subcontracted
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| An employee smashes a glass draught door with the scaffold trolley | Yes | No |
| A plasterer takes a bag of plaster on his shoulder while unloading | Yes | No |
| Decorative render blows onto the cars in the street and they all have to be polished | Yes | No |
| The kitchen units your team had wrapped are damaged by sanding dust | Provided that | No |
| The rejected spray render in twenty flats has to be entirely reapplied | No | No |
| A facade system you recommended turns out to be unsuitable and is replaced after a year | No | Yes |
If your business gives advice on systems or substrates, that calls for separate cover; work that is purely carrying out the job gets by on the left-hand column.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
An employee falls from a scaffold the contractor erected. What applies?
Your duty of care under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code continues to exist, even where someone else put up the scaffold. You must make it plausible that you assessed the workplace, that the inspection tag was in place and that your people were instructed not to work on an unsound scaffold. The main contractor can also be liable himself. Those two tracks do not exclude each other.
Our hose burst and the client's living room was flooded with mortar.
The damage to contents, floor and walls is third-party property damage and insured in principle. The sticking point is the care, custody and control provision: everything you had covered in order to work can be treated as property in your care. Report at once, take photographs before anything is cleared up and have the insurer send a loss adjuster rather than reaching a settlement yourself.
Our external facade finish comes away after two years. Is that covered?
Replacing your own finish is not. That is putting right defective work of your own and is excluded on every AVB. If material coming loose damages a car or injures a passer-by, that is an insured loss. If the cause lies in an unsound substrate or in a system the supplier specified, liability may shift to them.
A resident complains of health problems from dust during our work.
That is a third-party injury claim and falls under the section for liability towards others, not under employers' liability. The insurer will assess whether you took reasonable measures: dust screens, extraction, arrangements about use of the rooms. Record what instructions you gave the resident and which rooms were not to be used during the work.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
- Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB)The main page
- Liability insurance for a paving companyWorksite, machines, physical strain
- Liability insurance for a tiling businessSeries losses, supply, lifting
- Liability insurance for a painting and decorating firmOccupied buildings, key management, risk of falls
- Liability insurance for a carpentry companyWorkshop, open facade, joinery supplied
- Liability insurance for a bricklaying firmGangs at height, facade cleaning, baseline surveys
- Liability insurance for a window cleaning firmFacade installations, teams, maintenance contracts
- Liability insurance for a self-employed plastererCovering up, moisture, adhesion
- Welders on the payroll: employers' liability and hired-in labourHot work, checks afterwards, certificates