Liability insurance for a self-employed concrete worker
A self-employed concrete worker stands on someone else's project, among gangs he does not direct. After a loss the question is always who was in charge and whose insurance has to respond.
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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.
- Independent advice
- Several insurers
- Switching arranged
- Help with claims
In brief
Your work is physical and takes place on a site full of other parties. A reinforcement bar lying in the wrong place that trips someone up, a poker vibrator that slips, a bucket falling off the formwork, a hole drilled in a newly poured floor that hits a pipe: those are the reports that come in for a self-employed person. Public and employers' liability insurance covers injury and damage to other people's property; what that cover involves exactly is set out on the hub page public and employers' liability insurance.
If you are injured yourself, this policy offers nothing. A self-employed person has no employer and therefore no claim under the employers' liability section. The party hiring you in can be liable, however: Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code brings self-employed people working under someone else's direction and supervision within that person's duty of care as well, certainly for work belonging to that business's core activity. That is a route to recovery, not a certainty. For your income, disability insurance remains the basis.
Formwork, poker vibrators, road plates and lifting gear are usually not yours. As long as you are using them, you have them in your in your care and damage to them is excluded on the AVB. Make arrangements in advance with the hire company or main contractor about who bears the risk, therefore. Your own tools you insure separately through tools insurance; an overview of what else a self-employed person in construction needs is at the insurance package for the self-employed in construction.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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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)
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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 to look out for
Four points that determine how a claim against a hired-in concrete worker turns out.
Under whose direction do you work
If you work entirely on the main contractor's instructions, liability for the execution shifts partly to him. If you carry out a defined part independently, you are answerable for that yourself. Set out in the order confirmation what you are taking on and who supplies the work preparation and setting out.
Setting out and reinforcement
Incorrect cover to the reinforcement or a forgotten duct is often only discovered after the pour. Cutting out and repouring your own work is not insured. Ask for signed-off reinforcement drawings and have the check before the pour confirmed in writing, because that shifts the burden of proof.
What you cannot place on this policy
Not covered are your own injury, damage to plant you are using, fines the main contractor passes on to you, a contractual penalty for delay and damage caused with a motor vehicle (Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM)). Carrying out your own work again is at your own expense as well.
Purchasing conditions with an indemnity
Large contractors have self-employed people sign up to an indemnity and sometimes to a minimum sum insured. If you take on more than your liability in law under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code, that additional part is not insured. Let us read it over before you sign a framework agreement that runs for several years.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the basis for a sole trader
- Nature of the work: steel fixing, formwork, pouring or finishing
- Working at height: floors and walls on several storeys
- Hiring in colleagues: if you hire someone in, your duty of care applies
- Sum insured: clients often set a minimum for this
- Excess: arranged separately for damage to property
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Your own AVB | CAR taken out by the main contractor |
|---|---|---|
| A colleague trips over reinforcement bars you had laid down and breaks a wrist | Yes | No |
| You drill into a poured floor and hit a pipe belonging to the installer | Yes | Provided that |
| A bucket of mortar falls off the floor edge onto a car parked beside the site | Yes | No |
| Rain damages the floor you poured shortly before handover | No | Yes |
| The poker vibrator borrowed from the main contractor burns out while you are using it | No | No |
| You fall off the formwork yourself and cannot work for six weeks | No | No |
An assurance that you are covered on the main contractor's CAR policy says nothing about your liability towards third parties.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
The main contractor says I am covered under his insurance. Is that right?
Sometimes for the works in progress through the CAR policy, but rarely for your liability towards third parties. Always ask for written confirmation and for the sections under which you are covered. Without a policy of your own you stand alone in the face of an injury claim from a third party, and no verbal assurance shifts that risk.
I was injured during a pour. Who pays my loss of income?
Not your own AVB. You can hold the hirer liable if he has breached his duty of care; Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code makes that possible for self-employed people working in the course of his business. Such proceedings take a long time and the outcome is uncertain, so disability cover remains necessary to bridge the intervening period.
How long after a job can I still be held liable?
Hidden defects in concrete sometimes come to light years later. If your policy works on a claims-made basis, the moment the claim is brought counts. If you stop the insurance or switch, arrange a run-off period; otherwise you are uninsured for old jobs while the liability continues to exist.
Do I have to report a loss if the client has not yet demanded anything?
Yes, report the circumstance. Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires a report as soon as you are reasonably aware of the loss, and insurers want to be involved early in recording the facts. Do not admit liability and do not promise a free repair, because that limits your insurer's options.
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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