Torque · calibration · sign-off
Liability insurance for a self-employed flange fitter
With bolted joints under pressure the mistake is small and the consequence is large. Your defence consists of what you can show about torque, sequence and tools.
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- 9.5 customer rating for a new policy
- AFM licence 12016589
- Personal 072 - 509 24 56, weekdays 9–17
Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een flensmonteur als zzp'er.
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.
In brief
The work is narrow and the risk is not. A joint not made up to the prescribed tightening pattern, a torque wrench whose calibration certificate has expired, hydraulic tensioning at the wrong pressure, or a joint not retightened after heating up. What escapes or is damaged afterwards is injury and property damage; that is what the public and employers' liability insurance.
Two items consistently stay outside it. The pipe, valve or heat exchanger you are working on is in your in your care: damaged sealing faces and stripped threads run into the care, custody and control exclusion. And making up your own joint again, with new gaskets and bolts, is your performance under the contract and not damage to anyone else. What the policy can bear is the damage alongside it: product lost, damaged parts of the plant and injury to bystanders.
Also watch the description of your activities on the policy. If you add lifting, cutting or dismantling work, that is a different risk to an insurer from bolted joints alone; work outside the business activity is not covered and an unreported extension engages the duty of disclosure under Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code. This policy does not arrange your own income after an accident at work. For that there is disability insurance.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
What to look out for
Four points that determine how a claim ends for a self-employed flange fitter.
Sign-off and calibration
After a leak it is established who made up which joint and with what. Keep your calibration certificates, the torque values used and the sign-off sheets. Without that file it is your word against the client's, and then the loss is likely to stay with you.
Gaskets and someone else's material
The client often supplies the gaskets and bolts. If it turns out afterwards that the wrong material was used, the question is who made the choice. If you simply fit what you are handed, record that. If you made the choice yourself, pure financial loss comes into play that does not belong on the AVB.
Contractual liability
The hirer and the site owner work with their own conditions containing penalties per hour of downtime and wide indemnities. Liability you above the statutory accept is excluded as standard, as are penalties. Check the sum insured required before you sign, not after the shutdown has started.
Pollution from an escape
If product escapes, soil or water investigation almost always follows. Only sudden and unforeseen pollution can fall under the AVB; gradual pollution and clean-up costs cannot. For that part there is environmental damage insurance.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the basis on which a policy for the self-employed is calculated
- Activities on the policy: bolting only, or dismantling and lifting as well
- Type of media in the lines: steam, gas and chemicals increase the consequential loss
- Sum insured per claim: usually prescribed by the client
- Working area: shutdowns on sites abroad call for a wider territorial scope
- Claims history: earlier leak claims count towards acceptance
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| Steam from a joint you made up damages the insulation and cabling of adjacent lines | Yes | No |
| One of the client's operators suffers burns in that escape | Yes | No |
| Your toolbox falls off the scaffold onto a car parked on the site | Yes | No |
| The sealing face of the heat exchanger you were working on at the time is damaged | Provided that | No |
| Your assembly report is incorrect and the plant is released for service wrongly as a result | No | Yes |
| Your own torque wrench and hydraulic pump are damaged when a section of pipe drops | No | No |
The distinction almost always lies between the joint you had in hand and everything around it that was broken.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A joint I made up is leaking. Does the insurance pay for the new gasket?
No. New gaskets, bolts and the hours to make the joint up again are your own performance and therefore not an insured loss. The AVB only comes into play for what was damaged or lost alongside it: product that escaped, damaged insulation or plant components, and injury to people standing nearby.
My torque wrench turned out not to be calibrated. Does that have consequences?
Possibly. Insurers include clauses about sound and inspected tools, and knowingly carrying on with equipment whose inspection has expired can be regarded as wilful recklessness. Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code excludes damage caused by intent and wilful recklessness. Calibration that has expired unintentionally is more likely to lead to argument about the facts than to outright rejection.
Do I need liability insurance of my own as a self-employed person?
Not as a matter of law, but almost always. Assembly companies and site owners will not let you start work without a policy with a minimum sum insured, because they want to be able to recover a loss from you. You are not covered under your client's policy. That covers only his own liability.
When do I have to report an incident?
As soon as you are reasonably aware of it, even where it is not yet established that you are liable. Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires timely notification and reporting late can affect your right to payment. Report a near-leak that could lead to a claim as well, and leave the situation as you found it as far as possible.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
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