Recourse after a fire · supplier · working at height
Liability insurance for a solar panel firm
A solar panel company sells, supplies and installs. After a roof fire, the building owner's insurer will ask a separate question about each of those three roles.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zonnepanelenbedrijf.
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Large losses in this sector run through recourse. If an industrial unit on which you have laid an installation burns down, the buildings insurer pays the owner and then looks for the party that caused the fire. Your installation report, the connectors used and the final measurements are the file that decides it. If liability is established on the basis of Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code, it is not only about the building, but also about the tenant's downtime as consequential loss. The main outline of the cover is set out on the hub page public and employers' liability insurance.
Your second role is that of supplier. If you import panels, optimisers or mounting systems yourself, or put your own name on them, you count as a producer within the meaning of Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code and you are liable for loss caused by a defective product even without any fault on your part. The AVB has a product liability section for this, but it never pays for the product itself. If an entire batch turns out to be faulty, tracing, removing and replacing it are costs for your own account.
The third role is that of employer. Your fitters are on roofs and in cherry pickers every day. Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code imposes a duty of care on you that also applies to agency workers and hired-in self-employed professionals (subsection 4). Fall protection, an up-to-date RI&E and demonstrable instruction are not paperwork here but your defence against an injury claim. For the work itself during the construction phase there is also the erection all risks 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 subjects that determine the size of a claim at a solar panel company.
Recourse by the buildings insurer
With large premises the claim does not come through the client but through their insurer, often years after completion. That party asks for installation reports, measurement data and the instructions your fitter followed. So work with a standard handover file for each project and keep it, because without a file you have nothing to set against an expert's report.
You are also a supplier
If you supply under your own brand or import from outside the European Union, you carry the product liability under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code. That makes you liable for loss caused by a defective panel, even if the installation was faultless. Check that the product liability section is on your policy and that the territorial scope matches where you supply.
What falls outside the cover
Excluded are the defective product itself and the costs of a product recall, the roof surface you in your care has, asbestos on agricultural roofs, administrative fines, damage involving lorries and cherry pickers (Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM)) and intent or wilful recklessness (Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code). A guarantee that goes further than liability in law is also uninsurable.
Staff, hired-in labour and subcontracting
If you work with fixed teams, agency workers and subcontractors side by side, the first question after an injury is whose direction the person was working under. Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code extends your duty of care to everyone who works for you. Ask subcontractors for valid proof of insurance and record the division of work for each project in writing.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: split between installation, trade and maintenance
- Payroll and workforce: decisive for employers' liability
- Type of projects: homes, commercial property or agricultural roofs
- Own imports or onward supply: decisive for product liability
- Battery storage and charging infrastructure: additional work with a risk profile of its own
- 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 pack of panels slides off your crane onto a car beside the unit | Yes | No |
| Rainwater runs in through your roof penetration and spoils the tenant's stock | Yes | No |
| A fitter drops a drill from the scaffolding onto a passer-by | Yes | No |
| Your system design puts too much load on the roof structure and the roof has to be reinforced | No | Yes |
| Your planning causes the client to miss a subsidy deadline | No | Yes |
| A hired-in self-employed worker damages the cooling system on the roof while dismantling | Provided that | No |
With hired-in workers, whether there is cover depends mainly on whether the operative is named as an insured on your policy schedule.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
An industrial unit has burnt down and the insurer is holding us liable. What now?
Report it to your own insurer at once and admit nothing. Handling the claim and conducting the defence are for the insurer, even if the claim is unfounded. Supply the handover file for that project: installation instructions, materials used, the measurement report and the names of the fitters. A claim of this kind goes beyond the building and often includes the user's business interruption loss as well.
A batch of optimisers turns out to be faulty. Are the replacement costs covered?
No. The defective product itself and the cost of removing, delivering and refitting it are not damage to someone else's property but your own supply problem. What is insured is the damage the faulty component causes to others, such as fire damage to the roof or the contents. Recover the replacement costs from your supplier or importer.
An agency worker has fallen from a roof. Who is liable?
You are, as the person under whose direction he was working, on the basis of Article 7:658 subsection 4 of the Dutch Civil Code. The agency is the formal employer, but the duty of care for the workplace lies with you. The insurer will check whether fall protection was in place, whether instruction was given and whether the RI&E was up to date. Make sure the employers' liability section is on your policy.
We also work on stables and barns containing asbestos. What does that mean?
Liability for asbestos is excluded on virtually every policy. If a fitter finds material suspected of containing asbestos, the work stops and the matter goes to a certified firm. State on your application that you work on agricultural roofs, because unreported activities affect your duty of disclosure under Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code.
Read more
Within Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
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- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering fietsenwinkel
- Public and employers' liability insurance (AVB) through Avéro Achmea
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering tegelzettersbedrijf
- Bedrijfsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering aannemersbedrijf
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