Series losses · supply · lifting
Liability insurance for a tiling business
A tiling contractor lays the same bathroom a hundred times on a project. If there is a fault in the method, it does not go wrong once but a hundred times.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een tegelzettersbedrijf.
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.
In brief
The public and employers' liability insurance covers injury and property damage at third parties. On project tiling the question is not so much whether there is cover, but whether the sum insured is enough. A waterproofing detail applied incorrectly or an unsuitable adhesive is repeated across the series. Many policies treat claims arising from one cause as a single claim, so that the whole series presses on one limit rather than on a hundred.
Within that series the familiar boundary applies: breaking out and redoing your own tiling is putting right your own work and not insured. The damage the water causes in the homes, to the structure and to residents' contents is. On top of that, the delay penalty from the main contractor and the guarantee declaration you gave stay outside the cover, because both follow from the contract and not from the law.
If you also supply materials, you are more than a contractor. For tiles, adhesives and waterproofing systems you resell you can be held liable under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code on product liability. The costs of recovering and replacing the product itself are almost always excluded. The damage the product causes elsewhere is not. 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).
What is different about project tiling
Four subjects that determine the outcome of a claim at a tiling contractor.
A fault that repeats a hundred times
In this trade, work instructions are both your quality assurance and your risk: everyone does it the same way, so a wrong method is immediately present across the whole project. Watch the series provision in the conditions, therefore, and the difference between the limit per claim and the limit per insurance year. On large projects that first limit is often the decisive one.
The water test and the handover
A documented water test before tiling and a survey report at handover shift the burden of proof. Without them it is assumed on every later leak that the tiling is at fault, while a plumber, a shower drain or someone else's workmanship can just as easily be the cause. Keep those reports longer than the project's guarantee period.
Large formats, lifting aids and cutting dust
Large slabs call for suction cups and lifting aids, and cutting them produces respirable silica dust. Under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code you must show that you made those aids available, that you cut wet or extracted the dust and that the risk inventory and evaluation was up to date. For agency workers and hired-in tilers the same duty of care applies through subsection 4, even where they work on their own invoice.
What you supply alongside what you lay
If you resell the material, your supply as well as your workmanship comes up for discussion. Record which system was specified and by whom, and keep the supplier's technical documentation. If an adhesive turns out to be unsuitable for the substrate, the question is who made that choice: that determines whether the loss lands with you, with the supplier or with the client.
What does your premium depend on?
- Payroll and number of tilers: the measure for the employers' liability section
- Annual turnover: the basis for the risk towards third parties, usually with an adjustment at the end of the year
- Project size: series work in new build weighs differently from individual bathrooms
- Supply of materials: reselling brings product liability with it
- Hired-in labour and subcontracting: hired-in crews count towards your duty of care
- Sum insured and excess: the limit per claim in particular is decisive in a series loss
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A trolley with large-format slabs tips over and hits a resident in the stairwell | Yes | Yes |
| A client's underfloor heating is attacked by an adhesive you supplied | Provided that | Yes |
| Recovering and resupplying that same adhesive and those tiles | No | No |
| A hired-in tiler reports lung complaints years later from dry cutting | Provided that | Provided that |
| Loss of rent on the homes that are uninhabitable while the leak is repaired | Provided that | Yes |
| The main contractor charges the contractual penalty for late completion | No | No |
Extended here means a policy in which product liability and consequential loss at third parties are expressly included.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Dozens of bathrooms on a project turn out to be leaking. How is that settled?
First the cause is established and then the question whether this is one claim or several. If everything follows from the same fault or method, most conditions treat that as one claim and one limit applies. Breaking out and retiling is at your expense. The damage to the structure, the finishes and the residents' contents falls within the cover.
The main contractor withholds a deduction for delay. Is that insured?
No. A deduction or penalty clause follows from your contract and not from a statutory obligation to pay compensation. Contractual penalties are excluded on virtually every liability policy. The same applies to a guarantee in which you take on more than the law requires. Have such provisions assessed in advance and build them into your contract price.
Our supplier turned out to have recommended the wrong adhesive.
Liability may then rest partly with him, but the client will hold you liable first because you are his contracting party. Your insurer handles the claim and can then seek recovery from the supplier. Keep the product data sheets, the advice and the order confirmations. Without those documents recovery cannot be achieved.
We also tile swimming pools and commercial kitchens. Does that change the policy?
Yes. The capacity described on your policy schedule determines what is insured, and work on water tanks or in food preparation areas is assessed differently from a domestic bathroom. Report that extension, because if reality differs from what you disclosed when you applied, Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code can have consequences for a payment.
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