Maintenance contracts · back-ups · administrator access
Liability insurance for a self-employed web developer
A web developer holds the keys to clients' servers, content management systems and domains. If something goes wrong there, the loss is rarely physical: and that is precisely what determines which policy you need.
- Several insurers compared objectively
- 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 zelfstandige webdeveloper.
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 AVB is about injury and damaged property. In web development that is a small corner: a visit to a client where you knock over a network cabinet, a switch you drop while connecting equipment, coffee over a keyboard in a meeting room. More about the structure of this cover is set out on hub page on public and employers' liability.
The real work is in what you manage. A migration without a working back-up, a database that empties during a deploy, an outdated plug-in through which a site is taken over, a certificate that expires and takes the webshop offline for days. Those are costs and lost turnover at the client: pure financial loss, excluded on the AVB. Such claims belong on professional indemnity insurance, and where data or hacking attempts are involved on cyber insurance for self-employed professionals.
Two things that are often forgotten. Your own remedial work is never insured: redeploying, restoring and repairing are performance of your contract. And a maintenance contract with availability commitments creates contractual liability going beyond the law; penalties and deductions flowing from it fall outside every liability cover.
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 most often lead to a claim in build and maintenance work.
Back-ups and the evidence that they worked
In data loss the discussion always turns on whether there was a restorable back-up and who was responsible for it. Record for each client who makes back-ups, how often they are tested and how long they are kept. Without that arrangement the whole loss ends up with you, and then your professional indemnity cover determines whether you can bear it.
Access to clients' systems
You hold administrator passwords, SSH keys and access to domain registrations. If a client environment is infected via your workstation, that is a cyber loss and not an AVB loss. In a cyber application, insurers ask about two-factor authentication, a password vault and separate accounts per client. Shared login details are the biggest stumbling block here.
Hardware that is not yours
A client's server, NAS or test device standing at your premises falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. The same applies to equipment you take away temporarily to configure. Ask for care, custody and control cover or have the owner keep the risk. You insure your own work equipment through business contents and goods insurance.
Deliberate recklessness
Carrying on working on a production environment without a back-up, or leaving a known security vulnerability for months, can be treated as reckless. What is caused deliberately or recklessly falls outside the cover under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code. Record your warnings to clients in writing. That protects you towards both the client and the insurer.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the basis for a self-employed professional without staff
- Share of maintenance and hosting: ongoing responsibility weighs more heavily than one-off build assignments
- Size of the client systems: webshops and portals carry higher consequential losses
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
- Area of cover: clients outside Europe change the risk
- Combination with cyber and professional indemnity: a package closes the gaps between the policies
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| You knock over a cup of coffee onto the docking station in the client's meeting room | Yes | No |
| While pulling a network cable you damage the client's suspended ceiling | Yes | No |
| A delivery driver trips over the cables of your test rig in the client's office | Yes | No |
| A client's test server standing at your premises falls out of the rack | Provided that | No |
| A migration without a working back-up costs the client a week of order data | No | Yes |
| The client holds you to the penalty in the maintenance contract after a day of downtime | No | No |
The first three rows are the reason why even a fully digital agency needs an AVB.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I wiped a webshop's database during a deploy. What covers what?
The AVB does nothing here: no property is damaged and nobody is injured. Restoration costs and lost turnover at the client are pure financial loss and belong on professional indemnity insurance. The hours you spend putting it right yourself remain at your expense. That is performance of your contract.
My client's site was hacked through a plug-in I maintained.
That is in the first place a cyber incident. Investigation, clean-up, restoration and any notifications to the people concerned fall under cyber insurance. Whether you are also liable depends on your maintenance arrangements. Do not delay notification: Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code ties that duty to the moment you know of the loss.
Why take out an AVB if my work is digital?
Because you still visit clients and because clients require this policy in their purchasing conditions. The tort in Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code does not disappear because your work is digital, and the AVB is the only cover that picks up property damage at a client. See further the page about liability as a self-employed professional (zzp'er).
Are penalties under an SLA insured?
No. A penalty or deduction scheme you agreed in a service agreement is liability accepted by contract and not in law. Liability insurances cover only what the law imposes on you. Limit your liability in your terms, therefore, and be cautious with firm availability guarantees.
Read more
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