Liability insurance for a self-employed masseur
As a self-employed masseur you are usually in someone else's building: at an office, in a gym, at people's homes or at the side of a pitch. That moves your risk from the treatment to the place where you work.
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In brief
If you work on location, your first risk is simply the space. Oil on a parquet floor, an office chair with stains, a scratch from a massage couch on a poured floor, a monitor knocked over during a chair massage at an office: that is property damage to third parties and the public and employers' liability insurance is intended for it. Many policies, however, assume a fixed practice room. State expressly, therefore, that you work on the move; Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code calls for a complete picture of how you work when you apply.
The second point is your position as someone hired in. If you work regularly for a sports club, a spa, an occupational health service or an event agency, you are not an employee and their insurance does not cover you automatically. Have it recorded in writing whether you are included as a joint insured; if you are not, you need a policy of your own, even if you are there every week. Also check what has been agreed about liability in the terms of engagement.
As for the treatment itself: damage arising from your hands is not automatically covered. Insurers have a separate section for it treatment damage or exclude it; how that works out is set out under the massage practice. Your own thumb, wrist and shoulder complaints are not liability but loss of income, for which there is disability insurance exists.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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What to look out for
Four points that work differently for a self-employed person on location than for a practice with its own address.
Working in someone else's space
If you rent a treatment room by the half-day, you are a tenant and fire or water damage to that room can be laid at your door. Ask for the tenant's liabilitysection. If you use the location's equipment, couch or linen, you have someone else's property in your care and the care, custody and control exclusionapplies; have it recorded who supplies and manages which equipment.
Being hired in does not mean being covered
A sports club or wellness centre insures its own business and its own staff. A self-employed person with her own clients and her own invoices is a separate business and falls outside it in principle. Ask for written confirmation if the client says you are included in his policy, and keep it with your records.
Indemnities and penalty clauses in contracts
Terms of engagement often contain a provision under which you indemnify the client against all loss, or a penalty for not keeping to an arrangement. An AVB covers third-party liability; what you take on by contract over and above what the law imposes is excluded. Penalties and contractual payments always fall outside it. Have such provisions amended before you sign.
Your own equipment and your own turnover
Liability insurance pays for other people's losses, not for yours. A stolen massage couch, mobile chair, heating unit or stock of oil belongs on business contents and goods insurance. Also bookings lost, an event cancelled and refunding a treatment are financial items this policy is not made for.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for a sole trader
- Fixed place or mobile: work at clients' homes and at offices counts more heavily
- Type of massage: sports and injury-focused techniques are assessed differently
- Work at events and competitions: crowds and time pressure increase the number of incidents
- Area of cover: if you travel abroad with a team, that has to be on the policy
- Limit and excess: you decide what part of a loss you bear yourself
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| During a chair massage at an office you knock a monitor off the desk | Yes | No |
| A participant in the company sports day trips over your extension lead | Yes | No |
| A bucket of iced water tips over onto the team's sports bags with their phones inside | Yes | No |
| An athlete is left with a torn muscle after your massage shortly before the match | No | Yes |
| You advise a runner to carry on training and his Achilles tendon tears | No | Yes |
| Your own wrist is overloaded and you cannot take clients for three months | No | No |
If you work on the move, have that put on the policy schedule before you take on your first job on location.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I spill massage oil on a client's sofa at home.
That is property damage to a third party and this insurance is intended for it, provided your policy states that you work at clients' homes. If you work without that entry, the insurer can rely on the duty of disclosure. Use a protective layer under the couch and chair as standard, and photograph the room before you start if in doubt.
I work for the same gym every week. Am I insured through them?
Usually not. Their policy covers their business and their staff. You are an independent business with a business activity of your own. Only if you are named as a joint insured on their policy are you included, and then only for the work they declared. Ask for that in writing, and otherwise take out insurance of your own.
An athlete says my massage made his injury worse.
There are two parts to a claim of that kind. The physical part is an injury claim and falls under cover only if treatment damage is included. The financial part, such as a match missed or sponsorship income lost, is pure financial loss and excluded on the AVB. Your intake form and treatment note determine how strong your position is.
My contract says I indemnify the client. What does that mean?
You are taking on liability that goes beyond what the law imposes on you. Your insurer covers only liability in law, so you carry that extra part yourself. Have the provision limited to your own culpable conduct and to the amount your policy covers. Let us look at the wording first if necessary.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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