Care, custody and control · commissioning · work after completion
Liability insurance for installation and assembly work
You work on something that belongs to someone else, in a building that belongs to a third party: and those are precisely the two things the standard policy takes out.
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
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
The installation you work on and the building you work in are property you have have in your care. Damage to them falls under the care, custody and control exclusion of public and employers' liability insurance. For an installation firm that is not a marginal case but the heart of the trade: an underfloor heating pipe drilled through, a burnt-out meter cupboard and a damaged ceiling are all damage to what you had in your care.
The second breaking point comes after completion. A coupling that was not tightened at the right moment, a seal that was too tight or a connection that was not quite sealed produces a leak in the services shaft weeks later. The work after completion cover determines whether that consequential loss still falls under your policy. It is not always included as standard.
You also carry employer's liability under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code for your fitters on site and you are liable under Article 6:170 DCC for the mistakes they make at a third party's premises. That risk runs on someone else's building site, where you do not control the conditions yourself.
What does liability insurance for installation and assembly cover?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The essentials
Damage to property and personal injury
Damage to other people's property and injury to other people.
Injury to third parties
Damage to other people's property
Also during visits to clients' sites
For staff
Employers' liability
Accidents at work and occupational illnesses.
Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code
Hired-in staff as well
Not in traffic
Optional
Extensions
What is excluded as standard.
Care, custody and control
Work after completion
Environmental damage
What is covered
Situation
AVB
Another policy
Injury to a visitor or customer
Yes
No
Damage to a client's property
Sometimes
No
An accident at work involving an employee
Yes
No
Injury to staff in traffic
No
Yes
Damage to property in your care
No
Sometimes
Pure financial loss caused by a professional error
No
Yes
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
Care, custody and control and work after completion belong together
Without care, custody and control cover, damage to the installation itself and to the building you work in is not covered. Without work after completion, damage that only shows up months later is not covered either. For this trade they are not extensions but basic elements. Note the separate limits: they are usually lower than the sum insured for ordinary property damage and are often capped per year.
Commissioning is your moment of proof
When the installation is brought up to pressure or energised, it comes under real load for the first time. Record when you did that, which tests you carried out, which values you measured and who attended on behalf of the client. If a leak or a fault develops later, that record is the only evidence that the installation met the specification at handover.
Work with a fire risk has its own conditions
Welding, soldering, cutting and hot air work on site fall under a clause for hot workat virtually every insurer. That requires a completed work permit form, the removal or screening of combustible material, extinguishing equipment within reach and a check afterwards. If those requirements are not met, the insurer can restrict or refuse cover for fire damage.
What you continue to pay yourself
Redoing your own defective work is not an insured loss but a warranty obligation. Only the consequential loss at the customer's end comes into play. Contractual penalties and delay damages under the building contract fall outside the cover. Damage caused by the use of unsuitable material specified by the client leads to argument: record in writing when you warned against such a choice.
Care, custody and control is excluded as standard
Damage to property that you have in your care: borrowed, hired, being worked on or held in safekeeping: is not covered by the standard cover. For professions where this is the core of the work, a separate care, custody and control module with its own limit is essential.
Your AVB excludes damage caused with or by motor vehicles. It is precisely there that the Hoge Raad (the Dutch Supreme Court) recognised a separate liability based on the duty to act as a good employer: an employer must arrange proper insurance for employees who take part in traffic for work. A WEGAS insurance policy fills that gap.
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
I drill through a pipe in the floor. Who pays for that?
Without care, custody and control cover you pay for it yourself, because the floor you were working in was in your care. With that cover, repairing the pipe and the floor falls within the policy, up to the separate limit that applies to care, custody and control. Water damage to the occupant's contents is ordinary property damage and is usually covered even without that module.
What exactly does work after completion mean?
Cover for damage that only arises after you have handed the work over, but which can be traced back to a mistake during installation. Think of a coupling that starts to leak after two months. Without this module the policy only pays for damage during the works. Also check how long after completion the cover continues.
My fitter falls off a ladder at a customer's premises. What then?
Then you are held liable as the employer. Article 7:658 DCC imposes a heavy duty of care on you and requires you to show that you met it. The fact that you were working at someone else's premises does not release you: you have to assess the workplace, supply sound equipment, give instructions and monitor compliance. Keep toolbox talk records and inspection certificates.
The client specified the material. Am I still liable?
Often yes, unless you can show that you gave a warning. An installation firm has a duty to investigate and to warn about choices whose unsuitability it can see. If you go ahead anyway and it goes wrong, your file determines the outcome. Always record an objection in writing and have the client confirm the instruction.
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
You will find our licence, KvK and Kifid details and our complaints procedure at the foot of every page.
