Liability insurance for a landscaping company
With gangs, machinery and multi-year maintenance contracts the conversation shifts from garden damage to staff and specification requirements. A chipper or stump grinder causes the injury that occupies a company for years.
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In brief
The centre of gravity at a landscape gardening company lies with your own people and the machines. Chippers, chainsaws, flail mowers and stump grinders cause amputation and eye injuries, and climbing work in trees produces falls. Under Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code you must show that instruction, machine inspection, personal protective equipment and supervision were in order. If you cannot, you are liable in principle. The same applies to seasonal workers, work placement students and self-employed people hired in, through subsection 4 of that article, whoever holds the contract.
You also work in public places. On green space maintenance for local authorities, housing associations and VvEs, your equipment stands in the street, you prune above parking spaces and your people work among passers-by. Specifications set requirements: a minimum sum insured, traffic measures and sometimes a liability arrangement. Note that an liability accepted under contract going beyond the law is excluded on public and employers' liability insurance. On large-scale groundwork the excavation notification remains the document on which damage to a pipe or cable is settled.
Three cost items you carry yourself. Putting your own work right — a subsided terrace, planting that failed to take, an irrigation system installed wrongly — is performance of the contract and not an insured loss. The garden or public planting you are working on falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. And soil and water contamination from a leaking machine or a spilt product is usually covered on the liability policy only in sudden cases; structural pollution belongs on environmental damage insurance.
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 determine the size of a claim at a landscape gardening company with staff.
Inspection and instruction for each machine
After an injury from a chipper or grinder, the maintenance log is requested first and then the instruction the operator was given. A missing or bypassed guard makes the case virtually impossible to defend. Record for each machine the inspection, the breakdowns and which member of staff is authorised to use it.
Traffic measures for work on the road
Pruning along roads and parking bays calls for barriers in accordance with the applicable guidelines. If a car runs into your equipment or a cyclist is injured, the question is whether the barriers were right. If the damage arises with a vehicle taking part in traffic, Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM) applies and not the liability policy; the plant and machinery insurance deals with the equipment itself.
Subcontracting in season
Peak work in spring is done with third parties. Towards your client you remain liable for the whole. Ask every subcontractor for valid evidence of insurance and record who carries out which work. Without those records you still carry third parties' mistakes yourself.
Trees you have under management
With a tree safety inspection you take on an assessment task. If a tree that was inspected later falls, the owner is liable under Article 6:174 of the Dutch Civil Code but he will then turn to your inspection report. Errors in that judgement without property damage of your own are pure financial loss and belong on a professional indemnity insurance.
What does your premium depend on?
- Payroll and number of employees: the basis for the employers' section
- Turnover and the split between construction and maintenance: construction with groundwork weighs more heavily than maintenance
- Machinery fleet: chippers, grinders and mini excavators are assessed separately
- Tree care and climbing work: this determines the chance of serious injury
- Hired-in labour and subcontracting: counts towards your duty of care and the rating basis
- Claims history: damage to pipes and cables and injury claims weigh most heavily
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A self-employed person you hired in falls out of a tree during climbing work for your company | Yes | No |
| Your rotary mower throws a stone against the windscreen of a passing bus | Yes | No |
| Your gang mistakenly fells a local authority tree that was not part of the job | Yes | No |
| The irrigation system you installed turns out to be undersized and has to be replaced | No | Provided that |
| Your planting plan for a housing association prescribes species that cannot tolerate the position | No | Yes |
| The local authority imposes a penalty payment because you worked outside the permitted hours | No | No |
Putting your own work right lands on neither policy. That remains performance of your contract.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
An employee loses fingers in the chipper. What does that mean?
That is an injury claim from your own staff and falls under employers' liability, provided that section is included. The assessment runs through Article 7:658 of the Dutch Civil Code and it counts heavily whether the guard worked, whether the machine had been inspected and whether the employee demonstrably received instruction. A bypassed guard can affect cover and almost always leads to an investigation.
We maintain public green space. Are there extra requirements?
Usually yes. Contracting authorities often prescribe a minimum sum insured, require evidence of insurance when you tender and include a liability arrangement in the specification. Have those provisions placed alongside your policy conditions before you tender, because liability extended by contract is excluded on your policy in principle.
Our subcontractor damages a pipe. Can we be held liable?
Yes. The network operator and your client turn to the main contractor, and that is you. Whether you can then pass the loss on depends on your agreement with the subcontractor and on his own insurance. Check each year, therefore, whether that policy is still in force and whether excavation work is genuinely insured on it.
A client complains that the terrace we laid is subsiding.
Putting your own work right does not fall under liability insurance. That is performance of the contract. If the subsidence also damages other property, because water runs against a facade and gets inside for instance, that consequential loss is a liability question. Report a complaint of this kind early, because Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires timely notification.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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