Intermediary services · description of activities · one-person business
Nationale-Nederlanden for self-employed professionals (zzp'ers) in construction and engineering
As a self-employed professional the question is not which insurer is best, but which risk stays with you as soon as you are on a site alone. Nationale-Nederlanden is one of the parties with which Finass can place that cover.
- 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: Nationale-Nederlanden voor zzp'ers in bouw en techniek.
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
Finass acts as an intermediary and is tied to no insurer. We set the offerings of more than thirty insurers side by side and the outcome follows from your work, not from a brand name. Nationale-Nederlanden has a broad business line within which a construction risk, a plant and machinery insurance and liability cover can sit with the same risk carrier. The rest of this insurer's range can be found at the overview page.
A one-person business differs fundamentally from a construction firm with staff on one point: there is no payroll. The premium then runs on the annual turnover, with an adjustment afterwards, and the employer's liability section is usually empty. Against that, you more often work as a subcontractor. The construction insurance has then almost always already been taken out by the main contractor or the client, and what matters is whether you are named on it as a co-insured. If you work directly for private clients, that question is yours; see the single-project version and CAR insurance for the self-employed.
What you always carry yourself as a self-employed person is your own absence. If you break a wrist falling from scaffolding, that is not a liability claim but a loss of income, and for that there is disability insurance. Your tools are also separate from the construction cover; they belong on business contents and tools cover. Liability for injury and damage to property suffered by third parties runs through the liability insurance for the self-employed.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare construction all risks (CAR) insurance.
What to look out for
Four points that go wrong more often in a one-person business than the choice of insurer.
Being co-insured is not the same as being insured
If you are named on the main contractor's construction insurance, ask for the policy schedule and look at three things: are you named in the section listing the insured parties, is there a waiver of recovery against subcontractors, and who bears the excess. Many specifications pass that excess on contractually to the party that caused the damage. The cover also stops at completion, while your liability continues.
The description of activities is your boundary
The policy schedule has one sentence describing your work. If you take on roofing, demolition or work with a mobile elevating platform as well, that does not automatically fall under it. Reporting is not a formality: the duty of disclosure at the outset follows from Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code and an incorrect picture can affect the payment through Article 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code. Also report it if you regularly come into contact with material suspected of containing asbestos.
What a construction insurance never pays for
Outside the cover are the the cost of putting right or replacing your own defective work, damage caused by a design or construction fault without a separate clause, your tools and plant, theft of building material without signs of forced entry or from unlocked storage, and penalties for delay imposed on you by the client. For damage you cause deliberately or with conscious recklessness, the exclusion in Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code.
As soon as you engage someone yourself
If you hire in a colleague or an agency worker at a busy time who works under your direction, your duty of care under Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code applies to that person. From that moment you do need employer's liability cover, even without a payroll. Report it in advance, because acceptance and premium are based on your working alone.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for a business without a payroll
- Described activities: finishing work weighs differently from roofing, demolition or work at height
- Continuous or per project: a single-project policy for each job or an annual contract
- Contract sum or size of the project: determines the sum insured for the works
- Excess per event: often arranged separately for theft and storm
- Claims history: the record of the past few years counts towards acceptance
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A storm blows away the roof boarding of the extension you are working on that week | Yes | Yes |
| While fitting a pipe you drill through an existing underfloor heating pipe belonging to the client | No | Yes |
| The mobile elevating platform you hire for two days topples over and is damaged | No | Provided that |
| Rainwater runs in through a roof surface that is still open and damages the plaster you have just applied | Yes | Yes |
| A month after completion a waste pipe you fitted leaks and damages the ceiling of the neighbour below | No | Provided that |
| A passer-by trips over your extension lead on the pavement and breaks a hip | No | No |
The construction cover is about the works themselves; injury and damage to third parties call for separate liability cover.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I always work as a subcontractor. Do I still need a construction insurance of my own?
Often not for the works themselves, provided you are demonstrably a co-insured on the main contractor's policy and that policy has a waiver of recovery. Have that confirmed in writing before you start. Your own liability towards third parties and your own tools fall outside it in any event, so that cover is still needed in your name.
Why does this insurer in particular come into the picture?
Because its broad business range makes it possible to place several policies with one risk carrier. That saves argument when a claim sits on the boundary between two types of cover. It is not a starting point: we put the application to several insurers and assess the conditions, clauses and excess side by side before anything is signed.
Are my tools insured on the building site?
Not on the construction insurance. That covers the works in progress and the materials built into them. Hand tools, machinery and the contents of your van call for separate cover, usually with requirements on how they are stored. Theft from a vehicle without signs of forced entry is in general refused, even where the tools are demonstrably gone.
What if the client only discovers the damage after completion?
Then it is no longer damage during construction but a defect in the completed work. Under Article 7:758(4) of the Dutch Civil Code you as the contractor remain liable for defects that were not reasonably visible at completion. Some policies have a maintenance period that covers this period to a limited extent; record which period applies and what falls under it.
Read more
Within Why we work with different insurers
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