Official acts · protected minimum income · client money
Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a bailiff's office
A writ served at the wrong address, or an attachment that goes too far, cannot be put right with an apology. The loss is established at once, and the injured party is often not a client.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een deurwaarderskantoor.
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.
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- 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
A bailiff's office works with deadlines and powers that leave no margin. If a summons is served at the wrong address, if a writ goes out after an appeal or objection period has passed, or if a claim is not interrupted and becomes time-barred, the client suffers an immediate loss. That is pure financial loss and it belongs on professional indemnity insurance; how the product is built up is set out on the hub page on the BAV. A distinguishing feature of this profession is that the opposing party can suffer loss as well, and that party has no contract with you.
Those third-party claims run through Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. Consider an attachment served on the wrong third party, an attachment of earnings in which the protected minimum income (beslagvrije voet) has been set too low so that someone lives below the subsistence minimum for months, or an eviction that goes ahead while the judgment has since been suspended. Enforcement is also at the risk of the party enforcing: if the judgment is later set aside, the work carried out turns out to have been unlawful. So record which instruction you received from the client and which checks you carried out yourself.
In your policy, separate the official work from the non-official work. Serving documents, levying attachment and carrying out evictions are official acts under the Dutch Bailiffs Act (Gerechtsdeurwaarderswet); alongside that you handle debt collection and case management and act as authorised representative in subdistrict court proceedings. If the policy schedule says only 'bailiff', a claim about a missed procedural step or a wrongly calculated collection arrangement may fall outside the stated professional capacity.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four points that decide, at a bailiff's office, whether a loss is covered or comes out of your own pocket.
Client money is not a professional risk
You hold money for clients and debtors in a separate account, kept apart from your own assets, and the Bureau Financieel Toezicht (the Dutch financial supervision office) monitors this. If money disappears from it through misappropriation or fraud, that is not a professional error but a property offence, and the BAV is not the policy in play. There is separate fidelity or money insurance for that; insurers will ask about segregation of duties and authorisations.
Disciplinary proceedings and fines fall outside
A complaint to the disciplinary chamber for bailiffs can lead to a sanction. Such a sanction is not compensation and is therefore not insurable, any more than fines and penalty paymentsare. Some policies do pay the cost of legal assistance in disciplinary proceedings, provided this is expressly included. Ask about it when you compare, because it is a real item of expenditure.
Mistakes by staff stay with the firm
For assigned trainee bailiffs, staff and hired-in workers you are liable under Article 6:170 of the Dutch Civil Code, and recovery from the employee personally is virtually excluded by Article 7:661 of the Dutch Civil Code. Make sure all these people are named as insured persons in the policy, including for work from the period before they left.
Exclusions in official practice
Not covered are: intent and wilful recklessness under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code; fines and disciplinary measures; and known circumstances at the inception of the policy, such as a pending complaint or a notified intention to hold you liable. Putting your own work right and crediting official fees are not insured losses either.
What does your premium depend on?
- Turnover and number of bailiffs: determines the volume of official acts per year
- Balance between official work and debt collection: each part has its own loss profile
- Type of clients: government claims and bulk portfolios weigh differently from individual files
- Internal checks on files and deadlines: recorded checks on service and on the protected minimum income
- Sum insured and excess: set per claim and per insurance year
- Claims record and complaints history: earlier notifications and disciplinary cases are taken into account in underwriting
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A summons is served at an old address and your client loses the case in default | No | Yes |
| A claim is not interrupted and becomes time-barred while the file is with you | No | Yes |
| A bystander is injured when a cupboard falls from the balcony during an eviction | Yes | No |
| You levy attachment on the employer of a person with the same name as the debtor | No | Provided that |
| A debtor demands back the collection costs that were overcharged | No | No |
| A failure at your IT supplier brings deadline monitoring to a standstill for three days | No | No |
Claims by the opposing party arise not from a contract but from tort; check whether your policy expressly includes those third-party claims.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Who is liable if the judgment is set aside afterwards?
In principle the party who instructed the enforcement, because enforcing is done at your own risk. The firm comes into the picture where it did something a careful bailiff would not have done, for instance continuing after enforcement had been suspended. So record instructions, notices of suspension and the moment you became aware of them; that file determines how liability is apportioned.
A protected minimum income has been set too low. Is that loss covered?
If there is a professional error, the claim by the person concerned can fall within the cover. It then concerns the amount withheld in excess and the consequences of that. Because the injured party is not a client, the claim runs through Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. Check that your policy expressly covers third-party claims and not only claims by clients.
Contents are damaged during an eviction. Which policy is that?
Damaged belongings are damage to property and belong on the public and employers' liability insurance, not on the BAV. If the eviction itself was wrongful, there is also a claim for unlawful conduct, which belongs on the professional indemnity insurance. One incident can therefore affect two policies; report it to both insurers.
What do we arrange on a merger or acquisition of a firm?
The retroactive date. Claims about files from before the transfer can be brought against the new entity and the policy works on a claims-made basis: the moment of notification counts. Ask for a retroactive date that covers the files taken over, have the transferring firm arrange run-off cover, and check that old trading names are included as insured persons.
Read more
Within Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekeringthe main page
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering gerechtsdeurwaarder zzp
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering bewindvoerder zzp
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering boekhoudkantoor
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering kandidaat notaris
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering bewindvoeringskantoor
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering notaris zzp
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