Series production · CE file · choice of materials
Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a self-employed mechanical engineer
Your drawing is used hundreds of times before anyone notices that something is wrong. The loss is then not one component but the whole batch.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zelfstandige werktuigbouwkundige.
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
A self-employed mechanical engineer supplies 3D models, production drawings, strength and service life calculations, material specifications and sometimes a risk assessment for a machine. The client takes that straight into production. A mistake therefore rarely stops at a single item: rejects, rebuilding, a production line at a standstill and missed delivery dates add up to an amount bearing no relation to your hourly rate. For how the insurance itself works, see the hub page on the BAV.
So look first at the way your policy treats related mistakes. One wrong tolerance in a standard component recurring in several machines usually counts as one claim with one limit. Also look at how it treats recall and replacement costs: tracing, dismantling and replacing components already supplied is a separate head of loss that is often limited or excluded.
The second theme is your place in the production chain. If you supply documents only, the machine builder remains the manufacturer and carries responsibility for the technical file and the declaration of conformity. If you build a prototype yourself, substantially modify an existing machine or put together an assembly, then product liability under Article 6:185 of the Dutch Civil Code comes into play, with strict liability towards end users that you cannot contract out of. For that other part of your risk see also liability insurance for the self-employed.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four points that make the difference in self-employed engineering.
Release for production is a moment in time
Record when a drawing is final, which revision number went into production and who approved it. A claim is almost always about whether an outdated version was used. Work with a clear revision status on every sheet and keep the confirmation of dispatch. A model in a shared folder without a status marking is useless as evidence afterwards.
Material, loading and service life
Fatigue, corrosion and a wrongly chosen grade of steel only come to light after months. Note for each calculation the assumed load cycle, ambient conditions and expected service life. If the machine is used differently from what was stated, responsibility shifts to the user: but only if those assumptions form part of the design in writing.
Your role in the CE process
Preparing a risk assessment or compiling a technical file is a different activity from drawing work and must be included separately in the business activity. Make clear in the assignment whether you advise or whether you draw up documents on which the manufacturer bases its declaration. That distinction determines how far your responsibility runs if the machine later turns out to be defective.
What is not reimbursed
The cover does not include the redoing your own drawings or calculations and repayment of fees, fines and contractual reductions for late delivery, and liability under guarantees on capacity, cycle time or service life. Anything caused by intent or wilful recklessness remains uninsured. That follows from Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code. Recall costs are rarely insured without a separate arrangement.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the usual basis for a self-employed professional
- The sector your clients are in: food, offshore, medical or general machine building
- Series or one-off work: numbers determine the potential size of a loss
- Involvement in CE files: a risk assessment counts for more than drawing work
- Building prototypes yourself: shifts the risk towards product liability
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A production line is at a standstill for a week because a component you specified turns out not to fit | No | Yes |
| A shaft breaks after a year because of a wrongly chosen grade of steel and the machine has to be dismantled | No | Yes |
| An operator is injured because a guard you designed does not close | No | Provided that |
| While taking measurements in the factory hall you drop the customer's measuring arm | Yes | No |
| The client demands the return of your fee because he is having the design redone elsewhere | No | No |
| Your model files are lost in a disk crash with no back-up | No | No |
If you also build the component yourself, the first line moves from the right-hand to the left-hand column.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
A whole series of components has been rejected because of my dimensional error. What is paid?
In principle the loss your client suffers as a result: the loss in value of the rejected components, the cost of reworking and the standstill that follows. Your own hours to correct the drawing remain for your own account. If the components have already reached end customers, tracing and replacing them becomes a separate head of loss for which you must expressly arrange cover.
I draw for a machine builder who issues the CE declaration himself. Do I run a risk?
Yes, but at second hand. The manufacturer is answerable to the user and will then come to you if the cause lies in your design or risk assessment. Your defence consists of the description of the assignment and of what you supplied and advised. Be cautious about contract clauses under which you take over his entire liability or indemnify him.
I sometimes build a prototype or test rig myself. Is that covered?
Not on the BAV. As soon as you carry out physical work, property damage or injury can arise, and that is a different type of loss. For that you need public and employers' liability insurance, with attention to the care, custody and control clause if you work with the customer's equipment. Report this work when you apply, because an undisclosed activity can have consequences under Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code.
I had no policy for a period without assignments. Is that a problem?
It can leave a gap. A claims-made policy covers claims notified during the term, and you can notify nothing about the uninsured period. On taking out a new policy a new retroactive date also applies, so earlier work falls outside the cover. So keep the policy running, including in quiet months; old drawings stay in production.
Read more
Within Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
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- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering ingenieur zzp
- Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering constructiebureau
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