Archive for the ‘contractors all risks insurance’ Category

Contractors insurance – looking for a new quote

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

A friend of mine runs a small building firm, in the main they supply brick and block laying services. Now, the last few years have been tough for everyone except bankers and football players, but those in the building industry have really suffered, and this is continuing. He has however recently asked to up the cover under his contractors insurance to pick up some additional employees.

He is sensible enough to know that we are by no means out of the woods yet. We are seeing a lot of the pent up demand over the past few years starting to flow through. There are many businesses that have learned some serious lessons over the past few years about managing cash flow. But, some of this cash is now flowing into the bigger building projects and my friend, with his team of 4 people, says he is being offered a job a week, some of them fixed term for up to 12 months. The difficulty is, after the tough times of the past few year, do you jump at the first offer or take on smaller jobs and see what comes around the corner?

If you have been in the builidng industry and are seeing your work levels increasing, this is all well and good. What you do need to do though is make sure that you have adequate business insurance in place. Even a cursory call to your broker will help just to review what cover you have got and whether it is sufficient for your needs.

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Contractors insurance – getting the best quote.

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Whilst there are many different economic barometers and measures, in the world of business insurance we have two main one. Firstly, the number of business that cease to trade and secondly the number of new businesses, or business start ups, that we see who are looking for a quote.

After two years of increased business failures (and ceasing to pay insurance) and a reduction of new business enquiries, in the latter half of 2010 we are starting to see a vast improvement. We are not naive enough to say that business is not still extremely tough, just that we think a curve, not a corner, has been turned.

Construction has obviously been hit very badly, perhaps the worst of all. With the large reduction in house and commercial building, many businesses simply ceased to operate. We are now seeing more new enquiries from the construction sector than we have done for many years.

If you are just looking to take out a new contractors all risks insurance policy, where do you go? Our advice, over the years has not wavered at all. You will always get a better overall combination of service and price from a broker.

There are more commercial insurance companies nowadays offering policies for builders and tradesmens but do not be tempted to go direct. They cannot give you the choice that you need, whether it is public liability only or a full policy including employers liability and contract works, then you need a professional to advise you on the best, and most competitive type of policy to take out.

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Contractors All Risks Insurance

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

There are many pointers to the health of the UK economy, one of those we use is the level of new business insurance enquiries we receive. We saw reports last week about the economy growing at higher rates than expected, one of the areas that buoyed these figures was construction.

For the past few months, this is where we have seen a large increase in new business quote requests. You could count on the fingers of one hand the number of enquiries we received on a monthly basis in late 2008 and all of 2009. Now though, small contractors are back looking for cover, but if you are one of those, what type of policy do you actually look for?

At the the basic level, you can get a policy that includes employers and public liability insurance. Employers because you may legally need it and public because the company you are contracting for are insisting on it.

But what about the other covers? You may have your own tools and plant, you can hire in equipment and also what about the actual contract you are doing? For this, you need a wider cover, typically called a contractors all risks insurance package.

For the actual contract you are doing, to explain things, consider the following. If you are appointed to build a £50,000 two storey extension to someones house, until such time as you have formal handover, either to the client or the architect, you are responsible for the additional building to the house. If there is a fire, for whatever reason, the owners house insurance is not going to cover the extension. They will look for you to re-build it back to how it was prior to the fire.

This is the contract works element of the cover. You can get limits “per contract site”, from £50,000 up to millions of pounds. But you do need this cover.

Speak to a specialist broker to at least get two quotes, one for the basic liability and one for the wider cover. You can then decide whether it is worth investing in the wider cover, which we always recommend.

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Public liability insurance, including contract works cover.

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

In years gone by, the cheapest public liability insurance quotes were those that you would receive under a tradesmens insurance policy. These are the policies that cover builders, plumbers, carpenters, decorators and electricians etc.

They provide the very basic cover for any damage that you may cause to third party property (ie buildings) and/or people. If the carpenter drops a piece of wood that damages a plaster wall, this is where the public liability kicks in.

But, we are seeing more and more requests nowadays for cover that also includes contract works. This is cover for the physical improvements that you as the contractor are making to a site or premises at which you will work.

The easiest example to think of, is a builder that is putting an extension on to a house. Until such time as the builder gains formal sign off from the householder that they are happy with the actual works, then the contractor is legally responsible for this. So, if the extension burns down (yes, these things do happen) ot part of it is damaged in a storm, then the contractor is reponsible.

The important point here, is that this is not public liability. The contractor has not damaged 3rd party property. Therefore, cover is required for this physical item (the extension) for such perils as theft, storm, fire etc. You used to have to purchase a separate contractors all risks insurance or contract works insurance cover.

But, most insurers nowadays allow this as an extension to a tradesmens type insurance policy. You pick a limit for contract works, at any one location (as you may be doing more than one job), which is usually in bands such as £50,000, £100,000 and upwards.

The reason we are seeing more and more requests is because appointed architects or civil engineers (working for the householder) are insisting on this cover. Also, the mortgage company that is financing or loaning the monies for the project, may insist on seeing valid proof of cover, from the contractor.

To get a suitable quote, you will need to discuss this with a business insurance broker. They have the skills and the knowledge that can help to get the best quote at the best price for you.

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Public liability insurance – can I get hired in plant covered?

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Most commercial insurance companies have a basic business liability insurance contract that offer the option of public liability and/or employers liability.

These policies are usually available for the contracting trades, such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and electricians. Many are also extending their cover to include IT and other clerical activities.

Many small manual contracting trades persons will, from time to time, need cover for items they hire in such as mini-diggers or cherry pickers. The hire company will say that it can only be released for hire if you can prove there is insurance cover in place. Most of these smaller policies only allow cover for personal tools up to a few thousand pounds.

Mini-diggers typically cost around £20,000 and you wil need to prove cover for that level. If this is something you need, then a broker will be able to provide you with a package quote that covers the hired in plant as well as your liability covers.

The policy you need is a contractors all risks insurance. This will have three sections of cover, employers liability, public liability and contract works. under the contract works section you can, if you wish, include cover for hired in plant. This is based on your annual hired in plant charges. So, you declare what you estimate to be your charges for the next twelve months, ie £5,000, and in addition you specify the limit (the sum insured) of any one item of plant.

Many policies have limits of £25,000 or £50,000, with increases available if required.

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