Building trade insurance is a description of a buyer rather than of a product. What sits behind it is a familiar set of sections, but the way they are rated for construction trades is unusually sensitive to a few declared facts, and those facts are where most disputes and most price differences come from.
The sections a building trade actually buys
Public liability for injury and damage to other people, employers' liability once anybody is employed, contract works for the job itself while it is being built, and tools and plant cover for what is on the van and on site. Professional indemnity joins the list for anybody offering design as well as construction, including design and build contracts where the responsibility for the specification moves onto the contractor. The four line up against genuinely different losses and it is common to need all of them at once.
Subcontractors, and the distinction underwriters care about
The question every proposal form asks is whether subcontractors are labour only or bona fide. Labour only subcontractors work under your direction with your materials and are treated broadly as if they were your own staff, which means they fall to your employers' liability. Bona fide subcontractors run their own businesses and are expected to carry their own cover, and your policy will usually require you to obtain evidence of it. Failing to collect certificates is a live problem, because an insurer can adjust the premium at audit or decline to treat an uninsured subcontractor as independent.
Height, heat and depth
Three declarations move a construction premium more than anything else. Working at height above a stated level, hot works such as welding, soldering or torch on roofing, and excavation below a stated depth are all rated separately and are frequently restricted or excluded by default on cheaper policies. Hot works in particular normally come with a condition about a fire watch continuing for a period after the work stops. A trade that does any of these occasionally still has to declare it, because the exclusion applies to the job rather than to the proportion of turnover.
What a site or a client will ask to see
Principal contractors and commercial clients ask for the same short list: a public liability certificate at a named limit, an employers' liability certificate, and on larger jobs evidence that the works themselves are insured under the contract. Framework and public sector work often sets the liability limit in the tender documents. As with most trades, the limit you carry ends up being decided by the contracts you want to be eligible to bid for rather than by any measurement of your own exposure.
Questions people ask about building trade insurance
Is public liability insurance compulsory for building trades?
Not by statute, but it is required by almost every commercial client, principal contractor and framework you might work under. Employers' liability is the one that is compulsory by law, and it applies as soon as you employ anybody.
Do I need contract works cover as well as liability?
If you are responsible for the work while it is being built, yes. Liability covers damage to other people's property; contract works covers damage to the job itself, which is the loss a fire or a storm on a half finished build produces.
Does my policy cover subcontractors?
It depends which kind they are. Labour only subcontractors are generally covered under your employers' liability; bona fide subcontractors are expected to hold their own, and your policy will usually oblige you to collect and keep their certificates.
What is hot works cover?
It is permission within the policy to carry out work involving flame, heat or sparks, subject to conditions that usually include a fire watch after the work finishes. Without it declared, a fire caused by that work can fall outside the cover.