Painter and Decorator Insurance

Public liability insurance for decorators is one of the most important covers you can buy.

If someone working for your business causes injury to a third party or damages their property, you or your firm could be legally liable.

A public liability insurance policy provides cover for the costs of defending third party injury and property damage claims.

Personal injury claims can be significant, as can the legal costs associated with any defence. So buying as much cover as you can afford may be a sensible move.

The minimum level of public liability insurance you can buy from Insuristic is £1m, with options to purchase £2m or £5m of cover.

Sometimes, clients may insist on you having £10m cover, such as when working for a local authority. If this is required we can arrange additional 'top up' cover (sometimes called an excess of loss policy) offline.

Examples of common public liability insurance claims for painters and decorators are:

• A customer or member of the public trips over your equipment and hurts themselves.

• A third party slips on a paint spill or wet floor and is injured as a result.

• One of your team drops something that either spills on or damages your clients property. Paint spills on furniture or floor coverings are common.

• Flooring or walls are damaged during the decorating process.

If you are a sole trader, sole director of a limited company or a partnership, without any employees then Employers Liability Insurance isn't a requirement.

If you have more than one director or you have any employees, then you need to buy Employers Liability Insurance (EL Insurance) by law.

The law says you need to buy a policy providing at least £5m of cover. 

Failing to buy this cover can result in a fine of £2,500 for every day haven’t been properly insured.

You can also be fined £1,000 if you do not display your EL certificate or refuse to make it available to inspectors when they ask.

But don't worry, Insuristic makes this easy.

If your business requires EL Insurance, the cover will be included in your quotation.

Insuristic provides £10m as standard. Although, if an injury is as a result of asbestos or terrorism, the maximum cover will be £5m.

When you are completing your quotation, consider that an employee could be:

• Permanent or Temporary; or

• Other people working under your control and direction. Such as apprentices, labour only sub-contractors or one of your mates helping you out.

EL Insurance covers your legal liabilities in the event that an employee is killed or injured, whilst at work.

If you are likely to work with temporary employees during the year, you must disclose this at the outset.

Insuristic can provide cover for 3 temporary employees at a discounted rate.

The cover will be the same as you have chosen for your main employees i.e. if you have included both public and employers liability, temporary employees will be covered at the same level.

Caveats:

• These employees can work for your business for no more than 50 days collectively in a year.

• If they work more than 50 days, then you should insure them like you would a full-time employee.

You can insure your decorating equipment against the risk of theft, loss or accidental damage.

• You can cover the decorating equipment owned by your business; and

• If you choose to, insure your employees decorating equipment

We can provide cover up to £3,000 online. If you need more cover than this, we can provide a quotation offline.

Insuristic quotes include £100,000 of legal costs and expenses as standard. The policy provides cover in the following insured events (for full details of the cover, you should read your policy wording):

• Employment Disputes and Compensation Awards

• Tax Disputes

• Property Disputes, where someone damages your property, causes nuisance or is trespassing. Or you might need to recover or repossess property from a current or ex-employee.

• Legal Defence following a criminal investigation or enquiry

• Compliance and regulatory investigations, disciplinary hearings or notices which you wish to appeal against

• Statutory license appeals

• Loss of Earnings following court, tribunal, arbitration, regulatory proceedings or a professional body’s disciplinary hearing

• Contract Disputes

And more.

Each claim will be subject to an excess which will be shown on your policy schedule.

If more than 25% of your turnover comes from Bona Fide Sub-Contractors, you must tell your insurer at quotation stage (or if this changes during the policy year).

Your insurer will insist that you maintain a record of the insurance of any bona fide sub-contractors that you use.  You will need to keep a record of their Employers Liability Insurance, Public and Products Liability Insurance.  You will need to check and record that:

1. The insurance provides cover for all the activities they are undertaking on your behalf before they start working with you.

2. The insurance contains a provision of granting indemnity to any Principal. 

3. The limits of liability are not less than what you have purchased.

4. The cover will be valid and in force for the duration of the contract

You will be asked during your quotation if you use heat. If you use electric heat guns, infra red or blow torches to strip paint you must confirm this.

If you answer no, all claims relating to the use of heat will be excluded.

If you answer yes, the use of heat will be restricted to the use of hand held heat appliances.

When using heat, the insurer will also require you to:

• Not leave any heat appliance unattended when switched on;

• Inspect nearby areas for the risk of combustible material, including adjoining walls or partitions;

• Where practical, remove any combustible material to at least 10 metres away from the point of work;

• Ensure access to a suitable fire extinguishing appliance for immediate use if required;

• Check for risk of fire after completion of the work and again not less than sixty minutes afterwards.

Most insurance policies will include a condition that excludes any damage to the item you are working on. For example, you damage a door frame when stripping paint.

So if this happens and your client complains, you couldn't claim on your public liability insurance. You'd need to repair or replace the damaged item yourself.

Your policy will only provide cover for work below 10 metres. This is slightly higher than a common two story UK house, which has a pitched roof height of around 7-8 metres.

If you ever work higher than this we can provide a quotation offline.

Our insurance scheme is for painters and decorators who only work at domestic and office locations. If you ever work at any high risk locations, this work is excluded under the policy. If this is the case, you must tell us at the start of your quotation. We can help you find suitable insurance offline.

Examples of high risk locations are:

• refineries, bulk storage or production premises in the oil, gas or chemical industries.

• power production premises in the electric or hydroelectric industries.

• offshore structures and work underground or underwater.

• aircraft, hovercraft, aerospace systems or watercraft (other than at docks, harbours, boatyards or inland waterways not involving the use of heat).

• railways or airports.

Your employees should be wearing the appropriate PPE during any painting and decorating job.

Your insurer will require you to:

• issue PPE to all employees who require them

• Keep a record of the employee

• Ensure the use of PPE by employees is always enforced

Our scheme is not suitable for firms that offer spray painting services. This activity is excluded under the policy. If you do this you should tell us at the start of your quotation and we can arrange a call with an insurance advisor to discuss your requirements.

You insurance policy will contain a policy condition confirming that you must have an up to date Health and Safety Policy in force that is communicated to and acknowledged by all employees.

If something changes in your business during the policy year you must tell us as failing to do so could mean you don't have the right insurance cover.  Examples include:

• You've taken on more staff

• Your business has acquired additional tools and equipment, therefore requiring your sums insured to be increased

• Your business activities have changed.  For example you took out the policy when you were only doing plumbing and heating work.  But you are now offering a new service such as property maintenance.

• You've been asked to work at a high risk location (which you are not covered for)

 There will be other examples.  The best thing to do is contact us if anything changes.

If you are a sole trader or partnership without employees there is no legal requirement to operate with insurance.

However, most clients would expect you to have public liability insurance. Public Liability Insurance is an important cover for any business. It provides you with protection should anyone working for your business accidentally injure a third party or damage their property.

I'm sure you would sort out any damage from the odd paint spill, but some public liability claims could be significant. Particularly if you injure someone.

The minimum cover you can buy from Insuristic is £1m Public Liability plus legal expenses insurance.

If you have employees, you need to buy Employers Liability Insurance. This is a legal requirement and you can be fined £2,500 for each day you didn't have the insurance.

If you have expensive decorating equipment you may also want to insure these for theft, loss or accidental damage. You can also arrange insurance to cover your employees equipment.

If you change your businesses legal structure, for example you change from being a sole trader to a limited company during your policy year, you must tell us prior to this change via contact us. We can then arrange for your policy to be changed and new documentation issued.

Don't worry. We don't send them in the post, your decorator insurance documents are accessible anytime from our online portal.

You have the right to cancel your insurance within 14 days of the policy being purchased. Provided there have been no claims you will receive a full refund on your insurance premium. This would also mean there would have been no cover from inception.

Outside of the 14 day period, you should consider cancellation carefully as it may not be the best thing to do, even if you have stopped trading. This is because you would lose the protection for you and your business if someone makes a new claims against you - even if this happened prior to the date you cancel your policy.

Your considerations when cancelling:

• Employers Liability: You may not be protected if an employee is injured whilst working for you. Employers Liability insurance is a legal requirement and you could be fined £2,500 for each day you didn't have the cover.

• Public and Products Liability: If someone claims because you have damaged their property or injured them during the course of your business you wouldn't have any cover.

In addition to this, you may have purchased other covers and would lose their protection.

To cancel your policy, please contact us.