Looking for Contract Works Insurance?
Spending time on a construction site comes with huge risks – in fact, some of the highest of any industry. So, contract works insurance is worth looking into to protect your finances.
Contract works insurance is there to protect work that’s currently being undertaken on a construction site. Builders and other tradesmen may want to consider this type of insurance to help cover the cost of repairing or redoing any work that’s damaged by fire, flood, vandalism, storm or theft.
Who needs contract work insurance?
There are plenty of people who could benefit from taking out contract works insurance to protect their work in progress such as:
Creating your own contract works policy
Although it can be bought as a standalone policy, it’s quite common for contract works insurance to be included in a package or insurance bundle.
Contract works insurance only covers the construction site whilst work is in progress and nothing else.
Sometimes it’s necessary to take out additional policies or extensions to make sure you have comprehensive cover. This could be policies like the following (although this is by no means the whole list as different trades will come with their own set of risks):
Protecting your tools and equipment
The tools of your trade are essential to being able to work, so it makes sense that you would want to cover them against theft or damage. If equipment on site becomes unusable then you’ll want to have peace of mind that you can replace them quickly in order to get the construction site back to its original state.
Contract works insurance can also cover tools that aren’t your own, but have been hired-in from a third party to help with the job. Not only can this insurance help to cover the cost, but also any continuing hire charges that you may be liable for too.
Getting the right level of contract works insurance
It is likely that you could be undertaking multiple projects at the same time, however when purchasing your policy you’ll need to insure the largest project that is currently on your books. This will help to ensure that you’re covered for any of the projects experiencing difficulty and won’t leave you out of pocket.
Contract Works Insurance – Useful FAQs
If you’re completing an extension and there’s a fire, you could only claim for the damage done to that work, not the existing house. Hopefully in that case your client would have home insurance and be able to claim on that.
Possibly. In most cases insurers will cover things like portable site huts and toilets, as well as fixtures and fittings, but double check the small print.
Although contract works insurance is designed to cover big ticket projects, individual insurers may have an upper limit, so double check before purchasing your policy – although you might not need that level of cover now, you could do down the line.
Although contract works insurance usually covers floods, fires, storms, theft and vandalism as standard, terrorism is usually one of the exclusions. Speak to your insurer if you’d like to find out more.
Generally, contract works insurance covers you as long as you have responsibility for the site, which is usually once you’ve handed it over to the client. Some insurers will include a couple of week’s grace, particularly if your client has it as part of their contract.
The short answer is yes, you can use some of the funds to clear debris in order to begin getting the site back to its original state.