Sole Trader & Labour-Only Scaffolder Insurance

Labour-only or own account?

The cover you need depends on the work you do, and many self-employed scaffolders do both of the following:

• Labour-only subcontracting. A scaffolding firm pays you a day rate, you work under their supervisor with their material on their contracts. For insurance purposes you are treated as their employee. If you are injured through their negligence, their employers’ liability responds. If you injure someone else or damage property, their public liability responds.
• Working on your own account. You quote a homeowner for a scaffold, hire or supply the material and erect it yourself or with a mate. You are the contractor, and no other policy is covering the job.

Scaffolders who are labour-only during the week and take their own jobs at weekends need their own public liability for the weekend work. It is common for that to be arranged only after a client’s builder has asked for a certificate.

What the firm’s insurance does and does not do

While you are working under a firm’s control, their employers’ and public liability should respond to injury and damage. There are three things worth checking:

1. Whether you are declared. The firm’s wage roll should include labour-only payments. If it does not, the insurer may treat you as an uninsured subcontractor and dispute who is liable.
2. Whether the firm is insured at all. Ask to see the certificate. Small gangs do sometimes operate on a lapsed policy, and an uninsured employer may not be able to pay a claim.
3. Your tools and your income. The firm’s insurance pays nothing for your tools stolen from your van, and nothing for your lost earnings while you are off work unless you can prove the firm was negligent.

Covers worth having

Public liability

Necessary for any own-account work. £1m is the minimum normally available, £2m is more common, and £5m may be required on commercial sites. The public liability guide explains the height limits and conditions, which apply to a one-man business in the same way as to a firm. Insure to the height you work at: a 10m limit will not cover work at the ridge of a three-storey house.

Personal accident

Self-employed scaffolders frequently go without this cover. There is no sick pay, and employers’ liability pays only where the employer is legally liable for the injury. Personal accident cover pays a weekly benefit, typically for up to 52 or 104 weeks, and lump sums for permanent injury or death, whoever was at fault. It can be bought on its own or as part of a package, and the premium is modest compared with the income it replaces.

Tools

Your own hand tools, harness, podger, level and spanners, covered against theft and damage. Cover for tools left in a vehicle overnight usually comes with security conditions, which the plant and tools guide explains.

Hired-in plant

If you hire scaffolding material for your own jobs, the hire terms will make you responsible for it and for continuing hire charges if it is lost or damaged. Hired-in plant cover is inexpensive and can be added to the same package.

Employers’ liability once you take someone on

If you pay someone to help you and direct their work, the law will generally treat them as your employee, and employers’ liability becomes compulsory. Being a sole trader does not exempt you; the exemption only applies while you have no employees.

Legal expenses

If the HSE investigates an incident on your own job, legal expenses cover with a health and safety defence section pays for representation. Most packages include it.

If you also strip and re-cover roofs from the scaffolds you build, tell the broker. Scaffolding-only policies usually exclude roofing work, and the roofing insurance guide explains the conditions that apply to it.

Qualifications and price

Insurers will want to know which CISRS card you hold: Trainee, Scaffolder or Advanced Scaffolder. A Scaffolder card with several years’ experience is rated more favourably than a labourer’s card and an intention to do some scaffolding work. Many general tradesman policies exclude scaffolding entirely, so a broker who deals with the trade is worth finding. The cost guide covers what moves the premium; for a sole trader, a public liability policy is usually a few hundred pounds a year, with personal accident and tools adding to that.

Incorporating

Many scaffolders form a limited company as the business grows. A company whose only employee owns at least 50% of the shares remains exempt from employers’ liability, but the exemption ends as soon as a second person is on the payroll. The scaffolding insurance overview sets out the package a growing firm typically needs, and the regulations guide covers the CDM duties that come with taking contracts in your own name.

Sole trader scaffolder FAQs