Painter and Decorator Insurance UK: What You Need and What It Costs

Decorating produces small numbers of claims with awkward values: a spilled tin on a wool carpet, overspray on a parked car, a customer's antique furniture marked while it was being moved out of the way. None of it is dramatic and all of it is expensive to put right in an occupied home.

Two legal duties sit behind the higher-risk parts of the job. Ladders, towers and trestles are work at height, governed by the Work at Height Regulations 2005, which require the work to be planned, supervised and done by competent people. And sanding or burning off old paint in a pre-1970s property can release lead, which is controlled by the Control of Lead at Work Regulations 2002.

No insurance is legally required unless you employ someone. What makes public liability effectively compulsory is the client: letting agents, housing associations and commercial clients ask for the certificate before you start.

Public liability insurance (PLI) covers claims by third parties for injury or property damage caused by your work or your presence in their property.

What PLI typically covers for decorators:

• Paint, filler or solvent damage to carpets, flooring, furniture and fittings
• Overspray from a sprayer landing on cars, windows, neighbouring paintwork or a conservatory
• Damage caused while moving or covering a customer's belongings
• Injury to a customer or member of the public, including a trip over your equipment or leads
• Legal defence costs, including on a claim that is not upheld

What PLI does not typically cover:

• Repainting your own poor finish, under the usual faulty workmanship exclusion
• The surface you were working on at the time, under the care, custody and control exclusion
• Colour or specification advice that the customer relies on, which is Professional Indemnity territory
• Injury to your own employees, which is compulsory Employers' Liability

Cover limits: £1m and £2m are normal for domestic decorating; £5m is commonly specified by main contractors, housing associations and commercial fit-out clients. Spraying raises the stakes, because overspray can reach a whole row of parked cars, so confirm that spray application is listed as an insured activity if you use a sprayer.

A decorator's kit is modest until you add a sprayer, a steamer and a set of aluminium towers, at which point a van theft becomes a serious replacement bill.

• Forced entry: most policies pay for theft from a vehicle only where there is visible evidence of a break-in. A relay attack leaves none, so ask your insurer in writing how keyless theft is handled.
• Per-item limit: an airless sprayer typically exceeds the standard single-item cap and has to be declared on the schedule.
• Overnight storage: many policies exclude tools left in a van overnight on a public road, or require a locked garage or driveway.

Towers and access equipment taken on hire are usually your responsibility under the hire agreement and need hired-in plant cover rather than a tools policy.

Carrying materials and equipment between customers is business use, and a personal motor policy does not cover it. You want commercial cover for "carriage of own goods", and roof bars carrying ladders should be declared.

• Third party only: the legal minimum, nothing for your own vehicle.
• Third party, fire and theft: adds fire and theft of the van.
• Comprehensive: the normal choice, and usually required under lease or finance terms.

What it costs: the most recent published Quotezone van insurance price index put the UK average at around £575 a year, and roughly £1,140 a year for London-registered vans. Trade-rated cover carrying tools generally prices above that average, so read those figures as a floor.

Most decorators do not need Professional Indemnity (PI). It covers financial loss caused by advice or specification rather than physical damage, and straightforward decorating to a customer's choices does not create that exposure.

When it becomes relevant:

• You provide colour consultancy or a specification the client pays for and relies on
• You specify a coating system for a commercial or exterior job and it fails prematurely
• You survey and report on substrate condition before a contract is priced
• You act as principal contractor on a refurbishment and coordinate other trades

If your work is domestic decorating to the customer's brief, put the money into a higher public liability limit and proper tools cover instead.

The moment you take on a second pair of hands, including an apprentice, a weekend helper or in many cases a labour-only subcontractor using your materials, Employers' Liability (EL) insurance becomes compulsory under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. Regulation 3 of the 1998 Regulations sets the minimum at £5 million for any one occurrence; £10 million is what is normally sold.

This matters more in decorating than it looks, because most decorating injuries are falls from ladders and steps, and a fall claim can be brought long after the job is finished.

The penalty for going without: it is a criminal offence. The HSE's guide for employers (HSE40) sets out fines of up to £2,500 for any day you were uninsured, and up to £1,000 for failing to display the certificate or produce it for an inspector. Since 1 October 2008 the certificate may be held electronically as long as employees can reasonably access it.

Decorating is one of the cheapest trades to insure. Two quotes published by Simply Business show the usual range.

• £116.81 a year (Chiswell) for a solo painter with 3-4 years' experience, sole trader with no employees in Huddersfield, taking £1,000,000 public liability.
• £488.62 a year (AXA) for a small limited company with 5+ years' experience and two casual workers in Reading, taking £2,000,000 public liability, £10,000,000 employers' liability and £5,000 of tools cover.

Because the premiums are low, the cost of moving up a public liability limit or adding proper tools cover is usually a few pounds a month, which is a poor thing to economise on. Van insurance is bought separately from both figures.

Where to get quotes: online trade brokers such as Simply Business and Tradesman Saver, specialist contractor insurers such as Kingsbridge, the trade divisions of AXA, Aviva and Zurich, and any scheme available through a trade association you belong to. Compare at least three, and check that spraying, if you do it, is named on the schedule.