Roofer Insurance UK: What You Legally Need and What It Costs

Only one insurance is compulsory: Employers' Liability, and only once you employ someone. Public liability, tools and contract works cover are not required by law. Everything else that feels compulsory is contractual, because clients, main contractors and managing agents will not let an uninsured roofer on site.

What the law does demand is how you work. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 require all work at height to be properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people, and HSE's guidance on roof work opens with the blunt statement that all work on roofs is highly dangerous. On larger projects the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 add duties on every contractor.

That risk profile is why roofing prices higher than any other domestic trade, and why an insurer will look closely at whether you follow your own method statement when a claim comes in.

Public liability insurance (PLI) covers claims made against you by third parties for injury or property damage arising from your work. For roofers the classic claims are not falls; they are what happened underneath.

What PLI typically covers for roofers:

• Water damage inside a property after a roof was left open, or a temporary covering failed overnight
• A dropped tile, tool or scaffold component injuring a passer-by or damaging a car
• Damage to a neighbour's property, guttering, conservatory or boundary while working or accessing the roof
• Fire damage arising from hot works: torch-on felt, hot bitumen or a heat gun
• Legal defence costs, including for a claim that is not upheld

What PLI does not typically cover:

• Redoing your own defective roof under the usual faulty workmanship exclusion. It pays for the ruined ceiling, not the failed detail
• The roof itself while you are working on it, which is contract works cover, not liability cover
• Injury to your own employees, which is compulsory Employers' Liability
• Design and specification advice, which is Professional Indemnity

Hot works is the clause to read. Many policies restrict or exclude torch-on and hot bitumen work, or impose conditions such as a fire watch for a set period after work stops. If you do flat roofs, confirm in writing that hot works is insured and exactly what conditions apply, because breaching them can void the cover on the one claim you most need.

Cover limits: £1m and £2m are common for domestic work; £5m is routinely specified by main contractors and social housing clients. Because roofing claims can involve a neighbour's property as well as your customer's, the limit should reflect a bad day, not an average job.

Roofing kit is bulky and, other than the power tools, not especially valuable per item. That makes underinsurance less common than in other trades, but the same three clauses still decide whether a claim gets paid.

• 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 how your insurer treats keyless theft.
• Per-item limit: anything expensive, such as a hot air welder or a large nail gun, may need to be listed individually 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.

Hired-in plant is a separate question. Scaffolding, a tower, a hoist or a telehandler taken on hire usually makes you responsible for it under the hire agreement, and that liability needs hired-in plant cover rather than a tools policy.

Carrying tools and materials to jobs is business use, and a personal motor policy does not cover it. Roofers usually want "carriage of own goods" cover, plus a check that any tipper or flatbed body and any towed trailer are correctly 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 by finance or lease agreements.

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

Professional Indemnity (PI) covers financial loss caused by your advice or specification rather than by physical damage. Most roofers doing repairs and re-covers to a given specification need it far less than they are told.

When it genuinely matters:

• You survey a roof and report on its condition for a purchase, a lease or an insurance claim
• You specify a system, build-up or falls design rather than installing to an architect's or manufacturer's detail
• You act as principal contractor and coordinate other trades on a project
• You issue guarantees or certificates that a client, lender or agent relies on

Choosing a limit: take it from the contracts that require it, since commercial clients normally state a figure. Adding PI to an existing liability package usually costs less than a standalone policy.

This is the compulsory one. If you employ anyone, including an apprentice, a labourer for a day or in many cases a labour-only subcontractor using your kit, you must hold Employers' Liability (EL) insurance 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.

In roofing this is not paperwork. A fall from height produces the kind of life-changing injury claim that ends an uninsured business, and an EL claim can be brought years after the accident.

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 provided employees can reasonably access it.

Roofing is priced as a height trade, and the moment you add employees the premium moves into a different league. Two quotes published by Simply Business show how far apart the ends of the range sit.

• £552.97 a year for a self-employed roofer, sole trader with 1-2 years' experience and no employees in Leicester, taking £1,000,000 public liability only.
• £8,350.68 a year for a small roofing business, a limited company with 5+ years' experience and three employees in Swansea, taking £2,000,000 public liability, £10,000,000 employers' liability and £3,000 of tools cover.

The same source reports the cheapest tenth of roofers paying the equivalent of £343.32 a year for £2 million public liability. Van insurance sits outside all of these 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 offered through a trade association you belong to. Compare at least three, and check the hot works and height conditions before you compare the prices.