Answering your questions on Contractors All Risk Insurance

Contractors All Risk Insurance (CAR), which can also be called Contract Works Insurance (CWI), is a cover for tradesmen carrying out work on a contract site. It protects your work in progress on a building site and can help to pay for any repairs or work that needs to be completely restarted following damage in an event such as fire, flood, storm, vandalism or theft.

Contractors All Risks doesn’t just cover liability; it can cover property, tools and plant machinery, and can be combined as part of Tradesman Insurance or purchased as a standalone product.

What does Contractors All Risk Insurance include?

Construction projects typically involve two primary types of risk: damage to the property, and third party claims for injury or damage. Contractors All Risk Insurance covers the work that you are currently doing on a building site, and can pay for the cost of repairing or redoing anything that is damaged or destroyed, including the cost of the labour, the materials and the tools.

Common trades needing this type of insurance include building contractors, property developers, electricians, bricklayers, carpenters, double glazing installers, heating and air conditioning engineers, plasterers and tilers.

Contractor's All Risk Insurance covers you for claims where negligence can be proven. Where negligence cannot be proven, you may need to consider a JCT Contract and more importantly a JCT Insurance policy.

How do you value the level of CAR Insurance cover?

When calculating the correct level of coverage you need to consider covering the cost of the biggest contract that you are working on, regardless of how long it will take you to complete. For example, if your biggest project is a £2 million contract over 3 years then you need to be covered for £2 million, plus labour and materials.

Other considerations

You can also consider adding cover for any temporary buildings on site, such as toilets, a site office, temporary roads, etc. If you hire in plant you should also consider if this needs to be insured. It is also important to check the ‘key facts’ and summary to be certain of the security conditions that are required on site so as not to invalidate any claims.

A typical policy should also include a maintenance period to cover the period between once the buildings are complete and when they are sold – make sure your cover is long enough.

Contractors All Risks Insurance can be combined

Tradesman Insurance is an insurance product whereby you can choose to include different aspects of business insurance into one policy such as public liability & employer’s liability, tool cover, plant machinery and Contractors All Risks cover.