Handyman insurance

Join over 900k UK customers (including over 5,000 property maintenance professionals like you) – we offer public liability cover from £4.74*

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What's on this page

Why do you need handyman insurance?

Handyman, handywoman, property maintenance, odd jobs expert. However you’d describe what you do, every day is different. Putting up a shelf and hanging a door one moment, changing a tap the next. Dealing with heavy tools and fragile materials. Accidents and mistakes are par for the course – although you can’t stop them from happening, you can cover yourself against the costs.

  • Protection from big claims like accidental injury or damage
  • Peace of mind for you, your business, and your customers
  • Insure what you need so you’re protected against legal costs, tools, or personal accidents

What does handyman insurance cover?

We put you in control, because you know what matters to you and your business. Whether you’re concerned about accidents on site or theft of the tools and equipment you use to run your business, you pick what goes into your policy.

  • Handyman public liability insurance

    In case you or your team accidentally injure someone or damage their property.

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    In case your employee is involved in an accident or mistake while they’re working for you.

  • Tools insurance

    In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.

  • Business and office equipment insurance

    In case your office equipment is lost, stolen, or damaged.

  • Legal expenses insurance

    In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.

  • Personal accident insurance

    In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident.

  • Handyman public liability insurance

    In case you or your team accidentally injure someone or damage their property.

    What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

    Claims against your business for:

    • someone else getting injured as a result of your handyperson work
    • someone else’s property getting damaged due to the work you’re doing, or as a result of your work
    • injury or property damage caused by your employee (keep in mind, you must have employers’ liability insurance if you have anyone working for you – it’s a legal requirement)

    For example:

    • you change some taps but you don’t tighten the fixture enough, so the bathroom floods and the ceiling below needs replastering
    • the shelves you’ve put up earlier in the day collapse onto your customer while they’re sitting on the sofa, resulting in a concussion
    • your employee is helping you replace a ball valve on customer’s toilet and they drop the lid of the cistern tank on the bathroom floor, causing the tiles to crack

    What you’ll need additional cover for

    • specialist work (such as building a bedroom or fitting a bathroom or kitchen) if you do that sort of work regularly – handyman insurance is intended for general maintenance and odd jobs only

    Read more about public liability insurance

  • Employers’ liability insurance

    In case your employee is involved in an accident or mistake while they’re working for you.

    What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

    Claims against your business for:

    • your employee (whether a permanent member of staff or a temporary or casual worker) getting injured while they’re working for you
    • your employee becoming unwell as a result of working for you

    **Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

    For example:

    • you leave your electric drill on the floor – your employee steps on it and hurts their foot, which then needs stitches

  • Tools insurance

    In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.

    What’s typically covered by handyman tools insurance?

    • the tools you use to carry out your profession, whether on site or stored at your business premises
    • theft of your tools
    • accidental damage, flood damage, or fire damage to your tools

    For example:

    • your power tools are stolen from your van while you’re putting up a blind at a customer’s property
    • you drop your drill by accident while you’re hanging a door and the drill breaks, so you need to get it repaired
    • the electrics in your vacuum cleaner get water-damaged and you need a new one

    What you’ll need additional cover for

    • your tools when they’re in transit between jobs
    • your tools when they’re locked in a vehicle overnight

    Read more about tools insurance

  • Business and office equipment insurance

    In case your office equipment is lost, stolen, or damaged.

    What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

    • the equipment you use to run your business (specifically operational equipment, not tools of the trade) that you keep in the building you operate your handyman business from
    • theft of your business equipment
    • flood or fire damage to your business equipment

    For example:

    • your laptop falls off the desk while you’re creating an invoice for a customer and the screen cracks
    • your work computer is stolen from your business premises

    Read more about business and office equipment insurance

  • Legal expenses insurance

    In case you’re faced with legal costs from running your business.

    What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?

    • legal expenses resulting from your day-to-day business activities, like disputes with employees
    • the cost of legal claims relating to property damage, nuisance or trespass
    • HMRC investigations, and tax and compliance disputes
    • includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline, and crisis PR support to help you protect your business’s reputation

    For example:

    • if you’re investigated by HMRC (or selected at random for an audit), this cover could help with the tax enquiries – for you and any other directors, as well as for the business
    • you need to defend your legal rights following the dismissal of an employee

    Read more about legal expenses insurance

  • Personal accident insurance

    In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident.

    What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

    • injury or death at work or outside of work, for anyone covered on the policy
    • lost income, medical costs and hospitalisation benefit

    For example:

    • you trap your finger in a door you’ve just hung and it has to be amputated
    • your casual labourer breaks their leg while they’re on a night out

    Read more about personal accident insurance

This content has been created for general information purposes. Make sure you have the right level of business insurance by checking your policy documentation for details. Read our full Terms and Conditions

How much does handyman insurance cost?

Find out how much you’ll pay by comparing prices from a range of trusted insurers. You choose what goes into your policy, so you only pay for what you need.

Prices start from £4.74 per month

Get your quotes in 7 minutes – prices are guaranteed for 30 days.

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The price is for up to £2 million of public liability insurance – 10% of customers paid £56.82 or less annually between 1st Jan – 31st May 2024. Equivalent to £4.74 a month (and excludes the extra costs for paying monthly). 76% of customers have a £1 million limit and 24% £2 million. If you complete a quote, more types of cover will be available. These all have additional costs.

Example handyman insurance quotes, real prices

zurich insurance

£10.91 /month

£89.10 /year

A handyman who works on local residential properties

  • 5+ years’ experience
  • Sole trader
  • No employees
  • Based in Slough

Public liability insurance

£1,000,000

Employers’ liability insurance

Not included

Tools insurance

Not included

chiswell insurance

£28.42 /month

£252.62 /year

An experienced handyman limited company that hires bona fide subcontractors

  • 5+ years’ experience
  • Limited company
  • 2 bona fide subcontractors
  • Based in Luton

Public liability insurance

£1,000,000

Employers’ liability insurance

£10,000,000

Tools insurance

£5,000

How we work out example quotes These examples are real quotes from our online system (created 30/03/2022). They’re based on a range of factors, like employees and location. Your own quote will be based on what you tell us about your business. Prices may go up or down from day to day, so the prices you’re quoted may differ to the ones you see here.

What kind of excess should I expect?

An excess is an amount you pay towards any claim you make on your insurance. For example, if your excess is £250 and you make a claim worth £1000, your payout will be a maximum of £750.

Insurance cover

Lowest excess

Highest excess

Public liability

£100

£2500

Employers’ liability

No excess

No excess

Tools

£60

£500

Business and office equipment

£50

£750

The figures above are for guidance only and any excess applying to your quote may differ. You’ll get a breakdown of the excesses for each quote when you compare with us.

How it works

Pick what goes into your policy

Only pay for what you need

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Choose the best fit for you

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Start your quote

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How do I choose insurance?

Making sure you have the right type and level of business insurance can be the difference between getting a claim paid and having to cover the cost of an expensive accident yourself. Read our tips for guidance on what to consider when buying a policy.

  • Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

  • Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

  • Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

  • Does handyman insurance cover my work correctly?

  • Do I need cover for other types of work?

  • Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Talk to an expert

Our team of UK-based insurance experts are here to help, Mon 09.00am – 05.30pm, Tues 09.00am – 05.30pm, Weds 09.00am – 05.30pm, Thurs 09.30am – 05.30pm, Fri 09.00am – 05.30pm, Sat 09.00am – 02.00pm

Call our team

0333 043 8527

Online

Contact us on our website whenever suits you

Phone

Call our insurance experts during office hours (calls are charged at a local rate)

FAQs

Find answers to common insurance questions

How do claims work?

Unlike price comparison websites, we take the hassle out of claims for you. We know how important it is to get your business back on track quickly – and with a minimum of fuss. That’s why you get access to your dedicated claims any time, day or night. Call them on 0333 207 0560 or claim online. They’ll do their best to be fair and supportive.

£51 million in claims paid out in 2023

83% of claims were settled in 2023

The figure above is rounded across our range of products. “Settled” covers paid, declined or withdrawn. Our claims process may vary for different products and operates on a ‘claim by claim’ basis. Our specialist partner Sedgwick will pay the claims on behalf of the insurer. Reviewed on 24/04/2024.

Example claim

Having handyman insurance through Simply Business has saved maintenance and odd jobs experts thousands of pounds when the unexpected happened.

Theo saved more than £16,500

Theo (not his real name) was working on a customer’s bathroom – removing the suite, replacing the floor, and decorating. He tried to turn off the water at the mains but failed to do so fully as he didn’t realise the supply to the area had been shut off by the water board. The bathroom then flooded as a result. Luckily, he could turn to his handyman insurance to cover the cost of putting things right.

Insurance payout

£16,601.84

Covering the cost of water damage

Insurance payout

Covering the cost of water damage

Covering the cost of water damage

Chosen by nearly 1 million small businesses and landlords

We started out as a team of five back in 2005. We’ve grown since then, with nearly 1 million customers across 1,500 trades now trusting us to provide their business insurance.

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Handyman insurance FAQs

Whether you’re new to buying business insurance or you’ve been trading for a while, here are the answers to some commonly asked questions about handyman insurance. You can also check out our business insurance FAQs.

It’s a good idea to start with an assessment of the risks your business might face.

If you have people working for you, you’re legally required to have employers’ liability cover.

If you’re in contact with members of the public in your work, public liability insurance is an important one to consider too.

If you use any specialist equipment for carrying out odd jobs and property maintenance, you might want to think about getting tool cover. This is a key type of insurance for most self-employed handypeople.

Other covers for handymen and handywomen to consider include:

If you have people working for you, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

You may not be legally obliged to have any extra insurance on top of that, but there are some additional covers worth considering if you want to protect other elements of your business.

Yes. It’s important to make sure you have the right type and level of insurance for the different types of work you do. For example, if you’re a plumber, you may also do building work on certain jobs – you’ll need additional cover for this, but you can have it all on the one policy. When you start your quote, you’ll have the option to add another trade or profession to your policy. If you need to add a third trade, give us a call on 0333 0146 683 and one of our insurance experts will help you set up your policy in minutes.

Yes. You may start offering additional services that require you to use different skills or carry out different tasks. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s important to give us a call on 0333 0146 683 to update your policy before you take on this new work. If you don’t have the correct type of cover in place for the work you do, you may be unable to claim on your policy if something goes wrong.

Each insurer looks at CCJs and IVAs differently – some apply stricter rules than others, but having a CCJ or IVA doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t be able to buy insurance.

You can choose the payment type that suits your business and cash flow best. Some customers prefer to pay in one go, while others prefer to pay a regular monthly amount, like you do with lots of other bills. Simply Business offer three ways to pay for your policy:

  • one-off credit or debit card payment
  • BACS payment
  • Direct Debit If you choose to pay by Direct Debit, our credit provider, Premium Credit, pays Simply Business the full amount for your policy up front. You then repay Premium Credit in 10 monthly installments.

If you change your business legal structure from sole trader to limited company mid-way through your policy, give us a call straight away on 0333 0146 683. It’ll only take us a few minutes to cancel your existing policy and replace it with one that correctly covers your new legal structure. It’s worth bearing in mind that your insurer and premium amount may need to change.

This will depend on whether you have employers’ liability insurance in place. Public liability insurance is designed to protect your business against the consequences of legal action brought by members of the public for injuries or damage to their belongings. But when it comes to your employees causing injury or damage, this protection only activates if you also have employers’ liability insurance.

If you employ people, you’re required by law to have employers’ liability insurance.

There’s one exception here. Family businesses that aren’t incorporated as a limited company are not legally required to have employers’ liability insurance. The government defines a “family business” as one where all your employees are closely related to you (as a spouse, civil partner, sibling, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, step-parent, stepchild or half-sibling). So if you run an unincorporated family business and you choose not to get employers’ liability insurance, it’s important to know that your public liability insurance wouldn’t cover you against damage or injury caused by your team.

We create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always check policy documentation for details and seek professional advice. Read our full Terms and Conditions

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