Electricians Insurance
Electrical work has a claims profile unlike any other trade. Most jobs are small, most go perfectly, and the small number that fail can burn a building down months later. A loose connection in a consumer unit generates heat slowly, and the fire happens long after the invoice was paid, which means an electrician's liability persists well beyond the job in a way a plasterer's does not.
The second distinctive feature is certification. An electrician issuing an installation certificate or a condition report is making a formal statement that others rely on: landlords for compliance, purchasers for a survey, letting agents for a licence. A report that misses a defect is a professional failure rather than a workmanship one, and public liability does not respond to it.
We arrange cover for electricians and electrical contractors, from sole traders on domestic work to firms on commercial installations, and the questions that matter most are what proportion of your work is testing and reporting, and whether you ever work on live installations.
What actually goes wrong
The exposures that produce claims in this trade, rather than a generic list.
Fire following faulty workmanship
The largest exposure in the trade. Loose terminations, undersized cable, incorrect protective devices and poor connections in consumer units all generate heat over time. The resulting fire can occur months or years after the work, and the claim covers the building, its contents and any business interruption, which is why liability limits for electricians are set well above the value of the work.
Certification and condition reports
An electrical installation condition report that misses a dangerous defect, or a certificate issued for work that was not properly tested, creates liability to whoever relied on it. Landlords face enforcement, purchasers face unexpected costs, and both look to the person who signed. This is professional liability, not workmanship.
Working on live installations
Working live is expected to be avoided wherever reasonably practicable, and where it happens it introduces both a severe injury risk and a much higher scrutiny at claim stage. Insurers ask about it specifically because arc flash injuries are catastrophic and defensible only where the justification and controls were documented.
Damage during installation
Chasing walls, lifting floors and drilling through structures damages pipework, cables, membranes and finishes. Drilling into a concealed water pipe is one of the more common ways an electrician causes a large water damage claim.
Tool and van theft
Electricians carry high value portable equipment including test instruments that are expensive and specific. Test equipment left in a van overnight is a frequent loss and a frequently declined one, because of the vehicle conditions attaching to tools cover.
The cover we arrange
Policies are put together around how you work. Employers liability is included as standard wherever you employ anyone.
Public liability
Third party injury and property damage, most importantly fire damage arising from faulty work. £2m is the minimum for domestic work, £5m is expected on commercial sites and £10m on larger contracts, and given the fire exposure the higher limits are worth having.
- Fire damage following faulty work
- Water damage from drilling and chasing
- Injury from electric shock
- Limits typically £2m, £5m or £10m
Employers liability
Legally required and included as standard at £10m. Apprentices are common in this trade and count as employees, as do labour only electricians working under your direction.
- Legally required, £10m as standard
- Apprentices and trainees
- Labour only subcontractors
- Electrical injury and burns
Professional indemnity
Responds to claims about certificates, condition reports, design and specification. Any electrician issuing EICRs for landlords or letting agents is carrying professional exposure that public liability does not touch.
- Installation certificates and EICRs
- Design and specification of installations
- Reports relied on by landlords and buyers
- Claims made basis, run off available
Tools and test equipment
Covers hand tools, power tools and test instruments on site, in transit and in vehicles subject to conditions. Test instruments justify separate scheduling given their value and the difficulty of working without them.
- Hand and power tools
- Multifunction testers and instruments
- Cover in transit and on site
- Vehicle conditions apply overnight
Contract works
Covers the installation in progress and materials on site. Cable and copper are persistent theft targets on live sites, particularly on larger commercial installations.
- Installation work in progress
- Cable, containment and materials on site
- Theft of copper and cable
- Damage before handover
What an underwriter will ask
Having these to hand shortens the process considerably, and usually improves the terms.
- Turnover split between domestic, commercial and industrial work
- What proportion of turnover is testing, inspection and reporting
- Whether you issue EICRs, and for landlords or letting agents
- Your registration scheme and the qualifications held by those signing certificates
- Whether you ever work on live installations, and under what controls
- Whether you carry out design, or work to designs produced by others
- Any specialist work: solar, EV charging points, battery storage, fire alarms, industrial control
- Value of tools and test equipment, and where they are kept overnight
- Five years of claims, particularly fire
What moves the premium
Where the price actually comes from, and which parts of it you can change.
Domestic, commercial or industrial
Industrial and three phase work rates differently from domestic rewires. The split matters, and so does whether you work on sites where a fire would affect a large building or multiple occupiers.
Testing and reporting volume
Substantial EICR and certification work shifts the risk towards professional liability, which changes the products needed rather than simply the price.
Registration and qualifications
Membership of a recognised competent person scheme, and the qualifications of those signing certificates, are taken into account and are among the few things that reliably help.
Specialist installations
Solar, battery storage, EV charging and fire alarm work each carry their own exposures and should be declared separately rather than folded into general electrical work.
Fire claims history
Priced hard, because fire is the severe loss in this trade. A single fire claim with a documented change of practice afterwards is viewed very differently from an unexplained one.
Conditions and exclusions that catch this trade out
Terms vary between insurers, so treat these as the questions to ask rather than a description of any one policy.
The cost of correcting your own work
Rewiring a circuit that was wrong is your cost. The fire it caused is a claim. Customers commonly expect the policy to fund the remedial electrical work itself, and it does not.
Certificates and reports, under public liability
A missed defect on a condition report is a professional failure, not damage caused by your work. Public liability will not respond, and an electrician doing substantial testing and reporting work without professional indemnity is uninsured for a significant part of what they do.
Working live without justification
Some wordings restrict or exclude injury and damage arising from live working where it was not justified and properly controlled. Where live working is part of your business, it needs declaring so it is written in rather than argued about.
Tools in unattended vehicles
Tools cover typically requires the vehicle to be locked and often alarmed, and frequently excludes tools left in a vehicle overnight between stated hours. Test instruments are valuable and portable enough that overnight removal is usually the practical answer.
Work outside your registration
Where notifiable work is carried out without the appropriate registration or notification, insurers may take a view on it at claim stage. Keeping registration current is both a legal and an insurance matter.
Common questions
What insurance do electricians need in the UK?
Public liability at £2m minimum for domestic work and £5m for commercial, which is what responds if faulty work causes a fire. Employers liability at £10m, a legal requirement and included as standard wherever anyone including an apprentice works under your direction. Tools and test equipment cover. And professional indemnity if you issue condition reports, certificates or designs, which most electricians do and most do not insure.
Am I covered if a fire happens years after I did the work?
Public liability responds on an occurrence basis, meaning the policy that pays is the one in force when the damage happened, not when the work was done. So a fire this year caused by a connection you made four years ago goes to this year's policy, provided you have maintained cover continuously. This is why an unbroken run of cover matters for electricians more than for trades whose claims arrive immediately, and why stopping cover on retirement leaves a genuine gap.
Do electricians need professional indemnity insurance?
If you issue electrical installation condition reports, certificates or designs, then yes. When a landlord relies on your EICR and it later turns out a dangerous defect was missed, their loss is enforcement action, remedial costs and possibly a tenant's claim. None of that is damage caused by your work, so public liability does not respond. Professional indemnity is the cover for advice and certification being wrong, and the growth in landlord EICR requirements has made this far more relevant than it once was.
Will my insurance pay to put right faulty electrical work?
No. Insurance covers the damage that faulty work causes, not the cost of correcting the work itself. If a poor connection starts a fire, the building, contents and business interruption are the claim; rewiring the circuit correctly is your own cost. It is a distinction worth explaining to customers early, because the natural assumption is that the policy covers the electrical fault they are complaining about.
Are my test instruments covered if stolen from the van?
Only if the policy conditions were met, and this is where most of these claims fail. Tools sections typically require the vehicle to be locked and frequently alarmed, and many wordings exclude cover for tools left in a vehicle overnight between stated hours, often nine at night to six in the morning. Given that a multifunction tester is both expensive and impossible to work without, removing instruments overnight is usually more practical than relying on the cover.
Does my insurance cover EV charger and solar installations?
It should, but only if declared. Both are electrical work but both carry additional exposures: EV chargers involve external installation and higher continuous loads, and solar involves working at height and direct current systems with their own fire risk. Insurers generally want these listed separately rather than covered by a general electrical description, and a policy written for domestic rewiring may not have contemplated roof work at all.
Talk to somebody who knows the trade
Tell us what you actually do and we will come back to you with cover options built around it.