Handyman insurance
Painting, tiling and dry lining put you inside somebody else's home most working days. Our insurance handles injury and damage to other people's property.
Cover for painting, wallpapering, dry lining, tiling and small repair work, in homes or on site.
Public Liability from €21.84 per month, with €2.5 million of cover per claim.
Get it online in minutes, no long-term commitment, cancel any day.
Business insurance, done differently.
Fully online business insurance in Ireland.
A few questions and you're covered.
No lock-in, no long contracts.
Excess from €0, up to €6.5 million of cover.
Why take out business insurance as a handyman?
A handyman's risk is breadth. New job, new house, new set of things that belong to somebody else. Here is why dedicated handyman insurance matters:
You work inside occupied homes: Furniture, carpets, finishes and pipework you cannot see behind a wall. Damage to property in your care, custody or control is covered as standard with our insurance.
A small job can still injure someone: A ladder left on a landing, a dust sheet across a hall, a shelf that comes away from the plaster weeks later.
Putting the work right costs money: If tiling has to be lifted or a wall stripped back and done again, the cost of additional work can be covered up to €25,000 per claim on your own, or €50,000 with staff.
What is Public Liability insurance?
If a third party, like a client or a member of the public, holds you responsible for an injury or for damage to their property, Public Liability takes care of your defence costs and any compensation due.
What does it cover?
Injury or property damage caused to others in the course of your handyman work. Your cover limit is €2.5 million per claim and €5 million per insurance year. Damage to property in your care, custody or control is included, up to €25,000 per claim on your own or €50,000 if you employ anyone.
What can you add?
Employers' Liability, €13 million per claim, if you employ anyone.
Cost of additional work, up to €25,000 per claim on your own or €50,000 with staff, for putting faulty work right.
Cover that fits your trade
You describe your work fully at sign-up, and your cover matches what you actually do: painting, wallpapering, dry lining, tiling and the other light technical work you carry out around a building.
Is it mandatory?
Public Liability is not required by law in Ireland. In practice, letting agents, property managers, main contractors and local authorities ask for proof of cover before they hand over a key or let you on site. Cover starts from €21.84 per month.
What does our insurance cover for handymen?
Cover for handymen is built around Public Liability on the construction rating, with optional covers you can add to match your situation.
Public Liability: Protects you if a client or another third party suffers an injury, or their property is damaged, in the course of your handyman work. It takes care of your defence costs and any compensation due. Your cover limit is €2.5 million per claim and €5 million per insurance year.
Third-party objects and sites: Included as standard on this trade. Covers damage to property belonging to others that is in your care, custody or control, such as the kitchen you are tiling or the hallway you are painting, up to €25,000 per claim on your own or €50,000 if you employ anyone.
Employers' Liability (optional): If you employ staff, this covers your liability as an employer, with a limit of €13 million per claim.
Cost of additional work (optional): Covers the necessary and reasonable cost of putting faulty work right, up to €25,000 per claim on your own or €50,000 with staff, after a €500 excess.
Work we cannot insure: load-bearing walls and structures
There is one kind of handyman work we cannot cover at all. If your company builds, alters or removes load-bearing walls or structures, we cannot insure you. That means work affecting the load-bearing elements of a structure, so anything that creates or changes the structural integrity of a building or part of it. Taking out a supporting wall, cutting a new opening in one, or removing or replacing a structural beam are all inside it.
What's covered
Performing light technical work around the building (such as painting, wallpapering, dry wall construction, tiling, etc.)
Trade in related construction goods and materials
Use of land, buildings or premises for the insured activity
Optional: Employers' Liability if you employ anyone
Optional: cost of additional work, for putting faulty work right
Project management
Pouring of concrete and cement floors
Work on chimneys, fireplaces or furnaces (such as tile stoves)
Work on pools, pool systems, pool lips, saunas or jacuzzis
Trimming or felling of trees with a hight of more than three (3) meters
Work on playgrounds
Paint-spraying work outside of a building
Cleaning or impregnation of façades (such as sandblasting)
Asphalting (such as asphalting of streets or roads)
Cover and exclusions shown are indicative and non-contractual. Only the terms of your policy apply.
Claim examples for handymen
You are dry lining a box room in Waterford and drive a screw through a concealed water pipe. The damage to the house is covered.
A shelf unit you refitted in a Donegal guesthouse pulls out of the wall a fortnight later and lands on a guest's shoulder. Public Liability takes care of your defence costs and the compensation due.
Kitchen tiles you laid lift within weeks because the adhesive was wrong for the underfloor heating. The optional cost of additional work cover pays to lift and re-lay the floor.
You are dry lining a box room in Waterford and drive a screw through a concealed water pipe. The damage to the house is covered.
A shelf unit you refitted in a Donegal guesthouse pulls out of the wall a fortnight later and lands on a guest's shoulder. Public Liability takes care of your defence costs and the compensation due.
Kitchen tiles you laid lift within weeks because the adhesive was wrong for the underfloor heating. The optional cost of additional work cover pays to lift and re-lay the floor.
Examples are for illustrative purposes only. Compensation depends on the exact circumstances of the claim. No rights can be derived from these examples.
Your business insurance with Insify SmartGuide
Taking out insurance can be quick. Making sure you have the right cover is another matter. With Insify SmartGuide, you don't sign a contract blindly. You ask all your questions, and get clear, immediate and personalised answers, before you take out a policy.
Are you covered if you accidentally damage a client's equipment while working?
What excess should you choose?
Are you protected in the event of a dispute with a client?
Insify SmartGuide guides you step by step to understand what's covered, what isn't, and why. In just a few clicks, you build insurance that's truly tailored to your business, with complete confidence. Try Insify SmartGuide. Understand your insurance before you need it.
How to choose the right insurance as a handyman?
Criteria to compare:
The cover offered: Check that the policy follows the spread of what you actually do; damage to the room you are standing in, injury caused by a job you finished weeks ago, and the cost of lifting and redoing work. Make sure each one is covered.
The price: Compare premiums, but a low premium can hide exclusions that bite on the odd jobs handymen get asked to do most.
The excess: Know what stays at your own expense when a claim happens.
The exclusions: Read them against your own diary, because chimneys, pools, saunas, tree work, playgrounds, façade cleaning and outdoor spraying are all outside the cover, and so is work you have not declared.
The service: Check how you get answers before you buy, not after a claim. An insurer that understands this trade will ask which jobs you actually take on, not just what you call yourself.
Mistakes to avoid: Do not settle for a generic policy that ignores how many different jobs a handyman does in a week. To secure your business today, discover our Public Liability insurance.
More than 40,000 entrepreneurs trust us
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Answers to your questions about our insurance for handymen
The price depends on your turnover, the work you do, your headcount and the excess you choose. At Insify, Public Liability for a handyman starts from €21.84 per month. Handyman work is rated on our construction basis, which is why it starts higher than trades that spend less of the week inside other people's property. A personalised quote takes a few minutes online, and you can adjust the excess to see how it moves your premium.
Public Liability is not required by law in Ireland. In practice you will be asked for it constantly. Letting agents and property managers want a certificate before they hand over keys, main contractors will not let you on a site without one, and local authorities and public tenders set their own minimum limits. Having cover in place also means you are not personally exposed if a client claims against you after an injury.
Nine kinds of work are excluded, and several of them are jobs people will ask a handyman to do anyway. The headlines are project management, concrete and cement floors, chimneys and fireplaces, pools and saunas, tree work above three metres, playgrounds, paint-spraying outdoors, façade cleaning and asphalting. The full wording of all nine sits in the exclusions list on this page. Read it against your own diary before you buy, because a claim arising from excluded work is not covered, and neither is work you never declared. One kind of work is not excluded but refused outright: we cannot insure a company that builds, alters or removes load-bearing walls or structures.
One kind of work is refused outright. If your company builds, alters or removes load-bearing walls or structures, we cannot insure you, and declaring it does not change that. Do not buy on the understanding that the work is simply left uncovered. Nothing else on the list is refused. Fire-hazardous work, such as welding, grinding, flame soldering, paint stripping and bitumen burning, affects your premium, as does your experience if you have been trading for under 36 months. Several answers send your application to an underwriter for a manual look before we can quote, which is neither a refusal nor an automatic yes: roofing work above €2.5 million of revenue, more than half your revenue coming from subcontractors above €500,000 of revenue, more than half your revenue coming from outside the European Union, an insurance refusal or cancellation in the last five years, and a criminal matter in the last eight. You also confirm that you know of no claims or circumstances that could lead to one, and that your work stays inside the territories listed in the exclusions on this page.
Not as standard. Public Liability covers injury and damage to other people and their property, not the cost of redoing your own work. The optional cost of additional work cover pays the necessary and reasonable cost of putting faulty work right, up to €25,000 per claim if you work on your own or €50,000 if you employ anyone, after a €500 excess. If tiling you laid fails and water gets into the floor below, the damage downstairs is Construction Liability and the re-tiling is the optional cover.
Yes, and on this trade it is included rather than optional. Damage to property belonging to others that is in your care, custody or control is covered up to €25,000 per claim if you work on your own, or €50,000 if you employ anyone, and up to twice that per insurance year. That is the cover that responds when a screw goes through a concealed pipe or paint goes over a client's carpet. Damage to your own tools and van is not covered.
Handyman work is rated on our construction basis, and that comes with a single cover limit of €2.5 million per claim and €5 million per insurance year. Trades on our general rating can choose between €1.25 million, €2.5 million and €6.5 million, but that choice is not available here. If a contract or a tender asks you for more than €2.5 million, tell us before you buy so we can check whether we can cover the work.
The excess is the part of a claim you pay yourself. If a claim settles at €3,000 and your excess is €500, you pay €500 and Insify pays €2,500. The options are €0, €250, €500, €1,000 and €2,500, with €0 and €250 available up to €500,000 annual revenue; above that the minimum is €500. A higher excess usually lowers your premium but means more out of pocket when a claim happens. The optional cost of additional work cover carries its own €500 excess.
Yes. Employers' Liability is a separate optional cover with a limit of €13 million per claim, and it is not part of your policy unless you add it. Employers' Liability is not compulsory in Ireland, unlike the United Kingdom, but you are still liable as an employer. Your headcount also changes your third-party property limits, which move from €25,000 to €50,000 per claim once you employ anyone.