At Be Covered Insurance, we often face the question of whether or not working under a Tier 1 builder provides adequate coverage for employees. In short, no. Depending on the Tier One’s policy, a small portion of coverage for you may be built into their policy. However, relying on your Tier One’s policy for cover is not recommended.
Relying on someone else’s policy, whether a Tier One builder, another builder, or principals, is never a good idea. For starters, you don’t know what conditions apply to their policy, and at the end of the day – that party has built the policy specifically to fit their needs, not yours.
Other issues can also occur with high excesses or deductibles, as many Tier One builders can afford to carry high excesses of $50,000 or $100,000+ in the event of a loss. Still, many local builders cannot afford to pay these large excesses in case of a claim.
The best course of action is always to take out your own policy and to discuss with your construction insurance broker if a Tier One builder or another party already has limited cover for you under their policy. Your broker should be able to then work with your insurer to develop an insurance program with this in mind and to manage the costs for the risks you are already covered for and provide ‘difference in excess’ or ‘difference in conditions’ cover to help fill in any shortfalls between your policy and the other party’s you are partially covered under.
Contractual Requirements – can a broker help with this?
Yes! At Be Covered, we specialise in working with our clients to ensure your insurance reflects your contractual requirements. Time and time again, we review insurance programs whereby our clients are either uninsured for risks they are responsible for under contract or over insured for risks via a contract. They are almost completely removed from any exposure.
This is where a building insurance broker comes in handy; they understand the industry’s requirements and work within this space daily, not occasionally. Our diverse range of insurances, such as professional indemnity design construct insurance, contract works insurance, and liability insurance can help to ensure you are suitably covered for your contractual requirements.
At Be Covered Insurance Brokers, we don’t try to be everything to everyone. We are proud to be an Adelaide-based insurance brokerage specialising in insurance for the building and construction sector. Please feel free to contact us for all your building insurance needs; we will be more than happy to help!
