Clive Holland: Legally, how can we best protect ourselves against this sort of crime and vandalism on-site?

Clare Reed: Legally, the two things to look at are contract and insurance.

I appreciate these are the boring parts of what we have to look at, but they are very important. You need to make sure that you’ve checked your contract and you have adequate coverage in place should the worse happen.

What is important though is to talk about [it] with your employer or the owner, before you even take your tools on-to-site. 

I recommend undertaking a risk assessment and depending on what that shows - for example if there is sufficient site lighting, if the locking is good, if there is security on-site, security warnings, those sorts of things - then you’re going to feel more comfortable leaving your tools onsite. 

That will help with insurance related matters further down the road should the worse happen.

In addition, in the contract ask the owner and employer for something like an indemnity clause. If they are satisfied with the risk assessment, why wouldn’t they enter into an indemnity, which will basically give you some added protection in relation to your contract, so they will cover any tools that are stolen onsite during the time [you] are doing the work.

Clive Holland: In terms of being protected by insurance, what does a tradesperson need to do to get their claim over the finish line? It is down to having proof ownership, equipment serial numbers, keeping receipts…

Reed: Yes - definitely. Make sure your tools are marked so you can identify them should you need to. You can also say to your insurner that you have tools that are marked [and] you've kept a record of your serial numbers.

More importantly make sure that you have read the details of your policy wording to ensure that once you have the insurance in place, you’re happy with it and then at least you feel more protected. 

There are different types of insurance; you can get specific tradesmen cover, [or] you can get add-ons to public liability type insurance that will cover tool theft. That is quite common insurance for most builders. It is worth checking [the] policy and checking with your broker or insurer and making sure that tool theft is included in that cover, so you don’t necessarily need to spend more money on insurance. 

It is having those conversations up-front and making sure that the broker understands that way you operate. If you are onsite a lot, if you leave your tools in your van overnight, then make sure those discussions have been had with the broker and your insurers so that when they do provide you with the cover it is there. 

Then you can actually bring a claim or a complaint against them if they don’t provide the cover that you said they would provide to you. [This is] where someone like me can step-in, because obviously there is a breach of contract type of claim then.

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