Quotezone.co.uk Tradesman Insurance

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A tradesman rarely buys one policy. There is the liability limit a main contractor writes into the contract, the cover that becomes compulsory the day a labourer starts on site, and the kit in the back of the van that earns the money to pay for both. Quotezone puts that shape behind a single questionnaire, sends it out to the commercial brokers and insurers on its panel, and returns their prices free to the person filling it in.

The site belongs to Seopa Ltd, founded in Belfast in 2003 by engineer Greg Wilson and still run from Blackstaff Studios on Amelia Street. Quotezone.co.uk launched in 2005; the platform now carries 9 million quotes a year across 60+ insurance and finance products, held up by 300+ provider relationships. The tradesman pages themselves display more than 30 commercial insurer and broker marks, Arthur J Gallagher, Coversure, Premierline, One Call, Broadsure, Nova and Fairweather among them.

Panel width counts for more on trade cover than it does on a car policy, because underwriting appetite splits hard by occupation: the insurer that wants a painter and decorator often will not look at a scaffolder at any price. Quotezone quotes plasterers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, scaffolders, painters and general contractors, and describes public liability limits running “from £1 million up to £5 million, although some policies will cover you up to as much as £10 million”.

Four covers behind one questionnaire

The tradesman form gathers trade, turnover, staff numbers and work type once, then splits the answers across products that are legally and practically distinct. Public liability answers for injury to a member of the public or damage to their property caused by your work — the drilled pipe, the dropped scaffold board, the customer who trips over a cable run. Employers' liability answers for injury to the people who work for you. They are different obligations with different triggers, and buying one does nothing for the other.

Alongside those, the tradesman pages quote tools and equipment cover, legal expenses, and business buildings and contents for anyone with a yard, workshop or lock-up. A limit of £1 million is the entry point across most of the panel, £2 million and £5 million the common steps above it, and £10 million available on schemes built for larger sites. The number is worth checking against your paperwork before you shop: main contractors, housing associations and local authority frameworks routinely set the limit they will accept, and a quote £40 cheaper at £1m is worthless if the job needs £5m.

What sits behind each result varies. Some marks on the page are insurers writing their own risk; others, Gallagher and Coversure among them, are brokers who will place the risk with an insurer of their choosing. That mix is normal in commercial lines and generally works in a tradesman's favour, because a broker can put an awkward occupation in front of an underwriter who would never appear on a price comparison table. It also means the return time varies: an instant online price and a broker who rings back are both possible outcomes of the same form.

The day a first employee makes cover compulsory

Employers' liability is where the law stops advising and starts requiring. Under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, the Health and Safety Executive's guidance is blunt about the level: “You must be insured for at least £5 million”, though in practice most insurers issue £10 million as standard. Trade without it and you can be fined up to £2,500 for each day you are uninsured. Fail to display the certificate or refuse it to an HSE inspector and that is a further £1,000.

Two details catch out small firms. Since 1 October 2008 there has been no legal duty to keep expired certificates, but the HSE still advises holding them, because industrial disease claims surface decades after exposure and the certificate is what identifies which insurer answers for the year in question. And the exemptions are narrower than the trade talk suggests: a family business where every employee is a close relative is outside the Act, as is a limited company whose only employee owns 50% or more of the share capital, but take on one apprentice from outside the family and the duty starts that morning.

The risk is not theoretical in the building trades. In its latest annual figures the HSE records 126 workers killed in work-related accidents, 59,219 employee injuries reported under RIDDOR, 680,000 people reporting an injury at work in the Labour Force Survey, and 40.1 million working days lost to injury and work-related illness. It puts the annual cost of injury and ill health from current working conditions at £22.9 billion for 2023/24. Construction contributes disproportionately to all of it.

Reading a tools add-on before you need to claim on it

Tools cover is the cheapest line on a tradesman quote and the one most likely to disappoint, because the price is set by conditions the comparison stage never shows you. Take the published terms of one specialist tradesman insurer, Rhino Trade Insurance, as a worked example of the shape: cover from £4.74 a month, or £56.86 for the year, with limits from £500 up to £7,500 and an excess of £100 on each and every claim. Whether that particular scheme appears on the Quotezone panel needs confirming, but the structure is the market's.

The conditions are where the money goes. Overnight cover in a vehicle runs between 10pm and 6am and depends on where the van is parked — a locked garage, your own driveway, or a street in clear view of where you are sleeping. Theft with no sign of forced entry is out. Tools on display in an unlocked vehicle are out. Kit stored anywhere other than the vehicle can be out entirely. Settlement is reduced by 10% depreciation for every year of a tool's age up to a ceiling of 50%, so a five-year-old SDS drill pays out at half its replacement price, and receipts matter because proof of purchase is a condition rather than a courtesy.

One structural point that changes how you shop: on several schemes tools cover is only sold to customers who hold the same insurer's public liability policy. Buying the cheapest liability from one result and the cheapest tools cover from another is not always an option, which makes the combined price the number to compare rather than the headline one.

Belfast, the regulator, and the protections a business does and does not get

Seopa Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under reference 313860, registered in Northern Ireland as NI46322, and its terms describe its permitted business as “insurance mediation as well as having permission for credit brokerage”, acting as a “non-investment insurance intermediary” and not as a lender. Nothing you buy is a contract with Seopa. The policy, and the promise to pay a claim, belongs to the insurer named on the certificate.

Payment is disclosed plainly: the company “may receive a commission and/or other remuneration from providers, insurers, intermediaries, or other third parties” when you click through, enquire or buy, and its terms invite you to ask for details of what it earns on your particular transaction. Few buyers ever do, and on commercial risks placed through a broker the remuneration can be a meaningful slice of the premium. Whatever is quoted, the standard Insurance Premium Tax rate of 12% is already inside the figure you see.

The part that actually differs for a trade buyer is what happens when something goes wrong. Complaints about the introduction go to Seopa in Belfast, which works to eight weeks before the Financial Ombudsman Service can take over, and a referral must reach the Ombudsman within six months of the final response letter. But a business is only eligible if it is small enough: annual turnover under £6.5 million, fewer than 50 employees or a balance sheet under £5 million, and the complaint must concern an act or omission on or after 1 April 2019. Most sole traders and small firms clear that comfortably. Ombudsman data also shows commercial cases are decided against the firm more often than average: 39% of commercial property complaints and 44% of commercial vehicle complaints were upheld in 2025/26, against 30% across all financial products.

Where the comparison hands the work back to you

No price appears anywhere on the tradesman pages before you complete the form. The site sets out cover levels and legal duties well, then answers the cost question by saying it depends on the trade and the risk profile, which is true and unhelpful in equal measure. There is no indicative premium by trade, no typical excess, and no published list of who is actually on the panel — the 30+ logos are a display, not a roster, and the site quotes panel sizes inconsistently elsewhere.

Professional indemnity is the notable absence from the tradesman line-up. Any trade that specifies, designs or certifies as well as installs — a plumber sizing a heating system, an electrician signing off an installation certificate — carries a professional risk that public liability does not touch. Quotezone sells professional indemnity elsewhere on the site, but it is not part of the tradesman journey, so a buyer who does not already know the distinction will not be prompted to make it.

Support is email only. The company states it does not currently provide a telephone service and aims to reply within two working days, with office hours of 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. For a trade waiting on a certificate before starting on site, two days is a long time, and the company is clear that any question about the policy itself belongs to the insurer rather than to Quotezone. Your details may also be passed to the providers you are matched with, so expect broker follow-up by phone and email once the form is submitted.

Figures were taken from each provider's own published terms on 19 August 2026. Variable rates can change at any time — confirm the current rate with the provider before applying.