What does my policy cover?
The policy includes the mandatory professional liability cover, operational liability coverage (Civil liability operation)), and legal assistance guarantee. The professional liability guarantee in Van Dessel's policy fully complies with the Ducarme law (Law Peeters-Ducarme: mandatory professional liability insurance for intellectual professions in construction).
The professional liability insurance covers both contractual and extra-contractual liability resulting from an intellectual error.
The professional liability insurance covers extra-contractual damages occurring during the exercise of your activities . For example, if you cause damage to the flooring while performing the asbestos inspection by dropping something.
Can I include more activities under a single insurance policy?
When taking out the insurance, we always ask you to declare all activities carried out under your self-employed business. This way, we can offer a tailored policy that also insures any additional activities. You can insure other activities under the same policy, such as:
- Preparing EPC certificates, preparing asbestos certificates within the framework of the Codex on Well
- Being at Work, conducting site descriptions and real estate valuations, safety coordinator, electrical inspections.
What is not covered by my policy?
Examples of exclusions include fraud or intentional acts.
Bodily injury to third parties resulting from the harmful properties of asbestos is also not covered. This exclusion is less significant since the injured party must always be able to prove a causal link between the damage (illness) and the ADI’s error.
Furthermore, for example, the cost of removal is also not covered. This cost would always have been incurred, even if the ADI had not made a mistake in the certificate. So, this is not considered damage.
What if I missed an item?
If you missed an item or have not included it in the certificate, this can be seen as an intellectual error and we will activate the insurance policy.
If an item was deliberately ignored, there is no insurer's involvement. However, the insurer must be able to prove intent in order to refuse coverage.
Every claim case has a financial impact, such as paying the deductible. Van Dessel is a strong advocate of the mandatory training. Prevention and possibly using a checklist can greatly reduce the risk of a claim.
Am I automatically insured for supplementary or destructive research?
No, by default we only insure non-destructive research; you must always report supplementary/destructive research activities. The insurer will charge an additional premium for this extra activity. As a broker, we also want to point out that you should carefully consider whether you want to carry out supplementary or destructive research, as these activities involve significantly higher risks. OVAM also requires experience for supplementary research.
What type of building am I allowed to inspect?
All types of buildings are covered under the guarantee.
Only in Flanders, or also Brussels and Wallonia?
Whether the building is located in Flanders, Brussels, or Wallonia, all are covered by the insurance.
How long am I liable as an ADI?
For this, we refer you to OVAM’s newsletter 10, dated 22/02/2024 Asbestos - NB 10 - Feb 24 (flxml.eu)). This stated the following:
The Peeters-Ducarme law states that liability is covered for a period of three years after the termination of the service. In practice, this coverage is insufficient because the limitation period for:
- breaches of environmental legislation (errors in preparing the asbestos certificate) is up to five or twenty years;
- civil contractual liability is up to ten years;
- civil non-contractual liability is up to five years after the injured party became aware of the damage and the identity of the liable party, with an absolute limitation period of twenty years.
Recently, it was decided that asbestos-free certificates have unlimited validity. Some insurances do not provide coverage for asbestos-free certificates. The policy at Van Dessel does. Therefore, if it turns out that asbestos is still present in the property (certificate was drawn up incorrectly) and the ADI is liable, the ADI can count on intervention from the insurer, taking the applicable insured terms into account.
The current situation clearly shows that the legislation is insufficient to adequately cover the liability of an ADI.
What if I cease my activity?
If you only stop the activity as an ADI but keep the policy for your other activities, there is no issue in terms of insurance. Even if the ADI activity is removed from the policy, you will still be covered for incorrectly issued asbestos certificates.
If you terminate your entire self-employed activity and your business number is deregistered, we must look at the run-off period covered by the policy.
In the Van Dessel policy, the run-off period, which is standard 36 months, can be extended. Contractually, in fact, upon cessation of activity, an annual premium is always due to extend the legal run-off (Ducarme law) by 36 months. This means that contractually a total of 72 months run-off is already provided, on the condition that one annual premium is paid when ending the insurance policy.
NEW! We now also offer the possibility to extend the run-off period to a total of 10 years, provided that after ending the insurance policy a premium is paid equivalent to 1.5 x the last annual premium.
If the contract is terminated due to non-payment of the premium, no run-off cover applies either.
Why should I choose Van Dessel?
- Expert and specialized advice
- Choice of low deductibles
- Most comprehensive insurance coverage on the market with high insured amounts
- Individual policy fully customized to all your self-employed activities, with the possibility of adding multiple ADIs
