Hard-to-place electricians insurance: solar, EV chargers and EICR work
Why some electricians get declined online
Quote-and-buy sites were built around a simple version of the trade: domestic wiring, at low level, on AC systems, in someone’s house. Answer honestly that you install solar arrays on roofs, fit battery storage in garages, sign EICRs for letting agents or work on factory floors, and you’ve left the script. The system either declines, or quotes a number designed to make you go away.
The frustrating part is that the work being declined is often the best work — the growing, better-paid end of the trade. That’s not a reason to shrink your business back to what a form can process. It’s a reason to have the risk looked at by a person.
What actually makes electrical work hard to place
1. Solar PV and battery storage
Solar installation stacks several exposures at once: working at height on pitched roofs, DC systems that behave differently from the AC wiring most question sets assume, penetrations through the roof covering, and fire-risk questions around battery storage and inverters. The technology has grown faster than the online forms rating it. Underwriters who deal with renewables contractors ask sensible questions — what you install, who trained you, how much of your turnover it is — and rate the answers on their merits.
2. EV charger installation
EV charging points sit in the same category: newer technology, higher-power domestic supplies, and commercial installations in car parks and fleet depots. Many online products simply haven’t caught up, so declaring the work triggers a referral or a decline. Described properly, it’s a placeable risk.
3. EICR and inspection work — the PI-shaped gap
This is the one most electricians haven’t been told about. When you sign an EICR, you are giving a professional opinion in writing, and other people — landlords, agents, buyers — rely on it. If that opinion is alleged to be wrong, the claim is about your advice, not about injury or damage you caused. Public liability is not designed to respond to that; it’s a professional indemnity–shaped exposure, and a lot of electricians doing regular inspection and testing carry no cover for it at all. Tell your broker how much of this work you do — PI can usually be arranged alongside the rest of the programme.
4. Commercial, industrial and the hot end of the work
Work on commercial and industrial premises brings higher contract values, other trades around you, landlord and principal-contractor requirements, and sometimes work adjacent to hot processes or genuinely hot works of your own. Each is a question online forms handle badly. An underwriter just wants the picture: what premises, what kind of work, what proportion of turnover.
5. New ventures and claims
A past claim — sometimes just a notified incident — can trigger an automatic online decline, and many quote-and-buy insurers refuse new ventures outright. Underwriters take a more grown-up view: what happened, what changed, and how many years you’ve spent on the tools before setting up on your own.
Registration counts in your favour — but it isn’t cover
NICEIC, NAPIT and similar registrations are real evidence of competence, and a broker uses them exactly that way — part of the written case that goes in front of an underwriter, alongside your training on the specific systems you install. What registration is not is a guarantee that any insurer must accept you. Plenty of registered electricians get declined online every day, because the form isn’t judging competence — it’s matching answers against rules.
Why the broker route works differently
A broker doesn’t feed your details into the same machine and hope. We present the whole risk in writing to human underwriters — including insurers and specialist schemes that don’t sell through comparison sites at all: the split of your work, the renewables side, the testing side, your registrations, your people, and what changed after any claim. We can’t promise acceptance — nobody honestly can — but for most electrical contractors we can usually find a market, and we’ll tell you quickly if we can’t.
The cover an electrical contractor usually needs
Most programmes are built from the same blocks: public liability for injury or damage to others; employers’ liability, a legal requirement if you employ anyone — including labour-only subcontractors; contract works cover where you’re installing systems of real value; cover for tools, test equipment and vans; and professional indemnity where inspection, testing or design is part of the work. The right shape depends on the split of your business.
What to have ready when you call
The call goes quicker if you know roughly: turnover and wage bill, the domestic/commercial/industrial split, how much of your work is solar, battery or EV charging, how much is inspection and testing, your registrations, who works for you (employees, labour-only and bona fide subbies), claims in the last five years, and when your current cover runs out — or when the job starts, if you’re uninsured right now. Then call 0117 325 0027. If it’s urgent, say so; we deal with time-pressed placements all the time, though we’ll never promise cover by a set date until an insurer confirms it.
Frequently asked questions
Why was I declined online when domestic electricians are supposed to be easy to insure?
Straightforward domestic electrical work is easy to insure online — that’s exactly the trade the forms were built for. The declines start when your answers include solar PV, battery storage, EV chargers, inspection and testing, or commercial and industrial premises. Each of those sits outside the standard question set, and automated systems decline rather than ask follow-up questions. No person has looked at your business.
Does EICR and inspection work really need separate cover?
It creates a different kind of exposure. When you sign an EICR or a condition report, you’re giving a professional opinion in writing that others rely on — landlords, letting agents, buyers. If that opinion is alleged to be wrong, the claim is about your advice, not about injury or damage you caused, and a standard public liability policy is not designed to pick it up. That’s a professional indemnity–shaped exposure, and many electricians doing regular EICR work don’t carry cover for it. Tell your broker how much of this work you do.
I’m NICEIC registered. Doesn’t that mean I can get cover anywhere?
Registration with NICEIC, NAPIT or a similar scheme is good evidence of competence, and it genuinely helps how a risk is presented — but it isn’t a guarantee that any particular insurer will accept the work you do. An online form can still decline a registered electrician the moment solar, battery or commercial work appears in the answers. A broker uses your registration as part of the case for the risk, alongside the detail of the work itself.
What makes solar and battery work harder to insure?
Several things stack up: working at height on roofs, DC electrical systems that behave differently from the AC work most question sets assume, fire-risk questions around battery storage, and the fact that the technology is newer than the forms rating it. None of that makes the work uninsurable — plenty of firms do it every day — but it does mean the risk needs to be described properly to an underwriter rather than pushed through a tick-box.
What information do I need before I call?
Rough turnover and wage bill, the split of your work — domestic, commercial, industrial — how much involves solar, battery storage or EV chargers, how much is inspection and testing, your registrations (NICEIC, NAPIT or similar), who works for you including labour-only subcontractors, claims in the last five years, and when your current cover runs out. Don’t worry if you don’t have it all; we’ll work through it on the phone.
Do you promise to get me covered?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What we can honestly say is that we know which underwriters will look at electrical contractors with solar, EV, testing and commercial work in the mix, and we can usually find a market. If we genuinely can’t, we’ll tell you straight and tell you why.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This page is general information, not advice on a specific policy.