Joint names insurance

~3 min read

Category: Construction insurance · Reviewed by the Apex broking team · Last reviewed 2026-08-20

In short: Joint names insurance is a single policy issued in the names of two or more parties — in construction, typically the employer and the contractor — so that each is an insured in its own right. Its central effect is that the insurer cannot bring a subrogated claim against a co-insured: if the works burn down through the contractor’s negligence, the joint names insurer pays and cannot then pursue the contractor, because the contractor is its own policyholder.

Category: Construction insurance Also known as: joint insurance, composite insurance, joint names policy Related concepts: net contribution clause, contractors all risks insurance

Definition

A joint names policy insures two or more parties as composite insureds, each with their own interest and their own right to claim. In construction it is the standard mechanism — required by the JCT and other standard form contracts — for insuring the works, and in some options the existing structures, in the names of the employer and the contractor (and often sub-contractors, by extension or recognition clauses).

Waiver of subrogation between employer and contractor

Subrogation lets an insurer, having paid its insured, stand in the insured’s shoes and recover from the party at fault. An insurer cannot do this against a person who is itself an insured under the policy. Joint names cover therefore settles, in advance, the question of who bears the cost when an insured peril — fire, flood, storm — damages the works, even where one party’s negligence caused it: the policy pays, and the loss stops there. The parties buy certainty, avoid litigation between project participants, and avoid each having to insure the same asset separately against the same perils.

The courts have also treated properly drafted joint names and insurance provisions in the contract as allocating the risk of the insured perils to the policy, excluding claims between the parties for the insured loss. The contract and the policy need to say the same thing; the mischief cases are those where the contract required joint names cover that was never actually placed.

JCT context

Under the JCT forms the works insurance options are: Option A, all risks cover of the works taken out by the contractor in joint names; Option B, the same cover taken out by the employer; and Option C, used for work to existing buildings, under which the employer insures both the existing structures and their contents against specified perils and the works on an all risks basis, in joint names. The choice determines whose broker places the cover, whose claims record carries it, and — under Option C — puts the existing building risk on the employer, which is why work in occupied or tenanted premises needs early conversations with the building’s own insurers. (See the related commercial page on JCT options A, B and C.)

How it works in practice

Practical failure points include: cover placed in one name only with a mere “noting of interest”, which is not joint names and preserves subrogation; sub-contractors assumed to be protected but outside the recognition clause; existing structures cover under Option C that the employer’s property insurer has not agreed to extend; and terrorism or non-negligence cover gaps. Each is checked by reading the policy against the contract’s insurance provisions before work starts.

Why it matters

The insurance clauses of a building contract allocate some of the largest risks on the project. Joint names done properly means a fire is a claim; done badly it means a fire is a lawsuit between employer, contractor and two sets of insurers, with the works standing still throughout.

Talk to a specialist broker

Apex Insurance Brokers serves UK professional services firms and commercial businesses. Call 0117 325 0027, email info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk, or request a quotation.

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