What Is Hired-In Plant Insurance?
Hired-in plant insurance covers what you owe the hire company when a machine you rented is damaged, stolen or destroyed. It insures a contractual liability, not an asset you own.
The reason the product exists is buried in the hire contract you signed without reading. Under the standard conditions used across UK plant hire, the machine is your problem from the moment it leaves the depot, which is why it belongs on your trade insurance schedule.
This guide sets out what those conditions actually say, why hire charges carry on after a write-off, and how the cover is priced and limited.
Under the standard CPA hire conditions, a machine becomes your liability from the moment it leaves the depot, whatever the hire company’s own insurance says. Set your sum insured to the full replacement cost of the plant, not just what you’d pay to hire it again, and remember hire charges often keep running while a damaged machine is repaired. A damage waiver bought at the hire desk is not the same as a proper insurance policy.
Get tradesman insurance quotes that cover hired-in plant.
- What does hired-in plant insurance actually insure?
- What do the cpa model conditions make you liable for?
- Why do hire charges keep running on a machine you cannot use?
- Is the hire company's damage waiver the same as insurance?
- How do you set the sum insured on hired plant?
- What is excluded from a hired-in plant policy?
- Does your contractors' all risks policy already include it?
- How is hired-in plant different from insuring machines you own?
- Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What does hired-in plant insurance actually insure?
It insures your liability to the plant owner. The hire company keeps ownership, you carry the risk, and the policy stands behind the bill you would otherwise pay yourself.
You are insuring a liability, not an asset
The distinction matters at claim stage. The insurer is not replacing your machine, it is settling what the owner is contractually entitled to recover from you.
That is a different shape of cover from general liability protection, which answers claims from people outside the contract rather than the party you hired from.
The machines it applies to
Excavators, dumpers, telehandlers, rollers and compaction plant sit at the heavy end. So do scissor lifts, cherry pickers, mobile towers, generators, compressors, breakers and site cabins.
A landscaping contractor hiring a mini digger for a fortnight is in exactly the same position as a groundworks firm hiring a 13-tonne machine for a year.
Who ends up needing it
Anyone who hires rather than owns. That includes tree surgeons taking a chipper or a MEWP for a single job.
Many hire desks will not release plant without evidence of cover. Others release it and rely on the contract, which is worse for you, not better.
What do the cpa model conditions make you liable for?
Under the CPA Model Conditions used across UK plant hire, the hirer must make good all loss or damage to the plant from whatever cause, fair wear and tear excepted. Fault does not come into it.
Clause 13(b) and loss from whatever cause
Clause 13(b) of the Construction Plant-hire Association Model Conditions is the clause that does the work. It makes you responsible whether the machine was hit by a third party, struck by lightning or stolen from a locked compound.
There is no negligence test to argue about. If the plant comes back damaged or does not come back at all, you make it good.
When the clock starts and stops
That liability runs from the moment the plant leaves the owner’s depot until it is returned to the depot. Weekends, holidays and periods when the machine is parked up are all inside the hire.
A machine sitting idle over Christmas on a fenced site is still yours to answer for. That is why what a trade policy covers needs checking against the hire dates, not the working days.
The indemnity for injury and third-party property
Clause 13(b) also requires the hirer to indemnify the owner against claims by anyone for injury to people or property connected with the use of the plant. That is a liability exposure, not a property one.
Hired-in plant cover does not answer it. Your public liability policy does, which is why the two need to sit together.
| What hirers usually assume | What the CPA Model Conditions actually say |
| The hire company insures its own machines | The base conditions put loss or damage on the hirer, from whatever cause, fair wear and tear excepted |
| I am only liable if I caused the damage | Clause 13(b) applies regardless of fault, including theft, fire and third-party impact |
| Cover starts when the machine reaches site | Liability runs from the moment the plant leaves the owner’s depot until it is back there |
| Hire charges stop once the machine is written off | Charges continue at idle time rates until settlement is agreed |
| Idle time means a token amount | Clause 25 sets idle time at two-thirds of the normal hire rate |
| The hire contract makes me insure it | The base CPA conditions carry no express duty to insure, though the Mobile Cranes supplementary conditions do at clause 3.1 |
Source: CPA Model Conditions for the Hiring of Plant, Construction Plant-hire Association.
Why do hire charges keep running on a machine you cannot use?
Because clause 13(b) continues the hire at idle time rates until the settlement is agreed. A burnt out excavator keeps invoicing while the loss adjuster works.
Idle time at two-thirds of the rate
Clause 25 of the CPA conditions defines idle time as two-thirds of the normal hire charge where the plant cannot work for a full week. That is not a nominal figure.
On a machine hired at £400 a week, idle time is around £267 a week for as long as the claim takes to settle. Three months of argument is a bill on its own.
Continuing hire charges as an insured item
Good hired-in plant policies insure continuing hire charges as a separate item with its own limit and its own time cap. Cheap ones leave it out entirely.
Check the limit and the number of weeks before you compare prices. It is the most common gap in a trade package that otherwise looks complete.
How long settlement usually takes
A theft claim on a tracked machine can settle in weeks. A fire or a serious impact loss involving a third party can run for months, and a construction contractor pays idle time throughout.
That is why the time cap on continuing hire charges matters more than the money cap. Twelve weeks of cover on a claim that takes twenty leaves a gap you fund yourself.
Is the hire company’s damage waiver the same as insurance?
No. A waiver is a contractual limitation of your liability sold by the hire desk, not a policy from an insurer, and it is usually narrower than cover you buy yourself.
What a waiver usually leaves out
Waivers commonly carry a percentage excess, exclude theft without forcible entry and exclude damage caused by misuse. Many exclude continuing hire charges altogether.
They are also priced per hire, so the cost repeats every time. An insurer on the FCA Register is regulated in a way a hire desk waiver is not.
When a waiver still makes sense
For one hire a year of a low-value item, the admin of an annual policy may not be worth it. A waiver on a £60 a week compactor is a reasonable call.
Past a handful of hires, your own annual cover is usually cheaper and wider. A bricklaying firm hiring mixers and towers most months will feel that quickly.
| Hire company damage waiver | Your own hired-in plant policy | |
| What it is | A contractual limit on your liability | An insurance contract with a regulated insurer |
| Bought | Per hire, at the desk | Annually, across every hire you take |
| Theft | Often excluded without forcible entry | Insured subject to stated security conditions |
| Continuing hire charges | Frequently excluded | Insurable as a separate item with its own limit |
| Excess | Often a percentage of the machine value | A stated £ figure you know in advance |
| Proof for the hire desk | Automatic | Certificate or schedule showing the limit |
How do you set the sum insured on hired plant?
Insure the new replacement value of the most expensive combination of machines you will have on hire at one time. Never the hire rate, and never what you think it is worth second hand.
New replacement value, not the hire rate
Hire companies replace lost plant at list price plus delivery. A five-year-old telehandler is settled at what a new one costs, not at auction value.
So the sum insured tracks replacement cost, in the same way public liability limits track the size of the loss you could cause rather than the size of your invoice.
How average cuts a settlement
Set the limit too low and the insurer can apply average, reducing the payment in proportion to the shortfall. Insure £30,000 of plant for £20,000 and you carry a third of every claim.
Add up peak exposure rather than typical exposure. One week a year with three machines on site sets the limit for the whole year.
What is excluded from a hired-in plant policy?
Wear and tear, mechanical and electrical breakdown, misuse and overloading are out. So is theft where the policy’s security conditions were not met.
Breakdown, wear and operator error
A hydraulic pump that fails through age is a maintenance issue for the owner, not an insured loss. Damage from running a machine beyond its rated capacity is usually excluded too.
Operating plant without the right training sits in the same place. HSE construction guidance sets the competence expectations that policy wordings then lean on.
Theft, immobilisation and site security
Expect conditions requiring keys removed, machines immobilised, and plant kept in a locked compound or secured to a fixed object overnight. Trackers and CESAR marking are often required above a value threshold.
Site security also affects trades that never touch an excavator. A scaffolding contractor hiring a hoist faces the same overnight conditions as a groundworker.
Does your contractors’ all risks policy already include it?
Sometimes. Hired-in plant is a standard section in many contractors’ all risks packages, but the limit is often far lower than the plant you actually hire.
Where hired-in sits in a car package
A contractors’ all risks policy usually bundles contract works, owned plant, hired-in plant and sometimes employees’ effects. Each section carries its own limit and its own conditions.
Buying a standalone hired-in policy on top of one that already includes the section wastes money and complicates a claim.
What to Check on the Schedule
Look for the hired-in plant limit, the continuing hire charges limit, the theft conditions and any single-item cap. Those four lines tell you whether the section is real or decorative.
If the wording is unclear, ask the broker to confirm in writing before the next hire. The same discipline applies to every section of a trade policy.
How is hired-in plant different from insuring machines you own?
Owned plant insures your asset and pays you. Hired-in plant insures your contractual liability and pays what you owe someone else.
Different insurable interest, different product
You cannot insure a hired machine as owned plant, because you do not own it. Nor can you rely on hired-in cover for a machine sitting on your own asset register.
Contractors who both own and hire need both sections. The two limits are set from different numbers and neither absorbs the other.
Where tool cover stops and plant cover starts
Tool cover is written for hand and power tools up to a modest total. Plant cover is written for machines, scheduled by item, which is why the cost of a full trade package moves once plant appears on the schedule.
A breaker on hire is plant, scheduled and rated as a machine. The cordless drill in your van is a tool sitting inside a total tools limit, even on the same job on the same morning.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Not for your benefit. The CPA Model Conditions put loss or damage on the hirer from whatever cause, with only fair wear and tear excepted.
Yes, under clause 13(b). It applies regardless of fault, so theft, fire and third-party impact all land with you.
Yes. Hire continues at idle time rates until the settlement is agreed, and clause 25 sets idle time at two-thirds of the normal rate.
It is a limit on your liability rather than insurance, and it usually excludes continuing hire charges and theft without forcible entry. For regular hirers an annual policy is normally wider.
The new replacement value of the largest combination of machines you will have on hire at once. Under-insure and the insurer can apply average to the settlement.
No. Injury and damage to other people or property fall to public liability, even though the hire contract makes you indemnify the owner for them.
Not usually. Breakdown, wear and tear and overloading are standard exclusions, so a failed pump is a maintenance matter rather than a claim.
Often, but at a limit that may be well below the plant you hire. Check the hired-in section limit, the continuing hire charges limit and the theft conditions before buying anything extra.