How to Verify a Contractor’s Insurance in Europe (Before It Becomes Your Problem)

To verify a contractor's insurance in Europe, get the actual certificate and check five things: that it is dated recently and still in force, that it names the exact legal entity written on your quote, that it covers the specific type of work you are commissioning, what the exclusions quietly remove, and — for structural work — that it is long-term structural cover, not ordinary public liability. That last distinction is the one that catches people: France's assurance décennale, Spain's seguro decenal, and Italy's polizza postuma decennale insure the building for years after completion, while generic liability cover often expires the moment the contractor drives away.

Two different insurances that people constantly confuse

Public-liability (or general-liability) insurance covers accidents while the work is happening — a dropped tool, a flooded flat below, an injured passer-by. It is necessary, but it is short-term and it protects against events, not against the building itself being defective.

Long-term structural cover is a different animal. It answers a specific question: if the roof, the foundations, or the load-bearing structure fails years after the contractor has been paid and moved on, who pays to put it right? Several European countries make that cover compulsory for structural work precisely because the risk outlives the invoice.

The décennale family: structural cover across Europe

Southern Europe in particular has built decade-long structural liability into law. If you are buying, renovating, or building anything structural in these countries, this is the cover that matters most.

• France: assurance décennale is mandatory ten-year structural liability that the builder must hold. Alongside it, the client can take dommage-ouvrage insurance, which pays for structural repairs quickly without waiting for the courts to assign blame first.
• Spain: the seguro decenal provides ten-year cover for structural defects, and it is a standard part of new-build and major structural projects.
• Italy: the polizza postuma decennale is the ten-year post-completion policy covering serious defects and structural collapse (rovina) after the work is handed over.
• The common thread: these policies attach to the works and run for a decade, so they still protect you long after any ordinary liability policy has lapsed.

Why generic liability is not décennale

This is the trap. A contractor shows you a valid-looking insurance certificate, you see the word 'insurance' and the word 'liability', and you assume you are covered. But a public-liability policy typically covers the site during the works and stops there. It will not pay to rebuild a cracked structural wall two years later, because that is not what it insures. In the projects we see, the most damaging insurance mistake is not an uninsured contractor — it is an insured one whose cover was the wrong kind for structural work.

So the question is never 'are you insured?' It is 'do you hold the décennale / decenal / postuma decennale cover this job requires, and can I see the certificate?' A contractor doing legitimate structural work will have it. One who bristles or substitutes a general policy is telling you something.

How to actually read a certificate

A certificate is only useful if you read it properly, and most people glance at the logo and stop. Spend five minutes on these points instead.

• Dates: is it current, and does the cover period include the whole span of your project? Insurance that lapses mid-build is worthless the day after it expires.
• The named entity: does the policy name the exact company or sole trader on your quote and invoice? A policy in a different name — a parent company, a director personally, a dormant sister firm — may not respond when you claim.
• The scope of work: does it list the type of work you are having done? A policy scoped to 'general renovation' may exclude the structural, electrical, or roofing element you actually care about.
• The exclusions: read the section everyone skips. Exclusions for subcontracted work, for certain trades, or for a maximum contract value can hollow out cover that looks comprehensive on page one.
• The sum insured and excess: a low ceiling or a large excess can leave you paying most of a real claim yourself.

Match the certificate to the quote

The single most effective check is the cheapest: put the insurance certificate next to the written quote and confirm the legal name is identical, character for character. Contractors sometimes quote through one trading name and insure through another, and that gap is exactly where a claim dies. If the names do not match, ask why in writing before you sign anything.

How Veted verifies insurance before listing

Veted checks that a contractor's insurance is genuinely in force before they appear in the directory, and that the cover fits the work they advertise — not that a certificate merely exists somewhere. For structural trades in countries with décennale-style regimes, that means confirming the right long-term cover, not a general liability policy standing in for it. It is the same reading you would do yourself, applied consistently, so the entity you hire is the entity that is actually insured.

Insurance is the one contractor document that is invisible until the day it is the only thing that matters. Read it before you sign, match it to the quote, and make sure the cover outlasts the risk — because a structural defect can wait years to appear, and the wrong policy will have expired long before it does.