A wrap-up covers the project. It does not cover your company.
On a wrapped project one policy insures the owner, the general and the trades together, for that job. The mistake that costs money is treating it as a replacement for your own liability policy rather than an addition to it. Every other job you touch that year is outside it.
Build the contractor file The short answerEveryone working on that named project, for work on that project
Your other jobs, your yard, your vehicles, your ordinary business
Letting your own policy lapse because the project has one
If the project has a wrap-up, do I still need my own liability policy?
Yes, in almost every case. A wrap-up is written around one project. It answers for work on that site, for the parties named on it, for the period it runs. The moment you are working anywhere else, quoting anything else, or being sued about anything else, it is not the policy that responds.
Wrap-ups exist because they solve a genuine problem. When every trade carries its own policy, limits differ, wordings differ, and insurers spend years arguing about which of them pays. One policy across the whole project removes that argument and stops the parties suing each other through their insurers. That is worth having. It just is not a policy for your business.
A trade that cancelled its own cover for the year of a wrapped job, and then had a claim from a different customer, has no policy at all for that claim.
One project policy, or everyone brings their own.
Wrap-up
Arranged by the owner or the general. Consistent limits for everyone, no gaps between wordings, and no cross-suits between the insured parties. Simpler for the owner, and usually a condition of getting on the site.
Each trade insured separately
Every party answers for itself. Cheaper to set up and much messier when something goes wrong, because the first year of a serious claim is often spent deciding whose policy is on the hook.
Three things that decide how much the wrap-up actually does.
How long completed operations run
The building outlives the project. Claims about the work usually arrive after everyone has left the site, and how far past completion the wrap-up keeps answering is a negotiated term, not a standard one. Ask for it in writing before the first invoice.
Who is actually named
Being on site is not the same as being an insured party. Trades brought on late, and specialists engaged by another trade rather than by the general, are the ones most often missing from the schedule.
What sits outside it
Your tools, your vehicles, your own premises and anything you make or supply generally stay on your own policies. A wrap-up is a liability policy for a project, not a package for a business.
What trades ask us about this.
The general says the wrap-up covers everything. Can I reduce my own policy?
Reducing cover because of a project policy is how trades end up uninsured for their ordinary work. If the aim is to avoid paying twice, the conversation to have is about how your own policy is rated for wrapped work – not about cancelling it.
Do I still get charged for the wrap-up?
Usually indirectly. The cost normally sits in the project budget and is reflected in what trades are paid. That is why it is worth knowing what it does and does not cover – you are contributing to it either way.
What happens if the wrap-up limit is used up by someone else’s claim?
It is a shared limit, so a large claim by another party can erode what is left for everyone. This is one of the strongest arguments for keeping your own policy in place underneath rather than relying on the project one alone.
The project finished two years ago and a claim just arrived. Who answers?
It depends on whether the completed operations period was still running, and on whether your own policy was in force. Two policies, two different questions, and the answer is in the wordings rather than in what anyone remembers being told.
I was brought on by another subtrade, not the general. Am I covered?
Not automatically. Check that you appear as an insured party on the wrap-up rather than assuming that working on the site is enough. Ask for confirmation in writing, the same way you would ask a subtrade for a certificate.
Not the question you had? Build the contractor file and set out your own situation in plain words. A licensed broker reads it and replies in writing.
Send us the wrap-up certificate you were given.
We will tell you what it covers you for, what it leaves with your own policy, and whether you are actually named on it. Next business day, and usually the same day.