In short. Spanish law does not, as a general rule, require a self-employed contractor to carry liability insurance: Law 20/2007 imposes no such duty. So when your company subcontracts them, the level of demand is set by the contract, not by the legislation. And it is worth setting properly, because article 8.6 of that same law can make your company assume the obligation to indemnify the damage caused if you breach your duties of cooperation, information and supervision.
In 2025 Spain recorded 28,455 accidents involving sick leave among self-employed workers, according to the advance figures of the Workplace Accident Statistics published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy for the January to December period. A share of those accidents happens at workplaces that belong not to the self-employed contractor but to the company that engaged them.
When that happens, the first question the board asks is not whose worker it was. It is which policy responds.
Is a self-employed contractor required to hold liability cover?
No, not as a general rule. Law 20/2007, the Spanish Statute of Self-Employment, imposes no liability insurance obligation on self-employed workers. It is worth stating that plainly, because the market frequently says otherwise.
The obligation exists in only two situations. First, where sector-specific regulations for the particular activity impose it: low-voltage electrical installers, heating installers and maintenance firms, gas installers and certain lifting equipment operators have minimum amounts fixed by their technical regulations. Second, where the contract imposes it. In everything else, a self-employed contractor can invoice you tomorrow without a single policy and be fully compliant with the law.
Which activities carry compulsory insurance, and for what amounts, is set out in when liability insurance is compulsory for a self-employed worker. What matters here is the operational consequence: if your company does not require it in writing, nobody will require it for you.
Why your company answers even though the contractor is not your employee
This is the part procurement specifications usually overlook, and the part that turns a documentary question into a balance-sheet exposure.
Article 24.5 of Law 31/1995 on the Prevention of Occupational Risks extends coordination obligations to self-employed workers present at a shared workplace. In the same vein, article 8.3 of Law 20/2007 imposes reciprocal duties of cooperation and information where the contractor operates at another company's premises, and article 8.4 requires companies contracting works or services within their own line of business (propia actividad) and carried out at their own premises to supervise compliance with health and safety rules.
So far, administrative duties. The turn comes in the following paragraph.
Article 8.6 of Law 20/2007 provides that a company breaching paragraphs 3 to 5 assumes the obligation to indemnify the damage caused, provided there is a direct causal link between the breach and the damage. It is neither a fine nor a surcharge: it is a civil obligation to indemnify, and it is precisely the kind of exposure a liability policy can respond to, subject to the terms of each policy.
The route matters. Because the contractor is not your employee, an accident to them is not a claim under your company's employers' liability section: employers' liability covers claims from your own workforce. The claim will arrive through non-contractual civil liability —articles 1902 and 1903 of the Spanish Civil Code— and, where applicable, through that article 8.6.
To this must be added the documentary framework of Royal Decree 171/2004: its article 4.2 requires reciprocal information in writing and before work starts where the risks are serious or very serious, and article 10.2 requires the principal undertaking to demand prior documentary evidence on health and safety. Neither of them, it is worth knowing, requires you to demand an insurance policy. That gap is closed by your contract.
Do you know what your subcontracting template actually requires on insurance? Let us review the wording of the clause with you.
What to require by contract: the insurance clause
A clause stating that "the contractor shall hold liability insurance in force" protects nothing. It is literally compatible with a policy that expired last month, with an insured activity that does not include the work contracted, or with a token limit.
These are the elements worth fixing, one by one:
- Exact policyholder name and tax number. The policy must be in the name of the individual or company that will carry out the work, not a third party, a trade association or a related company. It is the check that produces most rejections and the easiest one to run.
- Insured activity. This is the critical point. The policy covers the activity declared, and if the contractor declared "installation" and is going to carry out "assembly and commissioning at height", the wording may not follow them. Always test the declared activity against the real scope of the engagement.
- Territorial and jurisdictional scope. Relevant where the work is performed outside the usual territory or where the output of the work travels.
- Period of cover with date and time. Policies incept and expire at a specific hour. A certificate showing only dates leaves an unevidenced interval.
- Limit per claim and annual aggregate limit. They are not the same thing and are confused daily: the first is the ceiling for each claim; the second, the ceiling for all claims in the policy year. A contractor running several engagements at once may have exhausted the aggregate before setting foot on your site. We deal with it in detail in limits, sub-limits and deductibles in a liability policy.
- Relevant sub-limits and deductibles. The main limit may be generous while the sub-limit that affects you —property in care, custody or control, hot works, water damage— falls well short. And a high deductible makes cover irrelevant for small claims, which are the majority.
- Basis of cover. If the policy is written on a claims-made basis, the claim must arrive during the period of insurance. Check, then, that the retroactive date reaches back to the start of the works: article 73, second paragraph, of the Spanish Insurance Contract Act (Law 50/1980) requires at least one year, which is a statutory floor, not necessarily the period you need.
- Maintenance, evidence and notice. An obligation to maintain the policy throughout the engagement, to evidence it afresh at each renewal and to give prior notice of any cancellation, suspension or non-renewal. Without that last obligation, your company discovers the gap once there is already a claim.
A word on amounts: we will not give you a benchmark figure, because no public source supports one. The limit is set by reference to the exposure —value of the property being worked on, people exposed, production environment, maximum damage reasonably foreseeable— not by copying the number from someone else's tender documents.
One sector-specific point: in transport engagements, general liability does not cover the goods carried, and the transport operator's licence does not evidence goods insurance either —article 43.1 of Law 16/1987 does not list it among the requirements for the authorisation. We develop this in what insurance a self-employed haulier needs.
| What to require | Why | What happens if it is missing |
|---|---|---|
| Exact policyholder and tax number | The policy must protect whoever performs the work | Cover in a third party's name: the claim falls outside |
| Insured activity matching the work | The wording covers what was declared, not what was done | Declinature for an activity not comprised |
| Territorial scope and jurisdiction | Determines where the cover operates | Work outside scope, unprotected |
| Period with date and time | Delimits the insured period without grey areas | Claim in the unevidenced interval |
| Limit per claim and annual aggregate | They are different ceilings and erode separately | Aggregate consumed on other engagements |
| Sub-limits and deductible | They cut back the effective cover for the real risk | Generous main limit, insufficient sub-limit |
| Basis of cover and retroactive date | Under claims-made, it decides which claims qualify | Damage caused before the retroactive date, uncovered |
| Notice of cancellation or non-renewal | Gives the principal room to react | Gap discovered on the day of the claim |
What if the self-employed contractor has no cover?
It happens frequently, and more so in highly technical trades where supply is thin. There are three honest ways out, and none of them is automatic.
Do not award the work. It is the cleanest decision where the exposure is high and the market offers alternatives. It requires procurement and health and safety to share the same criterion before the tender, not after.
Retain the risk consciously and in a measured way. If the work is minor, the environment is controlled and there is no reasonable alternative, your company may decide to assume the exposure. The difference between retaining and neglecting is that retention is documented, quantified and approved by whoever has authority to do so.
Consider including them as an insured under the principal's policy. Some wordings allow insured status to be extended to external collaborators, or achieve the same through cross liability. It is a genuine possibility, subject to what each wording permits, but it carries a technical cost: the contractor now consumes your company's own limit, and their claims record becomes yours.
Whichever route is taken, the preliminary step is the same: verifying properly what does exist. In how to validate a liability certificate of insurance and in what insurance documentation to require from a contractor we set out the procedure.
One note that corrects a frequent error in tender documents: it makes no sense to require a self-employed contractor with no workers of their own to produce a risk assessment and a prevention plan drafted as if they were a contractor with a workforce. The evidence required by article 10.2 of Royal Decree 171/2004 refers, in its second limb, to the information and training obligations owed to the workers who will take part; with no workers, that limb has no object. What can be required of a self-employed contractor working alongside others is cooperation, information on the risks they generate and compliance with the instructions received.
How many self-employed contractors will come onto your sites this year, and with what policy behind them? Request a review of your exposure.
Economically dependent self-employed workers
Article 11.1 of Law 20/2007 defines the economically dependent self-employed worker (TRADE) as someone carrying out their activity for a company or client from which they derive at least 75% of their income. The percentage is calculated on income from employment and from economic or professional activities, not on a turnover figure taken at face value.
The figure has its own contractual regime and deserves attention for a further reason. Where economic dependence is high and the engagement runs on, the boundary must be kept clear between two things that look alike but are not: supervising is not directing. Requiring documentation, verifying cover and checking health and safety compliance is what the law asks of you and does not turn the contractor into an employee. Actually directing the work —imposed hours, company equipment, integration into the organisation— is another matter, and feeds a potential claim that the relationship is one of employment.
It is a real risk, and it is no reason to relax health and safety supervision —which is compulsory— but a reason to document the relationship properly from day one.
The role of an independent broker
The insurance clause in a subcontracting agreement is usually drafted by someone who does not read policy wordings, and reviewed by someone who does not negotiate with the market. That is where the protection is lost: not in the contractor's policy, but in the drafting of what was asked of them. As an independent brokerage registered with the Spanish DGSFP under reference J0140, we act on the client's mandate: we review the clause, we test what the market can genuinely evidence and we set a threshold consistent with your exposure, not with someone else's tender.
The work continues afterwards. We verify that what is produced matches what was required, we check that your own liability policy protects the exposure you retain along the subcontracting chain, and when a claim arises we represent your company before the insurer, not the other way round.
Frequently asked questions
Is a subcontracted self-employed worker required to hold liability insurance? As a general rule, no. Law 20/2007 imposes no such duty. It is compulsory only where sector-specific regulations for the activity require it or where the contract imposes it. If your company does not ask in writing, you may engage a supplier with no cover at all, fully within the law.
What limit should be required? There is no published benchmark figure. The limit is set by reference to the exposure: property being worked on, people exposed, production environment and maximum foreseeable damage. And the limit per claim must always be distinguished from the annual aggregate.
Is my company liable if a self-employed contractor is injured on my premises? You may be. Article 8.6 of Law 20/2007 makes a company that breaches its duties of cooperation, information and supervision assume the obligation to indemnify the damage caused, provided there is a direct causal link. It is a civil obligation, not a penalty.
What is a TRADE and why does it matter? It is the self-employed worker who derives at least 75% of their income from a single client, under article 11.1 of Law 20/2007. It matters because, where economic dependence is high, health and safety supervision —which is compulsory— must be kept clearly apart from directing the work.
Can I include them under my own policy? Some wordings allow it, as an additional insured or through cross liability. It depends on what each wording admits and it is not free: the contractor then consumes your company's limit.
Sources and legislation
- Law 20/2007, the Spanish Statute of Self-Employment, articles 8.3, 8.4, 8.6 and 11.1.
- Law 31/1995 on the Prevention of Occupational Risks, article 24.5 (obligations towards self-employed workers present at a shared workplace).
- Royal Decree 171/2004, implementing article 24 of Law 31/1995, articles 4.2 and 10.2.
- Law 50/1980, the Spanish Insurance Contract Act, article 73, second paragraph (temporal delimitation of cover).
- Spanish Civil Code, articles 1902 and 1903.
- Law 16/1987 on the Organisation of Land Transport, article 43.1.
- Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, Workplace Accident Statistics, January–December 2025 advance release.
This information is for guidance only and does not constitute binding advice. Cover, limits and exclusions are governed in all cases by the particular conditions of each policy. New Brokers Correduría de Seguros, S.L., registered with the Spanish DGSFP under reference J0140.
