What your company answers for towards third parties, employees, clients and contractors, and how the cover that protects it is structured.
Liability insurance answers for the damage your company causes to a third party and is obliged to make good. It is not a single cover: under one heading sit several distinct covers that respond to very different losses —to a client, to an employee, to a leased building, to goods placed in your care— and that are bought separately or as sections of the same policy.
The most common flaw we find when reviewing a programme is not the absence of a policy but the absence of fit: sub-limits that exhaust before the main limit does, declared activities that no longer describe what the business actually does, or a subcontracting exposure that nobody has mapped. Our job is to close those gaps before a claim finds them.
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A company's liability in Spain starts from a straightforward principle in the Civil Code and becomes complicated the moment it meets a real operation. Article 1902 provides that anyone who, by act or omission, causes damage to another through fault or negligence is obliged to make it good. Article 1903 extends that obligation to damage caused by those for whom one is answerable — employees among them. And article 1101 adds the liability arising from breach of contract, which follows different rules on limitation periods and burden of proof.
Hence a company does not have one liability but several, and the insurance is structured in separate sections. The general liability policy covers third-party loss arising from the activity; beyond that, each additional section answers for a specific exposure the base cover does not reach.
Reviewing programmes, we find three gaps far more often than any other.
The first is the declared activity. The policy covers what is set out in the specific terms. A business that started out in storage and today also installs, assembles or transports has widened its exposure without widening its cover, and finds out when the insurer declines a claim on the grounds of an undeclared activity.
The second is sub-limits. A main limit of several hundred thousand euros sits alongside sub-limits of tens of thousands on goods in custody, or a few thousand on property being worked upon. If your operation consists precisely of handling other people's property, the short sub-limit is your real limit, and the main one is a figure you will never reach.
The third is the subcontracting chain. Liability can reach you through the acts of firms working on your behalf, and the contractors' section covers your liability, not theirs. If the contractor carries no policy of its own and you are jointly liable, the claim lands in your accounts even though someone else caused the damage.
As a brokerage registered with the Spanish Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds under reference J0140, New Brokers acts on the client's mandate, not on behalf of any insurer. That means we compare wordings across the whole market — including London and Lloyd's for risks the domestic market will not absorb — that we negotiate the wording and not only the premium, and that when a claim arises we represent you before the carrier.
It is a difference that shows little at inception and a great deal when there is an argument about whether a loss is covered.
Bodily injury and property damage caused to third parties in the course of the insured activity. It is the base section on which the others are built.
Claims brought by your own employees following an accident at work, over and above the benefits paid by Social Security. It normally carries its own sub-limit, lower than the main limit.
Liability attributed to you for loss caused by firms working on your behalf. It covers your own direct, joint or secondary liability, not that of the contractor.
Loss caused to neighbouring buildings or installations during works, lifting or manoeuvring. Critical on site and in logistics operations.
Rupture of water, gas, electricity or telecommunications lines. Low in frequency and disproportionate in cost.
Loss that appears after the product has been delivered or the work signed off. The exposure remains live once the job has been invoiced.
Third-party property held by you without being the direct object of the work: goods in storage, vehicles left on site, equipment on loan.
Damage to the specific item you are working on. It carries the tightest sub-limit and is the section most worth reviewing against your actual activity.
Damage to premises you lease, against the landlord's claim. Standard for warehouses, depots and operating units.
Defence costs and the court bonds required to answer for your liability, including those arising from criminal proceedings following a loss.
| Section | Limit per claim and per year |
|---|---|
| Main limit | €300,000 |
| Employers' liability | €150,000 |
| Tenant's legal liability | €150,000 |
| Property in care, custody and control | €30,000 |
| Property being worked upon | €6,000 |
Reference figures for a standard programme, shown for illustration. On large-account programmes the limits sit an order of magnitude higher and are structured in layers (primary and excess), with sub-limits negotiated section by section. The cover actually granted is governed in every case by the specific terms of each policy.
New cover
We analyse your activity and your real exposure before approaching the market.
Request a proposalExisting client
Your certificates, policies and requests are available in the client area.
Go to the client areaNo liability policy covers everything. These are the exclusions that most often take a company by surprise once the claim has already happened.
Wilful misconduct by the insured. Liability arising from a deliberate act is not insurable.
Administrative fines and penalties, and the surcharge on Social Security benefits for failure to provide safety measures: article 164.2 of the Spanish General Social Security Act places it directly on the infringing employer and renders void any agreement seeking to insure it.
Damage to the company's own property, which belongs to a material damage policy rather than a liability one.
Pure financial loss caused to a client by a technical or professional error, which is the territory of professional indemnity (E&O).
The personal liability of directors and officers for their management decisions, which is covered by a D&O policy.
Gradual pollution and environmental damage, which require a dedicated environmental liability policy.
The cost of recalling a product from the market, unless an express recall sub-limit is purchased.
Loss arising from activities not declared in the policy. It is the most common exclusion and the most avoidable: an activity that has changed and was never notified.
Your company engages self-employed contractors or subcontractors to work on your premises or on a client's site. Article 24 of Law 31/1995 and Royal Decree 171/2004 require you to coordinate health and safety with them.
What it means
In practice, the occupier of the workplace requires each contractor to produce a current liability certificate that expressly names the employers' liability section and a minimum limit. Without that document, access is refused and the operation stops.
Several firms work alongside one another on a site or installation. Damage to an adjoining installation, to a buried service or to another contractor's operative triggers cross-claims that take months to apportion.
What it means
Contractors' liability, damage to adjoining property and damage to underground services all come into play at once. If one is missing or carries a short sub-limit, the company absorbs the gap.
The damage does not show up during the job but months after the product was delivered or the work signed off, once the operation has been invoiced and closed.
What it means
The products and completed operations section is what keeps cover alive after handover. Its time limits are worth checking, as is whether the policy responds on an occurrence or a claims-made basis.
We review the actual activity, the CNAE classification, turnover, payroll, the subcontracting chain and client contracts. The declared activity must describe what the business does today, not what it did when the policy was bought.
We identify which section responds to each exposure and where it overlaps with, or leaves a gap against, the rest of the programme: material damage, marine cargo, D&O or professional indemnity.
We take the risk to market and compare more than premium: sub-limits, deductibles, time scope and exclusions. Two policies at the same price rarely grant the same cover.
We issue the policy, provide the certificates you need for tenders and contractor coordination, and represent you before the insurer if a claim arises.
Covers pure financial loss from technical error, which public liability excludes. The boundary between the two is the most frequent source of dispute at claims stage.
The personal liability of directors for their management decisions falls outside the company's own liability policy.
Gradual pollution and the remediation of ecological damage require their own policy, with compulsory financial security for activities listed in Annex III.
In building work, the decennial guarantee under the Spanish Building Act answers for structural damage for ten years, separately from public liability.
Goods in transit respond under their own policy; care, custody and control covers goods held in store, not goods being carried.
There is no single statutory obligation, but many activities carry specific requirements under sector or regional rules, and in practice the cover becomes compulsory by contract: public tenders, large clients' terms and the coordination of business activities all require evidence of current cover. It is worth checking activity by activity and contract by contract.
Public liability responds to loss caused to third parties outside the company during its activity. Employers' liability responds to claims brought by the company's own employees following an accident at work, over and above Social Security benefits. They are separate sections, and employers' liability usually carries a sub-limit below the main limit.
No. Article 164.2 of the Spanish General Social Security Act places that liability directly on the infringing employer and renders void any agreement or contract seeking to insure, offset or transfer it. The surcharge runs from 30% to 50% of the benefits, depending on the seriousness of the breach. Paragraph 3 of the same article, however, states that this liability is independent of and compatible with all others: that is why employers' liability can respond to the civil damages claimed by the employee, which is a separate matter from the surcharge.
It depends on the real exposure rather than the size of the business: activity, presence on third-party sites, the value of goods held in custody and the contractual requirements of your clients. A generous main limit sitting above short sub-limits on property worked upon or employers' liability leaves gaps that only surface at claims stage. That is the analysis we run before approaching the market.
It depends on the precise wording. Many policies cover the acts of self-employed contractors working exclusively on the insured's behalf, but exclude the contractor's own liability, which needs its own cover. That is why contractor coordination requires a certificate from each of them.
A description of the actual activity, the CNAE classification, annual turnover, payroll, details of the subcontracting chain and, if available, the current policy with its specific terms. With that we can compare like for like and identify the gaps in the existing programme.
A public liability policy excludes damage to third-party property you hold and to the item you are working on. Two separate sections rescue each situation, and neither covers as much as its name suggests.
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Coordination of business activities is always treated as a paperwork and prevention problem. Nobody explains that the law does not require you to demand an insurance policy, and that your contract should.
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A certificate of insurance proves that a policy existed on the day it was issued. It does not prove that the premium has been paid, that cover is still active, or that it protects the work you have contracted.
Read→This information is for guidance only and is not binding. Covers, limits and exclusions are governed in all cases by the specific terms of each policy. New Brokers Correduría de Seguros, S.L., registered with the DGSFP under reference J0140.