Direct answer
Neither public liability insurance nor goods-in-transit insurance is legally required for a UK man and van or clearance business - the only insurance that is legally compulsory is employers' liability insurance, and only once an operator employs staff. Reputable providers carry public liability and goods-in-transit cover anyway, as standard commercial practice, but the two policies protect different things: goods-in-transit covers your belongings while they're loaded in the vehicle, and public liability covers damage the crew causes to your property - walls, doorframes, floors - while they're working. A provider can hold one without the other, cover levels vary between providers, and common exclusions (such as items you packed yourself) mean no policy guarantees that every possible loss is covered. The only reliable way to know what you're covered for is to ask the specific provider directly and see their certificate.
Contents
- Two different policies, two different jobs
- Goods-in-transit insurance: what it covers
- What goods-in-transit cover commonly excludes
- Public liability insurance: what it covers
- What's actually legally required
- What to check before you book
- How to verify a provider's insurance
- Where houseclearance.co fits in
- Frequently asked questions
Two different policies, two different jobs
"Insured" on its own doesn't tell you what's actually covered.
When someone asks a provider "are you insured?" and gets a simple "yes", it's easy to assume that one answer covers everything that could go wrong on moving day. In practice, a man and van or house clearance operator typically deals with two separate types of risk, covered by two separate types of policy. The first is damage, loss or theft affecting the items being moved - your sofa, your boxes, your belongings - while they're in the van. The second is damage the crew causes to things that aren't being moved at all: a scraped wall on the way out of a narrow hallway, a cracked doorframe, a dented floor from a dragged wardrobe.
Those two risks are covered, if at all, by goods-in-transit insurance and public liability insurance respectively. A provider can legitimately hold one and not the other, and a generic "yes we're insured" doesn't tell you which. It's worth asking about each by name rather than accepting a single blanket answer.
Goods-in-transit insurance: what it covers
Protects your belongings while they're loaded in the vehicle.
Goods-in-transit (GIT) insurance is the policy that responds if a mover's vehicle is involved in an accident, if items are stolen from the van, or if something is damaged during loading, the journey itself, or unloading. It's the cover most people picture when they think about "moving insurance" - it exists specifically because belongings change hands, get carried through doorways and down stairs, and travel on public roads, all of which carry some risk even with a careful, experienced crew.
The cover generally only applies while an item is actually in the vehicle's custody - loaded, in transit, or being unloaded. Damage that happens before an item is loaded, or after it's been placed in its final position and the crew has left, typically falls outside a goods-in-transit policy entirely, since the item is no longer within the period the policy is designed to cover.
What goods-in-transit cover commonly excludes
The exclusions matter more than the headline promise of "we're insured".
One of the most common exclusions concerns items the customer packed themselves, sometimes described by insurers as "packed by owner". If a box you packed arrives with no visible damage to the outside of the box, but something inside has broken, many policies treat that as a packing problem rather than a transit problem and won't pay out - the reasoning being that the insurer has no way to know whether the item was adequately protected before it was ever loaded. Boxes packed by the provider's own crew don't carry this same exclusion in the same way, since the crew controls how the item was protected from the start.
Other exclusions that turn up across UK goods-in-transit policies include cash, jewellery and other high-value items unless they've been specifically declared in advance, and cover limits that apply per item or per load rather than an unlimited blanket promise. None of this means goods-in-transit cover is weak or not worth having - it means the specific terms matter more than the general claim of being insured, which is exactly why it's worth asking a provider what their policy actually excludes before assuming everything you own is covered for its full value.
Public liability insurance: what it covers
Protects your home and other people, not the items being moved.
Public liability insurance covers claims arising from injury to other people or damage to property that isn't the goods being transported - the classic example being a wall, door frame, floor or garden gate scraped or damaged while a crew is working in and around your home. It's a standard type of commercial insurance used across trades that involve working on other people's property, not something specific to removals, but it's just as relevant to a clearance or man and van job as the goods-in-transit policy covering your belongings.
A provider without public liability cover has nothing standing behind them if their crew damages your property during a job - any repair cost becomes a direct argument between you and the provider, rather than something routed through an insurer. That's the practical reason this type of cover matters even though, as the next section explains, it isn't a legal requirement in the way some people assume.
What's actually legally required
The one insurance type that genuinely is compulsory, and why it's often confused with the others.
Neither public liability insurance nor goods-in-transit insurance is a legal requirement for a UK business. A sole trader man and van operator could legally run their business without either, though most reputable providers carry both as standard commercial practice, and holding public liability cover is also commonly a condition of joining a trade body such as the British Association of Removers.
The insurance type that genuinely is compulsory is employers' liability insurance, required under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 for any business that employs staff - minimum cover of £5 million, with the policy certificate required to be displayed where employees can see it, and fines for operating without it when required. Crucially, this obligation applies to employers, not to sole traders working alone with no staff, so its presence or absence doesn't tell you anything about whether a provider holds public liability or goods-in-transit cover - those are separate questions entirely.
What to check before you book
What each scenario typically includes, and what's worth confirming directly.
| Option or job scenario | What it includes | Main restriction | What to confirm before booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods-in-transit insurance | Loss, theft or damage to your belongings while loaded, in transit or being unloaded | Usually only applies while items are in the vehicle's custody; often excludes self-packed boxes and undeclared high-value items | Whether self-packed items are covered, and the per-item or per-load limit |
| Public liability insurance | Damage to your property (walls, doorframes, floors) or injury caused during the job, not the goods themselves | Not legally compulsory - cover level and whether it's held at all varies by provider | Whether the provider holds it, and at what level of cover |
| Employers' liability insurance | Legally required cover for a provider's own staff if they employ anyone | Only applies if the provider has employees; doesn't apply to a genuine sole trader working alone | Not directly relevant to your belongings or property - don't treat it as a substitute for the two covers above |
| Self-packed boxes and high-value items | May be covered for external box damage only, or excluded entirely | Insurers often can't verify how well a self-packed box was protected before loading | Ask directly whether self-packed contents are covered, and whether valuables need declaring in advance |
| A provider who says "yes, we're insured" with no detail | Not a reliable answer on its own | Doesn't specify which policy, what it excludes, or the cover limit | Ask to see a current certificate of insurance showing insurer, policy number and expiry |
How to verify a provider's insurance
A confident verbal answer isn't the same as proof.
The most reliable way to check is to ask for a current certificate of insurance rather than relying on a verbal confirmation. A genuine certificate will show the insurer's name, a policy number and an expiry date, and a properly insured provider should be able to produce one without hesitation. It's also worth asking two more specific questions: what the goods-in-transit limit is per item and per load, and whether that cover is separate from their public liability policy, since the two protect different things and a provider who only holds one should be upfront about that rather than letting "we're insured" imply both.
If you're coordinating a move alongside a clearance - for example when downsizing and planning a house clearance around your move - it's worth confirming insurance separately for each provider involved if you're using more than one, since a removal company moving items to a new address and a clearance provider taking items away for disposal may carry different cover for different parts of the job.
Where houseclearance.co fits in
A quote-matching platform, not the party holding the insurance for your job.
houseclearance.co works as a platform that matches your clearance job with independent, licensed carriers who quote on it directly - it isn't the clearance company carrying out the work itself, so the insurance that actually applies to your job is the carrier's own policy, not a single platform-wide one. Carriers are required to hold valid public liability insurance as a condition of being listed and able to quote on jobs through houseclearance.co, alongside the waste carrier licence requirement, as explained on our insurance and safety page. That page is also clear that specific minimum coverage amounts can vary between carriers, so it's still worth asking your chosen carrier directly about their goods-in-transit cover and public liability limit for your specific job, rather than assuming a single fixed figure applies to every job booked through the platform.
Before you commit to any provider, our house clearance checklist covers the wider set of questions worth asking when comparing quotes, including insurance alongside licensing, access arrangements and what's included in the price.
Frequently asked questions
The questions that come up most often when checking a provider's insurance.
Is a man and van legally required to have insurance?
Not quite in the way most people assume. Public liability insurance and goods-in-transit cover are not legally compulsory for a UK business, so a man and van operator could legally trade without either. The one insurance type that is legally required is employers' liability insurance, and only if the operator employs staff rather than working alone - it doesn't apply to a genuine sole trader with no employees. In practice, reputable operators carry public liability and goods-in-transit cover anyway, because without it they have nothing standing behind them if something goes wrong.
What's the difference between goods-in-transit and public liability insurance?
They cover different things. Goods-in-transit insurance protects your belongings while they're loaded in the van - loss, theft or damage during loading, the journey and unloading. Public liability insurance covers damage the crew causes to things that aren't your belongings in transit, such as a scuffed wall, a damaged door frame or a cracked floor tile while they're working in your home. A provider could hold one without the other, so it's worth asking about both separately rather than assuming one covers everything.
Does goods-in-transit insurance cover items I packed myself?
Often only partially. Many goods-in-transit policies draw a distinction between items the crew packed and items you packed yourself, sometimes called "packed by owner". If a box you packed arrives with no visible external damage but something inside is broken, insurers can treat that as a packing issue rather than a transit issue and decline the claim. If you're packing boxes yourself, it's worth asking your provider directly whether self-packed items are covered at all, and considering professional packing for anything fragile or high in value.
What level of public liability cover should a provider have?
There's no single legal minimum, since the cover itself isn't compulsory, but brokers who insure removal and clearance businesses commonly describe one million pounds as a baseline and five million or more as a common contractual requirement for larger jobs or commercial clients. Rather than relying on a general figure, ask the specific provider what their policy's limit is and treat a clear, confident answer - ideally backed by a certificate - as a stronger signal than the number itself.
How do I actually check a provider's insurance is real?
Ask to see a current certificate of insurance showing the insurer's name, the policy number and the expiry date, rather than taking a verbal "yes, we're insured" at face value. A genuine certificate is easy for an insured provider to produce. You can also ask what their goods-in-transit limit is per item and per load, and whether that's separate from their public liability cover - a provider who can answer both questions specifically, rather than vaguely, is generally a safer sign than the headline claim of being insured.
Is houseclearance.co itself insured for my job?
houseclearance.co is a platform that matches your job with independent, licensed clearance carriers rather than carrying out clearances itself, so the relevant cover is the carrier's own insurance, not a platform-wide policy. Carriers are required to hold valid public liability insurance to be listed and quote on jobs through houseclearance.co, in the same way they're required to hold a waste carrier licence. See our insurance and safety page for the full position, and ask your chosen carrier directly about their goods-in-transit cover for your specific job.
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