Hired-in plant insurance, also called plant hire insurance, covers plant, machinery and equipment hired from a plant-hire company while it is in your custody or control. Most UK plant hire runs on the CPA Model Conditions, which make the hirer responsible for the machine and — the part contractors most often overlook — for the hire charges that keep running while a damaged machine is off site.
Most plant hire in the UK is contracted on the Model Conditions for the Hiring of Plant published by the Construction Plant-hire Association, or on a hire company's own terms based on them. Under those conditions the hirer carries responsibility for loss of or damage to the plant while it is on hire, however that loss occurs, and for third-party liability arising from its use. The obligation sits in the hire contract, so it exists whether or not the hirer has arranged insurance for it.
This is the exposure that most often makes a claim cost far more than the machine itself. If hired plant is stolen or damaged beyond use, the hire charges usually continue to run until the hire company is paid out and the contract is closed off, which can take weeks. A policy that covers the value of the machine but not the continuing hire charges leaves the contractor paying for a machine that is no longer on site. Cover for continuing hire is a distinct part of the section and is worth checking specifically.
A hired-in plant section typically responds to loss of or damage to the plant while on hire, theft, and — where the wording provides it — continuing hire charges and the hirer's liability under the hire agreement. It is a property section: it sits alongside your public and employers' liability covers rather than replacing them, and it carries its own exclusions, commonly including wear and tear, mechanical breakdown, and loss arising from the plant being operated by someone not competent to do so.
These three are regularly confused, partly because they often appear as sections of the same commercial policy. Owned plant covers machinery you own. Hired-in plant covers machinery you have hired and are contractually responsible for. Contractors' all risks covers the works under construction — the thing being built — rather than the equipment building it. A contractor can need all three at once, and which one responds depends on what was damaged.
Hired-in plant cover is written either short-term, for a fixed period such as a week, a month or the length of a single hire agreement, or annually on a floating limit that covers whatever is hired during the year. Occasional hirers are usually better served by short-term cover; a contractor hiring regularly normally wants the annual form, because there is nothing to arrange before each hire and the section sits inside the same policy as liability and contract works. Short-term wordings are often narrower, so the theft and security conditions are worth comparing rather than the price alone.
The two sides of a hire contract need different insurance. A contractor who hires plant in needs hired-in plant insurance, which is also sold as plant hire insurance or hired plant insurance, and which covers the contractual responsibility to the owner. A business that hires its own machines out needs plant hirers insurance, covering its fleet while it is in a customer custody, usually alongside a plant hirers liability section. Firms that do both need owned plant, hired-in plant and plant hirers liability arranged so the limits work together, and hiring out is a material fact a standard contractors policy does not assume.
Hired-in plant is usually insured on a floating basis rather than as a schedule of named machines, because what is on hire changes week to week. The limit therefore needs to reflect the maximum value on hire at any one time, not the average — a single peak week with several machines on site is what the limit has to answer for. It is rarely bought standalone; it is normally arranged as a section within a contractors' or commercial combined policy.
Cover is subject to underwriting, insurer terms and acceptance. Policy limits and exclusions apply.