Zurich RC General — Business Public Liability Insurance
Technical parameters
Price and term
Price: calculated on turnover, the activity, the modules taken, the limit per claim and year, and the excess
Term: annual, renewed automatically
| What the policy is built from | ||
| Cover | What it answers for | How it is taken |
| Operating liability RC de explotación |
Harm to others arising from what you do: a customer slips, equipment damages someone’s property, work damages the premises next door | core of the policy |
| Employer’s liability RC patronal |
An employee’s claim after an accident at work, over and above what Social Security pays | added as a module |
| Products and completed-work liability | Harm caused after the goods are sold or the job handed over | added as a module |
| Cross liability RC cruzada |
Where several contractors work on one site and the harm is done to each other | added as a module |
| Accidental pollution | A spill, leak or discharge — harm to the environment and to others | added as a module |
| Union and mixing unión y mezcla |
Your material spoils someone else’s product it was mixed into. Matters to suppliers of raw materials and components | added as a module |
| Product recall | The cost of withdrawing a batch if a defect appears | added as a module |
| Extension to the USA, Canada and Mexico | A separate module: litigation practice there is a different world | added as a module |
| Legal service for the business | Zurich’s lawyers conduct your defence and claim on your behalf | core of the policy |
| What none of the covers will pay for |
| Wilful, fraudulent and intentional acts, and bad faith or gross negligence by directors, partners and managers |
| Deliberate breach of the rules governing your activity |
| Contractual obligations that would not be enforceable but for the agreement itself |
| Risks that must be covered by compulsory insurance |
| Directors’ and officers’ liability — there is a separate D&O product for that |
| Ten-year construction liability under art. 1591 of the Civil Code and art. 17 of Law 38/1999 on building |
| Theft and larceny |
| Road traffic — harm caused by motor vehicles |
| Marine activity: vessels, platforms, offshore wind turbines |
| War, insurrection, terrorism, strikes and lock-outs, government action |
| Extraordinary natural events — earthquakes, landslides, hurricanes, floods |
| Nuclear reactions and radiation |
The list of covers and the common exclusions come from Zurich civil liability policies in force and from the small-business product conditions. The figures in the example are from one specific policy and are not a tariff: your limits, excess and modules are fixed in the particular conditions.
What this policy is
Zurich RC General is the modular civil liability policy for a business. The base
is operating liability, and modules are added on top to match the activity. It covers harm
caused to third parties: bodily, material and the consequential losses of both.
How it is priced, and why that matters
The premium is based on turnover, not on floor space or headcount. Which has a
practical consequence that is easily forgotten: if turnover grows, the policy needs
revisiting. The declared figure is what the price was built on, and any gap between it
and reality is argued, in a large claim, against you.
An example from a real policy
Electric scooter and non-motorised vehicle rental in Tenerife, declared turnover
€100,000. The base cover, operating liability, was taken:
- €600,000 per claim and per year;
- for bodily injury, no limit per victim;
- cross liability, €300,000;
- €500 excess.
The other modules — pollution, employer’s, products, union and mixing, recall —
were not taken. That is what modular means: you pay for what is to the point.
Such a policy also states that users of the rented vehicles are not insured
persons, while their claims against the company are covered where the harm stems from
failures of organisation, of the installations or of the materials supplied. The
distinction is fine and decisive in a negotiation.
Territory and the time limit for claims
The territory is set in the policy. For the construction module the rule is
occurrence plus 24 months: a claim is covered if brought within two years of the
contract ending. In construction that is decisive, because defects do not surface at
once.
What it does not cover
The exclusions are common to every module. Two deserve singling out, because they are
routinely assumed to be covered:
Ten-year construction liability under art. 1591 of the Civil Code and art. 17 of
Law 38/1999 does not belong here — there is a separate compulsory policy for it. And
directors’ and officers’ liability, for which D&O exists.
We will price it on your activity
Send us your line of business and your annual turnover — that is enough to quote and to tell you which modules you need and which would be wasted. If you already have a policy, we will look at that too: the gap is usually in the declared turnover.
Typical tasks that this policy solves
Agent's opinion The modularity of this policy is both its virtue and its trap. The virtue: you do not pay for other people’s risks. The trap: a module not taken looks in the policy exactly like one that was — a line reading “no contratada”. It is easy to miss, and to discover at the moment it was needed.
So at every renewal I go through the module list again and ask: have you taken on staff? have you started manufacturing, or finishing off other people’s work? do you now carry or store fuel, chemicals, oils? A yes to any of those means last year’s policy is no longer about you.
And I will repeat the most important part: watch the turnover. It does not merely affect the price — it is the very basis of the contract.