Engineering Inspection and Breakdown Insurance for plant, lifts and pressure systems
Independent examinations of your boilers, lifts, compressors and lifting gear, combined with insurance that pays when plant breaks down without warning. A specialist broker can compare inspection contracts and breakdown cover for industrial and commercial sites.
- Thorough examinations by independent engineer surveyors
- Sudden breakdown, explosion and collapse of plant covered
- Optional cover for spoiled stock and lost production
Reviewed October 2026 by the MyBusinessComparison.com editorial team
What is engineering inspection and breakdown insurance?
Engineering inspection and breakdown insurance is a combined service and policy for business plant. Engineer surveyors carry out the periodic examinations that lifting equipment and pressure systems need, and the insurance pays to repair or replace plant after sudden breakdown, explosion or collapse.
The two parts can be bought separately. Inspection is about safety and compliance: most businesses that use passenger lifts, forklifts, hoists, boilers or air receivers must have them thoroughly examined by a competent person at set intervals, and keep the reports. Breakdown cover is about money: it pays for the mechanical and electrical failures that a standard property policy excludes.
Engineering insurers are often chosen as the competent person because their surveyors are independent of the firms that maintain the plant.
Engineering cover at a glance
- Inspects
- Lifts, hoists, cranes, forklifts, boilers, air receivers, extraction and presses
- Insures
- Sudden breakdown, explosion and collapse of plant and machinery
- Who inspects
- Independent engineer surveyors acting as the competent person
- You receive
- Written reports, with urgent defects flagged straight away
- Useful extras
- Deterioration of stock, business interruption and hired in plant
- Bought with
- Property or commercial combined cover, or on its own
What does engineering inspection and breakdown insurance cover?
Each item is listed on the schedule with its inspection type and, if insured, its breakdown sum insured. These are the parts most programmes are built from.
Lifting equipment inspection
Thorough examination of passenger and goods lifts, hoists, overhead cranes, forklift trucks, vehicle lifts and lifting accessories such as chains and slings.
Pressure systems inspection
Examination of steam boilers, air receivers, compressors, autoclaves and pressure vessels against the written scheme for each system.
Extraction and ventilation testing
Testing of local exhaust ventilation that controls dust, fumes and vapour in workshops, joinery shops, labs and production areas.
Electrical installation testing
Periodic inspection of fixed wiring, often offered alongside the plant programme so one provider holds all the records.
Sudden breakdown
Repair or replacement after sudden and unforeseen mechanical or electrical failure of insured plant, including the cost of engineers and parts.
Explosion and collapse
Damage caused when a boiler or pressure vessel explodes or collapses, including damage to surrounding property where the policy extends to it.
Deterioration of stock
Food, medicines or materials spoiled when refrigeration or temperature control fails, subject to alarms and monitoring conditions.
Read more about wholesale and distribution insurance
Breakdown business interruption
Profit lost, plus the cost of hiring in or outsourcing, when a machine failure rather than a fire or flood holds up production.
Read more about business interruption insurance
Computer and electronic equipment
Breakdown of servers, control systems and electronic plant, with data reinstatement as an option.
Extensions worth asking about
- Hired in plant: your liability for compressors, generators and other plant hired while yours is repaired
- Expediting expenses: overtime, express freight and air delivery of parts to get insured plant running again sooner
- Utility failure: spoiled stock or lost production after an interruption to the supply feeding your site, where available
- Business equipment insurance: all risks cover for IT and portable kit that the engineering policy does not list
Who needs engineering inspection and breakdown cover?
Any business that operates lifting equipment or pressure plant, and any business where a single machine failing would stop work or spoil stock.
Running site plant rather than fixed plant? Excavators, dumpers and site cranes are usually insured under plant and machinery insurance.
- Manufacturers: compressors, boilers, presses, overhead cranes and extraction on production lines
- Engineering firms: machining centres, lifting gear and test equipment that must stay in service
- Warehouse operators: forklift fleets, dock levellers and goods lifts working every shift
- Food and drink distributors: cold stores and chillers where breakdown means spoiled stock
- Commercial landlords: passenger lifts, boilers and plant serving tenants in offices and blocks
- Hotels and hospitality groups: passenger lifts, kitchen plant, boilers and cellar cooling
- Care homes and clinics: patient hoists, bath lifts, passenger lifts and sterilising autoclaves
- Leisure centres and venues: pool plant, boilers and passenger lifts used by the public
- Motor traders and garages: vehicle lifts, compressors and paint booth equipment
- Farms and food producers: telehandlers, grain dryers, refrigeration and parlour equipment
- Dry cleaners and laundries: steam boilers, presses and pressure equipment
- Builders merchants: forklifts, lorry mounted cranes and yard lifting equipment
How much does engineering inspection insurance cost?
Inspection is usually priced item by item, and breakdown cover on the values insured. These are the things that move the overall cost.
Number and type of items
Each lift, crane, boiler or receiver adds an inspection charge, and complex plant takes longer to examine.
Frequency of examination
Equipment that lifts people or works in harsh conditions is examined more often, which adds visits.
Breakdown sums insured
The replacement cost of each insured item drives the breakdown premium.
Age and condition
Older plant, obsolete parts and long lead times for replacements raise the risk and the price.
Stock and interruption extensions
Deterioration of stock and breakdown interruption cover are rated on the values and gross profit at stake.
Maintenance and loss record
Regular servicing, prompt defect repairs and few past breakdowns all help.
What engineering breakdown insurance does not cover
Breakdown cover is broad, but it is not a maintenance plan. These are the usual limits.
- Wear and tear, gradual deterioration, corrosion and scale build up
- Items with a reported defect that has not been put right, where the insurer may suspend cover until it is
- Routine servicing, adjustments and the replacement of parts that wear out in normal use
- Consumables such as belts, filters, tyres, cutting tools and bulbs
- Faults covered by a manufacturer's warranty or a maintenance contract
- Damage from fire, flood or theft, which belongs under the property section or a commercial combined policy
- Control systems knocked out by malware or hacking, a cyber insurance risk
Breakdown insurance or a maintenance contract?
Many firms assume their service contract covers breakdowns. In practice the two do different jobs.
| Feature | Engineering breakdown insurance | Maintenance contract |
|---|---|---|
| Main purpose | Pays for sudden and unforeseen failure | Keeps plant serviced and running |
| Major repairs and replacement | Covered up to the sum insured | Often excluded or charged as extra work |
| Independent examination | Engineer surveyors separate from your maintainer | Carried out by the firm that services the plant |
| Spoiled stock and lost production | Available as extensions | Not covered |
| How firms use it | Alongside regular maintenance | Alongside breakdown insurance |
How to arrange engineering inspection and breakdown cover
Start with a full plant list. It drives both the inspection schedule and the breakdown values.
List every item of plant
Include lifts, hoists, cranes, forklifts, slings, boilers, receivers, extraction and key machines at each site.
Gather existing reports
Recent examination reports, written schemes for pressure systems and any open defects help the new provider pick up quickly.
Decide what needs breakdown cover
Focus on machines whose failure would stop work, spoil stock or cost a large sum to replace.
Set values and extensions
Agree replacement values, stock deterioration limits and any breakdown interruption cover.
Plan the inspection visits
Agree dates around production so examinations happen on time without stopping the business.
Book your plant in
List your lifts, pressure plant and machinery and a specialist broker will compare inspection and breakdown cover.
Get a quoteEngineering inspection and breakdown insurance FAQs
How much does engineering inspection insurance cost?
Inspection is usually charged per item, so the price follows how many lifts, cranes, boilers and receivers you have and how often each is examined. Breakdown cover is rated on the values insured, the age of the plant and any stock or interruption extensions.
Is engineering inspection a legal requirement?
The examinations are compulsory for most lifting equipment and pressure systems used at work, and the reports must be kept. Using an insurer is not compulsory, but it is a common way to get independent examinations and breakdown cover from one provider.
How often do lifts and boilers need inspecting?
It depends on the equipment. Lifting equipment that carries people is usually examined more often than goods lifting equipment, and pressure systems follow the intervals set in their written scheme. Your engineer surveyor will set the schedule for each item.
What happens if the surveyor finds a serious defect?
You are told straight away and the item should be taken out of use until it is repaired. The insurer may suspend breakdown cover on that item until the repair is confirmed. For the most dangerous defects, the surveyor may also have to notify the enforcing authority.
Does my property policy cover machinery breakdown?
Usually not. Property and combined policies cover damage from events such as fire, flood and impact, but exclude mechanical and electrical breakdown. That gap is what engineering breakdown insurance fills.
Can I get breakdown cover without the inspection service?
Yes. Many insurers will write breakdown cover on its own, although some offer better terms when they also inspect the plant. Equally, an inspection contract can be bought without breakdown insurance.
Does breakdown insurance cover spoiled stock in a cold store?
Only if deterioration of stock is added. It pays for goods spoiled when refrigeration breaks down, usually subject to temperature alarms, monitoring and a limit per incident.
Are forklift trucks covered by engineering inspection?
Yes. The lifting parts of forklifts, such as the mast, chains and forks, need periodic thorough examination, and engineering inspection programmes routinely include them. Use on public roads needs separate motor cover.
How do I get an engineering inspection and breakdown quote?
Send a request from this page and a specialist broker will contact you to go through your plant. Have a list of items by site, recent examination reports and the replacement values of anything you want insured against breakdown.
Keep your plant safe, examined and insured
Get engineering inspection and breakdown cover compared by a specialist broker, with every item of plant on one schedule.