Business liability
Covers damage to items you treat and, if agreed, lost or mixed up customer items plus environmental damage from solvents.
Insurance broker / Business types / Services
Insurance for laundries and dry cleaners in Germany
Every day your rails hold valuables that are not yours: suits, wedding dresses, furs, hotel linen. One wrong programme, a mix up at the counter or a dryer fire, and you owe your customers. Add solvents that can contaminate soil and groundwater. This page shows what you should cover and what it costs.
The question almost everyone asks first
Does my insurance pay if a garment is ruined during cleaning?
Only if damage to customers' items you treat is expressly written into your public liability policy, because items you work on are excluded in basic tariffs. The insurer then pays the current value, provided you made a mistake. If the care label was wrong or the fabric already damaged, you are often not liable. Clauses that limit your liability very heavily do not always stand up in court.
What goes wrong in this trade
- 01
Shrunk, discoloured, torn
A cashmere coat on the wrong programme, sequins come off, a lining runs. Damage to items you treat is the daily argument at the counter.
- 02
Mixed up or gone
A suit is handed to the wrong customer or never turns up again. That is damage to property in your custody, which many policies only cover if agreed separately.
- 03
Fire in the dryer
Lint and oily towels from beauty salons can ignite by themselves. Dryer fires are among the most common major losses in laundries.
- 04
Solvents in the ground
Older dry cleaning machines used perchloroethylene. If solvent gets into the soil or groundwater, the clean up becomes very expensive.
- 05
Machines at a standstill
If the big washer extractor or the ironer breaks down, the hotel linen piles up. Contract penalties and lost customers follow.
- 06
Heat, steam and chemicals
Burns on the ironer and press, skin problems from cleaning agents, heavy lifting: the work is physically demanding.
Compared with other trades, 1 low to 5 high.
The insurance you need
Essential
Strongly advised
Business contents
Replaces fittings, supplies and customers' items in the shop after fire, burst pipes, storm and burglary.
Machinery breakdown
Washer extractors, dry cleaning machines, ironers and presses are expensive and break down through operating errors or short circuits.
Business interruption
Pays wages, rent and lost profit while the plant is out of action after a fire or machinery breakdown.
Depends on the business
Fleet insurance
For collection and delivery vans that pick up and return linen from hotels and practices.
Cyber insurance
For your till, customer records and order management, without which nobody knows which item belongs to whom.
Business legal expenses
For disputes with customers over compensation, with landlords and with machine suppliers.
What it costs: example prices
The premium depends heavily on the business: a drop off shop with a small cleaning unit pays little, a commercial laundry with hotel clients considerably more. Machine values, turnover and the value of customers' items on the premises are the main factors.
| Insurance | Example | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Business liability | Dry cleaner with counter, one to three employees, including damage to treated items | about 250 to 600 euros a year |
| Business liability | Commercial laundry with 15 employees and hotel clients | about 1,200 to 3,500 euros a year |
| Business contents | Fittings and customers' items worth 60,000 euros | about 250 to 600 euros a year |
| Machinery breakdown | Cleaning and washing machines worth 120,000 euros | about 600 to 1,500 euros a year |
| Business interruption | Loss of income for up to twelve months after fire or machinery breakdown | about 200 to 700 euros a year on top |
For comparison: Public liability and contents cover for a small dry cleaner cost roughly as much per year as cleaning forty men's suits.
Guide figures from our own quoting experience, excluding German insurance premium tax, as of September 2026. Comparison sites rarely give fixed premiums for dry cleaners, because turnover, machines and solvents vary so much. We obtain the exact quote for you.
Sources of the price examples
Our suggestions: three packages
01
Counter
For: drop off shop or small dry cleaner with a few machines
- Business liability
- Business contents
Together about 500 to 1,100 euros a year
Request this package02
Cleaner
For: dry cleaner with its own plant and up to ten employees
- Business liability
- Business contents
- Machinery breakdown
- Business interruption
Together about 1,500 to 3,500 euros a year
Request this package03
All round
For: laundry with hotel and practice clients, delivery vans and order software
- Business liability
- Business contents
- Machinery breakdown
- Business interruption
- Fleet insurance
- Cyber insurance
Together about 5,000 to 11,000 euros a year
Request this packageThe worst day at the dry cleaner's
Six things that really happen at laundries and dry cleaners, all on one single Tuesday. Tap through the day and see who pays.
Damage so far€176,000
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A customer collects her wedding dress. The beadwork has come loose during cleaning and the fabric is stained.
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A made to measure suit has vanished, apparently handed to another customer. The owner wants it replaced.
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Solvent leaks from a faulty pipe on the cleaning machine and seeps into the soil of the neighbouring property. Expert report and clean up.
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The control unit of the large ironer burns out. The machine is down for two weeks and the hotel linen has to be sent elsewhere.
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Because of the breakdown a hotel client leaves, and the income is missing for months.
-
Oily towels ignite in the dryer. Shop, fittings and the customers' items on the rails are covered in soot.
Which package would you have had?
Illustrative amounts before any excess. Whether and how much is paid depends on the policy terms.
Practical tips from your broker
- Have damage to customers' items you treat expressly included and agree a limit that matches your most expensive pieces.
- Check that lost and mixed up customer items are covered too, not only damaged ones.
- Include other people's property in the contents policy, otherwise the customers' items are exactly what is missing after a fire.
- Include environmental liability and environmental damage cover if you work with solvents now or did in the past.
- Never put towels from beauty and massage businesses away without cooling them, and record the cool down cycle; it lowers the fire risk and helps with the claim.
- For delicate items, warn customers in writing about the risks before you accept them, for example when the care label is missing.
Why NAMMERT for your business
We read the exclusions for customers' items
Whether damage to treated items and items in your custody is covered decides every second argument at your counter. As a broker we compare exactly these clauses across several insurers.
We know claims settlement from our own work
In boat insurance we settle claims ourselves. After a dryer fire with other people's items on the premises, we know which lists and records the insurer needs.
Machines, shop and vehicles together
Liability, contents, machinery, business interruption and delivery vans are coordinated by us, so there are no gaps between the policies.
A family business since 1989
Our advice costs you nothing; the insurer pays our commission. You have fixed contacts who know your business.
Questions and answers
Frequently asked
Does a dry cleaner have to be insured in Germany?
There is no legal obligation. Without public liability that covers damage to treated items, though, you pay for every damaged customer item yourself.
How much do I have to pay for a damaged garment?
Usually the current value, not the price new. A five year old coat is worth considerably less than when it was bought. Very strong limits on liability in your terms and conditions are often invalid.
What does insurance for a dry cleaner cost?
For a small dry cleaner with a counter, liability and contents together are usually between 500 and 1,100 euros a year. With machinery insurance and business interruption, correspondingly more.
Are customers' items insured in a fire?
Only if other people's property is included in your contents policy. Public liability usually does not pay after a fire, because you are not liable without fault.
Which statutory accident insurer is responsible?
For laundries and dry cleaners it is BG ETEM. It will get in touch as soon as you register your first employees.
Does the insurance also cover the delivery service?
Damage at the customer's premises and during loading and unloading belongs in public liability, the vehicle itself in motor insurance. Linen in transit is often only covered with a goods in transit clause.
NAMMERT insurance broker
Request quotes for Laundry
The recommended covers are already ticked. Change what does not fit; we obtain quotes and come back with a comparison. You can write in English.
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We will be in touch within one working day. If it is urgent: +49 3375 29 12 77.
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Official classification
This page covers the following classes of the German WZ 2025 (identical to NACE at four digits):
- 96.10 Wäscherei und chemische Reinigung
Source: Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis), WZ 2025. All business types
Boat or yacht? Here we are not the broker but the underwriting agency, with our own policies and our own claims handling.
Boat insuranceNAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH, insurance broker licensed under section 34d(1) of the German Trade Regulation Act, broker register no. D-C08Q-TOSD4-37. For boat and yacht insurance we act as underwriting agency, not as broker. Statutory disclosure (German) · Updated