Part of our complete guide to home insurance in Portugal for property owners. For a free comparison across Zurich, Allianz, Hiscox and Liberty Mutual, request a quote in 24 hours.
A cleaner two mornings a week. A gardener who comes on Fridays. A nanny during the school holidays, a carer for an elderly parent, a housekeeper who opens the villa before you arrive. In Portugal, if you engage any of them directly rather than through a company, you are an employer, and one specific insurance is compulsory.
Most foreign owners do not know this, and the ones who do often assume their home insurance covers it. It does not.
The compulsory cover: seguro de acidentes de trabalho
Portuguese law requires every employer to hold workers’ compensation insurance — seguro de acidentes de trabalho — for their employees, and the obligation extends to domestic service (serviço doméstico). It is not optional, it is not means-tested, and it does not depend on how many hours a week the person works.
The policy responds to injury or illness arising from the work, and it covers:
- Medical treatment, rehabilitation and transport costs following a workplace accident.
- Compensation for temporary incapacity, paid as a proportion of earnings while the employee cannot work.
- Compensation for permanent incapacity, assessed against a statutory scale.
- Death benefits and a funeral allowance payable to dependants.
- Accidents in itinere — on the normal journey to and from work — which is a genuinely significant exposure for staff arriving by scooter or bicycle.
Without the policy, those costs fall personally on the employer. There is no cap and no ceiling; a serious injury to a 40-year-old gardener who cannot work again is a liability measured in six figures. The state pursues uninsured employers for the amounts paid out, and there are separate contraordenação fines for the failure to insure.
Employing someone at your Portuguese home?
Workers’ compensation for domestic service is inexpensive. We can arrange it alongside your home cover.
What your home policy does not do
This is where the confusion sits. A Portuguese multirriscos habitação policy contains a civil liability section, and it is easy to assume that covers “anyone who gets hurt at my house”. It does not, and the distinction is fundamental rather than technical.
| Situation | Which cover responds |
|---|---|
| A visiting friend slips on the terrace | Home policy — civil liability |
| A delivery driver is bitten by your dog | Home policy — civil liability |
| Your employed cleaner falls off a step-ladder while working | Workers’ compensation — not the home policy |
| Your gardener is hit by a car cycling to your house | Workers’ compensation (accident in itinere) |
| A self-employed builder’s own worker is injured on your job | The builder’s own policy — verify it exists |
| Your employee damages a neighbour’s property while working for you | Home policy liability, potentially — check the wording |
The home policy’s liability section almost universally excludes bodily injury to your own employees, precisely because that exposure belongs in a compulsory statutory product. Two different policies, two different purposes.
The rest of the employer obligations
The insurance is one piece. Engaging someone for domestic service in Portugal also means registering them with Segurança Social before they start, paying the employer’s social security contributions, respecting minimum wage, holiday entitlement and the Christmas and holiday subsidies, and terminating the relationship lawfully if it ends. The full picture is set out in our article on the employer obligation nobody explains, and the practical insurance side for households with several staff in insurance considerations for staff employed at home.
Two practical points that come up constantly. First, paying in cash does not remove the obligations; it simply means they are unmet. Second, a long-standing informal arrangement inherited from the previous owner is still your arrangement from the day you continue it.
What about contractors and agencies?
If the cleaner comes from a cleaning company, or the gardener runs his own business with a NIF and invoices you, they are not your employee and their own insurance applies. That is a legitimate and common structure. But it depends on the substance, not the label:
- Ask for the company’s or the self-employed person’s workers’ compensation certificate and keep a copy. Renew the copy annually.
- Ask for their civil liability cover too — for damage caused to your property while working.
- Be wary of an arrangement where the person works only for you, on your schedule, with your equipment, for years. Portuguese law looks at the reality of the relationship, and that pattern looks like employment regardless of how the invoices are worded.
What it costs
Considerably less than people expect. Workers’ compensation for domestic service is priced against the declared annual remuneration, and for a part-time cleaner or gardener the premium is typically in the low tens of euros to around €100 a year. For a household with a live-in housekeeper and a full-time gardener it is still a modest figure against the payroll.
For properties with staff accommodation or a guest annexe there is a further point worth checking: the buildings and contents of staff quarters are frequently outside the scope of a standard home policy. Our article on staff quarters, guest annexes and outbuildings covers that gap.
Putting it right
If you have been employing someone without cover, the fix is straightforward and worth doing this week rather than after an accident. Tell us who works at the property, how often, and what they are paid, and we will arrange the workers’ compensation policy and check that your home liability limit is sensible for a household with staff coming and going. We can handle both alongside your existing home cover.
Adler & Rochefort is a commercial brand of Ownizo Unipessoal Lda, registered with the ASF under no. 425591790/3. General guidance only; conditions, premiums and cover vary by insurer and profile.