Public liability insurance falls under, or is part of, the law of tort. Put simply, this focuses on civil wrongs, contrasted to criminal wrongs. If someone is injured, or property is damaged, as a result of your business or property owning activities, you could be held liable.
You may have read in the press about postal workers suing homeowners for slipping or tripping or people suing a building owner when a tile hit their car. These are examples of claims that would fall under property owners liability. Although the claim is directed at the property owner, if they have a commercial property owners insurance policy, then the insurer foots the bill. However, in law the claim needs to go against the individual property owner.
As an owner or occupier you do have a duty of care to anyone that enters or arrives on your property, but there are limitations. In a way this is where the insurers are fighting back. With the advent of no win, no fee legislation, it was very easy for anyone to approach a solicitor and go through the formal claims process at very little cost.
Perversely, some of the business insurance companies set up schemes, offering customers legal expenses to pursue actions, including against their own company. For a few hundred pounds you could buy a policy and make a claim for a few thousand. The solicitors took their ever increasing cut of up to 50%. But, if you tripped on a loose pavement slab or a bit of carpet in a shop you could get yourself around £1,000.
But, the insurers have started to question these claims a bit more. It used to be that it was cheaper to just pay the few thousand than fight the case. Everyone knew this, but as the number of claims spiralled, almost out of control, the insurers started to think that they could, overall save a bit of money.
If you are a property owner and have a buildings policy, you should automatically get cover for property owners liability built in to the policy, if not, have a word with your broker and get this added asap.

