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Archive for the ‘public liability insurance’ Category

Contractors insurance – getting the best quote.

Sunday, November 28th, 2010

Whilst there are many different economic barometers and measures, in the world of business insurance we have two main one. Firstly, the number of business that cease to trade and secondly the number of new businesses, or business start ups, that we see who are looking for a quote.

After two years of increased business failures (and ceasing to pay insurance) and a reduction of new business enquiries, in the latter half of 2010 we are starting to see a vast improvement. We are not naive enough to say that business is not still extremely tough, just that we think a curve, not a corner, has been turned.

Construction has obviously been hit very badly, perhaps the worst of all. With the large reduction in house and commercial building, many businesses simply ceased to operate. We are now seeing more new enquiries from the construction sector than we have done for many years.

If you are just looking to take out a new contractors all risks insurance policy, where do you go? Our advice, over the years has not wavered at all. You will always get a better overall combination of service and price from a broker.

There are more commercial insurance companies nowadays offering policies for builders and tradesmens but do not be tempted to go direct. They cannot give you the choice that you need, whether it is public liability only or a full policy including employers liability and contract works, then you need a professional to advise you on the best, and most competitive type of policy to take out.

Posted in construction insurance, contract works insurance, contractors all risks insurance, employers liability insurance, public liability insurance | No Comments »

Understanding public liability insurance

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

Public liability insurance is a phrase that is used more in the business world. To understand what it means and whether you need to have it in place, we use the anology with your car. Everyone knows that if they drive a car, they need to have valid third party motor insurance. You do not need to have cover for damage to your car, or its contents or windscreen cover, this is your decision whether to take this cover out. What you must have is valid cover in place if you hit someone else’s vehicle, property or worse, a person.

Public liability, as far as insurance is concerned, covers the same things. If you, in the course of your business activities, cause damage to property or injure someone, then you can be held liable through the courts. But, and it really is a big but, there is no legal requirement upon you to take this cover out. Business insurance companies, as an industry, would like to see this being a legal requirement. Not because it means that they get the potential of more business, but because it ensures that everyone who can be held liable, has an insurance policy to fall back on.

If you work for certain other companies, they may insist on you having cover in place. This is usually at the insistence of their insurers, that any sub-contractors used need to have valid cover in place. If we consider what we have said above about insurers wanting this to be a requirement, this ties in with sub-contractors being asked to prove cover.

The only questions you really need to ask, if you are being asked to prove cover, is what limit of indemnity is required. Obviously a higher limit of indemnity, such as £5,000,000 is going to be more expensive to you, than £2,000,000. If you have a contractors form to complete, speak to your broker or better still, fax the form through to them to complete, they should not charge you for this.

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Public liability insurance – £1, £2 or £5,000,000?

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

We can confirm that public liability insurance is not a legal requirement in the UK. The only liability insurance that is covered by legal statute is employers liability and third party motor.

But, nearly every single business in the UK will have this cover in place. Why is this? There are two reasons.

Firstly, most of the package policies that are provided in the UK include public liability as standard. You tend not to be able to get a policy unless it has the minimum of public, or PL, and some form of business assets cover on a package. You can get tradesman’s and combined liability policies that do not include asset cover. In the main though, most companies will have this cover.

The second reason is because businesses have been asked to have this as part of a contract. If you supply a service or a product to another UK based company then they may insist on you having cover in place. This is to protect them in case you cause any injury, illness, disease or damage in the course of your business.

So, the question is what limit of indemnity do you actually need? Most business insurance underwriters in the UK will sell cover, starting at a particular limit of indemnity, normally the minimum you can obtain is £1,000,000. This is, unless you go to a “fringe” insurer that restricts cover, normally any one loss. Technically, you could have ten losses at £500,000 which takes you over the limit. Watch out for the “fringe” insurers though that only offer cover in the aggregate. ie this is the total amount in any one year. So, you could only have two of the above £500,000 losses.

Whilst £1m is the minimum, most will provide other limits at £2m or £5m. To go above this you would normally need to speak to an independent business insurance broker who will go to the market to get you £5m from one insurer then additional limits, say another £5m from another insurer and these two policies run in conjunction.

You have to consider the potential damage you could cause, what your contracts request and then compare the costs of the different limits. We always suggest erring on the side of caution and taking out the higher limit. But, speak to your broker and get them to help you decide.

Posted in business insurance, business insurance broker, public liability insurance | Comments Off

Public liability insurance £10,000,000 limit of indemnity

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

In the UK, most business insurance policies will include public liability at a limit of indemnity of £2,000,000.

Depending on your trade, you may be able to get cover with a reduced limit of £1m, but the norm is to get cover for £2m. You may find though, that if you are working (providing services to) for, or providing products to, another company or public sector body, that they insist on you having an increased level of cover. Usually, you will find this out as you have to complete a form which provides details of your insurance cover.

The increase is usually from £2m straight up to £5m. Nearly all UK insurers will provide this cover, at an increased premium. It is becoming more and more prevalent nowadays for companies to insist on you having an increased level up to £10,000,000. You may well wonder whether you can possible cause damage or injury that will cost this much, but this is irrelevant. The contract will state you need this cover and unless you can prove you have it, the contract will not proceed.

Although the potential of a loss of this magnitude is very, very low, insurers cannot always take the chance that they could be faced with this potential loss. Therefore, most public liability insurance policies from a single insurer will be limited to £5m. So what can you do if you need the £10m?

What happens in these cases is that your insurance broker will approach another insurer to get what is called an “excess of loss” layer. In simple terms, insurer a gives you cover for the first five and then insurer b provides the additional five, which adds up to the ten that you require.

As the potential for insurer b to have a loss is vastly reduced, because there has to be a loss of over £5,000,000 for them to suffer, then the prices for this excess layer are fairly low. As long as you are not doing anything very high risk or working in a high risk environment (ie nuclear power plants) then the annual premium should only be around £550.

Posted in business insurance, excess of loss, public liability insurance | Comments Off

Salon insurance – beauty treatment cover

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

There are many great things about British businesses. One of the many, is that they are prepared to adapt and change as time marches on. But, as businesses change the services and products they offer, they need to ensure that their business insurance continues to provide adequate protection.

There is not a shop in the land that decides to sell a certain range of products and then sticks to that range over the years. They will do all they can to understand exactly what Joe Public want and to amend and alter the items they sell. Look up and down every single high street in the land and you will see certain types of shops. One of these is the good old fashioned hairdressers.

But, how many hairdressers do you know that have remained unchanged? There are of course a few that steadfastly stick to just offering the same service to the same clientele, but even they will adapt the style of the cut. Mullets and male perms are no longer the order of the day, so they change what they offer.

Other hairdressers, mainly ladies, will expand their service range and bring in a direct beauty employee or even sub-contract this and rent out a beauty room to a third party. This is something though that has a direct affect on the salon insurance cover that you may already have in place.

As the range of treatments gets ever wider, the number of claims for these different treatments grows. The big issue for the insurers is the invasive treatments or if you have sunbeds. General beauty, such as make up, nails or massage is fine. As soon as you branch into more elaborate treatments you need to notify your insurers of this.

The chances are that most insurers are more than happy to extend your public liability insurance to pick up additional activities, in return for a small increase in the annual premium. But, the key is that you must tell them. The last things you want for your shiny new salon is to face a claim for a many thousands of pounds from a customer who alleges that you have injured them. It is, of course, much better and preferable for you to have cover in place to support you in the event of such a claim.

The good thing about the cover is that even it is a spurious claim that has no chance of being settled, the insurers will still deal with this and notify the third party that there is no valid claim.

Posted in business insurance, public liability insurance, salon insurance | Comments Off

Public liability insurance – cover in isolation

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Depending on what you do, you may only require public liability insurance on it’s own. Many business insurance liability policies offer the three main types, public, employers and products.

These types of policies are typically called combined liability insurance. If you are a sole trader, for example a plumber, electrician or carpenter, you may not need the additional two liability covers. You do not have any employees, hence there is no need for employers liability insurance and you do not supply products (separately) so there is no need for this cover.

What you need to look for is a tradesman’s insurance quote, this will give you the option of picking one of two liability covers. Every tradesman’s policy must have public liability and you can, if you need it, add on the employees cover.

This is what is known as cover in isolation, it is on it’s own as a single policy. But what about the products liability? Although you are not selling products, in a retail or wholesale sense, customers do end up with products that you have supplied.

The good thing is, that tradesman’s or contractors insurance policies do automatically include products liability, as long as the product is supplied as part of the contract. So, the plumber that puts in a bathroom suite, has products liability for any injury, illness, disease or damage caused by the products on their own.

Posted in business insurance, combined liability insurance, public liability insurance | No Comments »

Commercial insurance – why this is vital for your business.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

This may seem to be a simple enough statement to make and most owners would quite happily agree.

We have, in the UK as in the rest of the world, been through the worst recession in living memory. We are still feeling the after effects and the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition emergency austerity budget is not going to do any favours, short term, to helping Joe public have more cash to spend.

As businesses continue to suffer, many are looking to cut costs to the bone as their very survival can be at stake. One of the areas where some people may think they can save money, is through cutting the cover on, or stopping paying, their business insurance.

The rationale may seem simple, you have paid insurance for a number of years and have never made a claim, so what harm is their in stopping the cover for a while.

The very nature of business is that a claim can occur at any point, think about public liability insurance, you may not have claimed for years, but you just know that the likelihood of you causing damage to someones property never decreases. The same business risks that caused you to buy the cover in the first place have not disappeared.

It could well be that you have not been paying the best, open market, price or premium. Rather than simply paring down your cover or cancelling your policy, take the chance to speak to business insurance broker and get them to do a full review of all your covers and policies. It could well be that enough of a saving can be made, without reducing your cover, to prevent you having to trade uninsured.

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Public liability insurance, including contract works cover.

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

In years gone by, the cheapest public liability insurance quotes were those that you would receive under a tradesmens insurance policy. These are the policies that cover builders, plumbers, carpenters, decorators and electricians etc.

They provide the very basic cover for any damage that you may cause to third party property (ie buildings) and/or people. If the carpenter drops a piece of wood that damages a plaster wall, this is where the public liability kicks in.

But, we are seeing more and more requests nowadays for cover that also includes contract works. This is cover for the physical improvements that you as the contractor are making to a site or premises at which you will work.

The easiest example to think of, is a builder that is putting an extension on to a house. Until such time as the builder gains formal sign off from the householder that they are happy with the actual works, then the contractor is legally responsible for this. So, if the extension burns down (yes, these things do happen) ot part of it is damaged in a storm, then the contractor is reponsible.

The important point here, is that this is not public liability. The contractor has not damaged 3rd party property. Therefore, cover is required for this physical item (the extension) for such perils as theft, storm, fire etc. You used to have to purchase a separate contractors all risks insurance or contract works insurance cover.

But, most insurers nowadays allow this as an extension to a tradesmens type insurance policy. You pick a limit for contract works, at any one location (as you may be doing more than one job), which is usually in bands such as £50,000, £100,000 and upwards.

The reason we are seeing more and more requests is because appointed architects or civil engineers (working for the householder) are insisting on this cover. Also, the mortgage company that is financing or loaning the monies for the project, may insist on seeing valid proof of cover, from the contractor.

To get a suitable quote, you will need to discuss this with a business insurance broker. They have the skills and the knowledge that can help to get the best quote at the best price for you.

Tags: contractors insurance
Posted in business insurance, contractors all risks insurance, public liability insurance | No Comments »

Public liability insurance quote

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Liability insurance quotes cover three main types of insurance. They are employers, products and public liability insurance policies.

To obtain a quote, you will need to approach a business insurance broker, as opposed to one that offers house, travel and car cover.

Business insurance can be a complex animal to understand. What we do not mean is that the policies are unreadable, but that there are so many different types of terms, conditions and excesses applicable.

You can obtain public liability on it’s own, for example if you are a builder, plumber, electrician etc, the reason being that this is the only type of liability cover that you actually need.

Getting employers or products liability on it’s own, or in isolation, is more difficult and there are few insurers that will offer this. They will normally need you to confirm to them why it is that you only want one out of the the three covers.

Public liability is, your responsibility (or what you could be liable for) at law for damage to third party property (ie the plumber burning down your house) or persons (ie if the same careless plumber dropped a hammer from the loft and hit you on the head). The key thing is here, you have to be legally liable. Someone is paying you to undertake a service or to do some work for them. If you damage their property or injure them, you could quite easily face a lawsuit.

It is of course rare for this to go to court, but the bigger the cost of the damage, then the more likelihood there is of a claim. They are “once in a blue moon events”, but the last thing you want to do is be faced with a bill for hundreds of thousands of pounds for re-building a property.

Get yourself protected, get adequate liability insurance now.

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Public liability insurance – what is a reasonable excess?

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

We first of all need to look at what an excess is. If you take out public liability insurance, or any other type of insurance cover, you will receive a policy wording and a schedule of insurance.

This can either be in hard copy format or it will be sent to you electronically. Legally, in the UK, you must receive these two documents within 30 days of your insurance cover starting. Or, such confirmation of insurance cover to satisfy you that the insurance protection is in place.

Within your policy wording there will be many terms, conditions, warranties, exclusions and excesses. An excess is basically the amount that you will pay, or contribute towards any claim. Some insurance covers, such as employers liability, do not normally have excesses (unless you go to a real “fringe” insurer, which is usually not recommended).

The purpose of an excess is simply to save the insurers money by not dealing with and/or paying out on small value claims. If you are a carpenter and have public liability insurance, your insurers do not want to pay out because you dropped a hammer and caused £5 worth of damage to a tiled floor.

So, insurers apply different levels of excess to try and prevent you from putting in low value claims. It is very, very important though that you do declare such losses to an insurer. As a worst case scenario, if you as a sole trader have had to pay out of your own pocket for 25 damage claims, all around £50-£100 in the last year, then the insurer has to know because this is worse than careless and only a matter of time before a major claim comes along.

A sensible excess for a trades policy (ie plumbing, building, bricklaying etc) is anything between £100 and £250. Most commercial insurance companies have a standard excess of £100, which can increase to £250 or even £500 if you use heat (ie blowtorches, blow lamps).

Any more than this, then it is time for you to look elsewhere as you really would expect your insurance to kick in for any damage claims over £250.

Posted in employers liability insurance, public liability insurance | No Comments »