Archive for the ‘public liability insurance’ Category

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Cafe insurance – cover for external seating

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Forget the General Election, what is more important is that summer is, at last, here. Sure, we will have a few blips over the next few weeks but given the winter we have had, whether you are in Scotland, England or Wales, mainland UK could do with a bit of heating up.

As you walk through the high streets of the land you will see that more and more establishments are going through the process of serving food and drink to customers outside of their premises. By outside, we mean external seating to the business premises.

You will need to notify your local authority of this as, in most parts of the country, they will need to approve this and in many cases give you a licence. Of course this is bureaucratic, this is what the UK does best. But, there is a reason for this. If someone is walking along and injures themselves by bumping into a table, then this will potentially be a public liability insurance claim.

The local authority, who have legal responsibility for the pavement, will not pay out because they were not responsible for putting the table/chair etc there. So, this will need to fall upon your cafe insurance policy. Nearly all policies will only provide liability for the risk address or demised premises, so you need to advise them, and get them to agree, to extend the public liability to cover seats and chairs on the pavement.

The good news is, if you deal through a good, quality independent business insurance broker they will not charge you for this, unless you need to increase your limit of indemnity, from say £2,000,000 to £5,000,000.

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Contractors public liability insurance – is this required?

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Here in the UK, we do have an entrepreneurial spirit. We may have suffered a few years of big government where public sector jobs are ten a penny, but many people want to work on their own and for this reason, they become sole traders, partnerships or even limited companies.

Whilst working for yourself gives you that freedom to be your own boss, there are of course additional responsibilities. The main one is to make sure that your tax affairs are fully in order, the last thing you want to do is have the tax man chasing you for back payments.

Another responsibility that should be high on the list is your business or commercial insurance. We are talking here about contractors (ie plumbers, builders, carpenters etc) and the main cover you should have is public liability insurance. Notice that I said, cover you should have. There is no legal requirement to have this cover in the same way as employers liability insurance is legally required (if you have employees).

However, more and more contractors are finding out that where they contract to someone else, as part of this agreement, they must have valid insurance cover in force. You will find that you need to prove this is in force, by actually showing, emailing or faxing a certificate of insurance.

If you do not show the certificate, then you will not get paid. So, to answer the question, is this required. Then the answer is actually yes in the vast majority of cases.

The good news is that you can either get straight public liability in isolation (no other covers) or you can have this as part of a commercial liability insurance policy and, it is easy peasy to get a quote. If you are reading this on the net, open up another browser window, select UK, search for public liability insurance and phone the first three organic listings you see.

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Surgery insurance package policies

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Many UK commercial insurance companies base all of their different types of policies on a standard package. The standard package is the skeleton, it contains certain sections which most companies and businesses will need to have. These include business assets and laibilities such as employers and public liability insurance.

If you are looking for a vets surgery insurance (or doctors or dentists) you will find, in most cases, that the skeleton policy used is an office insurance one. The reason being that although the businesses are very different, there are still a lot of similarities in the cover that they provide.

What you do need to look out for is that although your cover may be based on an office policy, you may need to have some additional covers, this is the meat on the bones. So, what differences would an office have to a surgery? A surgery will need to have cover sections to include, for example previous metals (for a dentist) and chilled or referigerated cover for medicines or serums (if you are a doctors surgery).

A vets package will also need to ensure that full public liability is provided, in the event of an animal injuring a third party who is not an employee. Whilst a member of the public may bring an injured animal into the surgery, there is always the potential that this animal could attack other people attending the clinic, this will, more than likely, fall under the liability cover of the surgery.

What you need to do, in all cases, is to speak to a professional, independent business insurance broker. They will listen to you, advise you and best of all search all insurers for the best terms available, they have a legal obligation to do this.

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Commercial liability insurance – watch the hidden excesses

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

There are three main choices when looking for a business insurance quote, you can either take out a liability only policy, a policy that combines liabilities with business assets or, if you are that way inclined, to go without cover.

Instantly discounting option three, because we would never recommend that any business operates without cover, whether there is a legal requirement or not, you may choose to take out the liability only option.

The reasons for this are because you may not have any business assets to insure or you decide, for cost reasons, that you will not insure the business assets.

Commercial or business liability insurance is a way of describing the three main covers, employers, products and public liability insurance. You can usually get a quote for public only, or a combination of the other three. Noting that employers is never available on it’s own, insurers always offer this as part of an overall package.

With public liability insurance (your responsibility for loss or damage to other people or their property) you need to be careful about the excess. The premiums vary a great deal, part of the reason for this is that insurer a) may only have a £100 excess (the amount you pay of any valid claim) whereas insurer b) that offers cheaper quote may have a third party property damage excess of £500.

Once you have had to take the hit for one or two claim in a few years, you will soon realise that the cheaper quote, in the long run, was actually the much more expensive option.

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Public liability insurance – what is it and do I need it?

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Everyone understands the phrase “you are liable”. This means you, or a third party, are responsible for something.

When we start to talk about the legalities of this, we think about public liability insurance, which can be confusing for a business.

The first thing to ask is, what exactly is it? Simply put, it is your legal liability for any loss, damage, disease or injury (physical or psychological) to any third party person or property. The key thing here is “legal” liability, whilst you may feel a moral obligation in certain circumstances, public liability insurance only applies if you can be proven to be liable, at law.

The second thing to ask is, do I need it? Maybe or maybe not. There is not the similar legal requirement to have the cover that applies to employers liability insurance. But, you may need it as part of a contract or because you want to protect your business in the event of a claim.

If you are unsure, call a broker to discuss their thoughts on whether you do need this cover and let them get you a comparative quote.

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Hairdressers insurance – non-employees public liability cover

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Many salons, whether hairdressing, beauty or nails, do not operate in the traditional manner.

Instead of a salon owner employing staff directly, they are now renting out a chair. A self employed hairdresser, can pay a weekly rental to the salon owner for the use of the premises, the “chair”, water and electricity. Everything else, such as shampoos, use of equipment and stock are the responsibility of the party that actually rents the chair.

This means there are responsibilities on both the salon owner and the party renting, to arrange hairdressers insurance. The salon owner, will more than likely already have their own package policy in place. But, read into the depths of the policy wording and it will specifically exclude, under the liability section, cover for people that are not deemed to be employees.

The rent a chair person therefore needs to ensure that they have their own public liability insurance policy in place in case they cause injury, illness, disease or damage to any third party person or property.

The salon owner meanwhile must advise their insurers, for the sake of clarity, that they are renting out chairs in the salon. Most insurers accept this, some restrict cover (ie theft and 3rd party) and others simply won’t insure them.

As ever, your better to deal with a broker who will be able to help and guide you through the whole insurance process.

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Public liability – what if I am not liable?

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Here in the UK, there was an excellent programme on Channel 4 on 25th February 2010 about the claims and compensation culture in the UK. Basically, if anyone slips, trips, falls or injures themselves, they feel that someone else should pay.

To protect yourself agains this, you purchase public liability insurance. The policy will pay, or settle, any action raised by a third party, where you have been proven to be negligent.

This last word is absolutely vital and key. If you are not negligent, you are not liable. The programme was good as it showed that local authorities are starting to fight back against the hundreds of claims they get every year.

If you do not have a separate policy, you may find that your umbrella or package policy includes combined liability insurance.

The good thing, if you are not liable, is that your insurers will deal with the claim on your behalf, within your cover. So, even if you think it is laughable that someone has the audacity to claim, you still need to refer to your insurers and let them deal with it.

Whilst you may not think you are liable, in certain cases you will be based on English law and past precedents. Never assume that just telling someone to go away is enough, solicitors can smell a big tasty fee from 500 miles and they will not let go.

Let your insurers deal with it, and if you are not liable, they will advise and deal with the third party accordingly.

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Cleaners liability insurance – why is this so different?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

When looking for public liability insurance, certain types of business need to be aware of market wide exclusions to this cover.

Any standard public, or third party business liability insurance policy, will have a significant exclusion. This is, that damage to property being worked upon is excluded.

For example, if a cleaner is cleaning and polishing a table in someones living room and there is a major scratch, then a standard policy will exclude this. The reason is, because commercial insurance, as with all types of covers, is only to cover unexpected and or unforeseen events. It can, in the eyes of an insurer, be reasonably foreseen that damage will occur to property being cleaned. So, they exclude this cover.

If however the cleaner is carrying a bin liner full of rubbish through the house and some bleach leaked through to a carpet, this is covered. Similarly, if they walk past an ornament and knock it over, this is covered. It is only the damage to items or property being cleaned that is excluded.

Help, as always, is at hand. Certain insurers have policies that cover this, of course, they are more expensive, but the peace of mind from having the wider cover is worth paying for.

When looking for a quote, ask your broker if you do have cover, specifically, for “damage to property being worked upon” and also check the excess. If you don’t have this cover, you have been warned.

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Salon insurance – public liability for rent a chair

Monday, February 1st, 2010

A few years ago, the following scene which I saw in my hometown, was replicated throughout the UK. If a new shop was opening up, there was at least a 20% chance that it was going to be a hair or beauty salon. It just seemed to be that the “in” thing to do was to open a salon.

We have seen though that this was partly a combination of easy investment money from the banks and easy spending from Joe or Joanna Public. Salons have survived the past few years though, many through diversification.

If a salon has a nuber of “chairs” they will rent one out at a fixed fee to an individual. That individual can then undertake as much hairdressing as they wish, with the money in excess of the weekly fee they pay for the chair, going to them as profit.

This is happening more and more, but you do need to consider the terms and conditions of your salon insurance. The person renting the chair does not work for you, is not paid wages and is not therefore covered under your policy.

What you need to do is insist, as part of the lease terms for the rent a chair, that they have their own public liability insurance. Quite a few UK underwriters wil do this cover for around £75 per annum. The person needs to be over 18, have at least two years experience and be claims free. This is less than £1.50 so don’t accept any excuses that they cannot afford it, insist on them having adequate protection.

Posted in hairdressers insurance, public liability insurance, salon insurance | No Comments »

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