Do You Need Public Liability Insurance?

If you are Self Employed, or own a Business you must have Public Liability Insurance in case of an accident. A member of the public, a contractor, Client or member of staff (if you are an employer) can claim compensation against you. As a tradesman or any worker on site - you have a Duty Of Care to those around you to work safely and with professional integrity - but accidents do happen, there will always be unexpected professional oversights. You must protect your livelihood in case someone claims against you - otherwise you could lose everything.

'Where there's blame, there's a claim' is our culture these day's, and accidents will always happen in the work place and on site despite best intentions and anyone who gets injured, or property becomes damaged as a result of you or your business could be eligible to claim against you.

The most common types of claims fall into a small number of categories:

• Slips, trips and falls-these make up the majority of claims, and are the hardest to prevent.

• Stress and anxiety, due to hold ups, for example Electrical malfunction, or delayed finishes to building projects affecting the next tier of tradesmen beginning - example: the plasterers run over the finish date which in turn hold up the decorators.

• Falling objects, i.e. striking against or struck by

Do I Need Professional Indemnity Insurance?

If your business offers advice you may also need 'Professional Indemnity Insurance', which covers you in the event you give incorrect advice and a business or client were to suffer financial losses as a result. This is also valuable for trades such as Financial Planning, Business Consultants and IT Consultants. This is not instead of Public Liability Insurance, some trades will need both.

Do I Need Employers Liability Insurance?

If you employ any staff, you must have Employers Liability Insurance; this is direct protection for your staff against any accidents or illness which is caused by your or your business.

Imagine if your administrator were to suffer symptoms of RSI while in your employment, or a gardeners apprentice was to suffer injuries as a result of having a go with a hedge trimmer while you were busy elsewhere? These are very real risks, and you are required by law to have this in place, for protection of those in your employment.

Example: Plumbers business - a customer moves some pipes that were left propped up against the wall in a bid to prevent them falling, in doing so they accidentally cause the apprentice to trip and fall, breaking his wrist. This requires 6 weeks off work on statutory sick pay while the injury recovers. The apprentice can now launch a claim against his employer for compensation, and loss of earnings, as the injury was caused by the client in the workplace.