What Insurance do I need for Mobile Car Valeting?

If you’re running a mobile car valeting business, there’s a number of different types of car valeters insurance that you’ll need.

Depending on how much equipment you’ve got, you might need property insurance. You’ll also need liability insurance. You should consider personal accident and sickness insurance to protect you in case you’re injured or become ill. And you should also consider legal expenses insurance to protect you in case you become involved in legal action.

Property insurance

Property insurance covers your business property against it being accidentally damaged or stolen.

Although you might not think you have enough property to make it worthwhile insuring it, you might be surprised once you’ve added up all the values, particularly once the computer equipment you use to manage your business is included.

It’s worth checking what cover applies to property that’s taken away from your business premises because often conditions apply. It’s common for theft of property in unattended road vehicles to be excluded from the cover, for instance.

Liability insurance

Liability insurance is the main type of insurance that you need. It covers you if someone makes a compensation claim against you. As well as covering any compensation awarded, it also covers any associated costs and expenses.

This includes any legal fees that are incurred. Your liability insurer will also help you deal with any compensation claims that have been made against you, so you don’t need to worry about dealing with solicitors and legal arguments.

There are two types that you need to consider, employer’s liability insurance and public liability insurance.

The first type, employer’s liability insurance, covers you if a compensation claim is made against you by one of your employees. You are legally required to have this if you employ anyone even if you’re only employing them on a part-time or casual basis.

The second type, public liability insurance, covers you if the compensation claim is made against you by someone else. You aren’t legally required to have this type of insurance, but because compensation claims can easily reach £250,000 and they’re difficult to deal with, it would be unwise to consider operating without it. It can also be a contractual requirement – for instance, if you’re operating on someone else’s property, they may insist that you are insured.

You should make sure that your public liability insurance contains a financial loss cover extension. Standard public liability insurance only covers compensation claims that involve an injury or property damage, so without this extension you would be uninsured if a claim was made against you for a purely economic loss.

Personal accident & sickness insurance

If you’re self-employed, you don’t get sick pay in the same way that you do if you’re employed by someone. This means that if you’re unable to work because you’ve been injured or your ill, you might not be able to work and, in turn, that means you might struggle to cover your monthly outgoings, such as your mortgage or rent and your utility bills.

Personal accident and sickness insurance covers you if you find yourself in this situation by paying a weekly benefit while you’re off work. If you’ll be unable to return to work due to your injury or illness a lump sum is payable instead. A lump sum is also payable in the event of death.

Legal expenses insurance

If you find yourself involved in legal action if can be expensive. Dealing with legal action can also be difficult. There are a number of ways that you can become involved in legal action:

• Employment tribunals
• Tax/VAT inspections
• Disputes with your neighbours
• Contractual disputes
• Criminal charges

Legal expenses insurance covers your legal fees if you are in any of these situations. The legal expenses insurer will also help you deal with the issue.