Contractors Insurance

Public Liability

Business Protection From All Manner Of Accidents

Accidents do happen – they’re a part of running a business. Whether it’s a member of the public tripping over your tools or damage to a client’s house, there are some accidents that are simply unavoidable. No matter how careful you try to be, sometimes life just has to throw a curveball at you.

Public liability cover was designed exactly for these types of unforeseen accidents. The cornerstone of any trade insurance policy, it offers essential protection against claims made by customers or members of the public for an injury they suffered, or damage to their property caused by you or your business.

The Limits Of Public Liability: What Do You Get?

Our standard cover is:

• Up to £5 million public & products liability
• PLUS £10,000 financial loss cover (with an option to increase to £50K – read more below)
• PLUS worldwide liability cover for temporary work abroad (up to 14 days – excluding the USA and Canada)

Our policy automatically comes with an indemnity limit of £1 million public liability cover, with an option to increase this to £2 million or £5 million. The indemnity limit is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay in the event of any one public liability insurance claim. Some of our customers do require a minimum amount of public liability cover (for example, local authorities tend to ask for £5 million). If you need more than £5 million in cover, feel free to give us a call and we’d be more than happy to arrange whatever cover you require.

It’s also worth noting that our public liability cover also includes cover for the products you supply – for further details, please visit our product liability insurance page.

Financial loss cover is an extension that will be provided automatically with your public liability cover, at no additional cost. It provides protection in the event that a customer suffers a financial loss not caused by injury, or property damage. Any financial loss caused by injury or property damage would be covered under the public liability section of your policy.

Financial Loss

Protection For Your Business Against Financial Loss Claims

Sometimes, in the trade business, accidents happen — they’re an unfortunate part of life in the business world. But injury or damage to a customer, their property or a member of the public isn’t the only unintended consequence of an accident – sometimes, you might be faced with another business suffering financial loss as the result of the actions of your business. These types of claims can easily run you into the tens of thousands without the proper insurance in place.

Financial loss insurance is designed to protect against claims like these. They protect businesses against financial loss caused to a third party NOT as a direct consequence of accidental physical loss of, or damage to, material property. This means that, in the event your business were to be faced with a claim for financial loss, these costs would be met by your insurer.

If a customer suffers a financial loss as a result of an injury caused to them or damage to their property, this would be covered under your public liability insurance. But, if there is no injury or damage, you would need cover for financial loss to settle the claim.

An example of where financial loss insurance was a life saver was in the case of a flooring contractor who was contracted to lay a new floor in a warehouse. The contractor did not follow the spec and laid a floor which was not fit for purpose. As a result, the floor needed to be re-laid which delayed delivery of a new machine. The client was liable for additional storage costs and transportation costs for the new machine due to the delays. These additional costs were met by a financial loss insurance policy.

Products Liability

What Is Products Liability Insurance?

Products liability insurance provides cover for your business against damages awarded if a product that you make or supply causes personal injury or damage to property.

Do I Need Products Liability Insurance?

If you manufacture or supply a product, then you are legally responsible for any injury or damage caused by it. Even if you didn’t manufacture it, if you supply a faulty product to a customer, they may try to sue you initially. You will be at risk of compensation claims if: the name of your business is on the product, the manufacturing company cannot be clearly identified or is no longer trading, you change or repair the product, or if the product was brought into the UK from outside Europe. In these circumstances, product liability insurance would give your business financial protection.

Is Products Liability Insurance a Legal Requirement?

No, generally speaking, products liability insurance is not compulsory. However, if a product that you sell, or give away, happens to be defective, it could cause serious damage and sometimes a fault may not come to light until the product hits the market and starts to be used by the consumer. So products liability insurance could be a low-cost safety net for your business.

Do I Pay Extra for Products Liability Insurance with Tradesman Saver?

No, our Tradesman Saver policy includes public and product liability insurance cover automatically.

How Much Products Liability Insurance Will I Get?

The indemnity limit for products liability insurance is £1million with the option to increase to £2million or £5million. This is the maximum amount the insurance company will pay in any one period of insurance (usually a period of 12 months). Please ask us if you think you need a higher limit and we will make the necessary arrangements for you.

When Products Liability Insurance paid off

A central heating engineer fitted a pump to a boiler which turned out to be faulty and as a result, it caused a flood resulting in major damage. The claim was dealt with by the engineer’s Tradesman Saver policy and was then passed back to the manufacturer of the pump.

A large number of tradesmen and professionals supply many different types of products to their customers that they don’t manufacture themselves but which, nevertheless, could cause injury or damage that they could be held responsible for if the product was faulty. Remember, you get product liability insurance automatically with Tradesman Saver.

Legal Expenses

What is Legal Expenses Insurance?

When you run a business, a wide variety of problematic situations can arise. Some things are covered by a standard type of business insurance such as a theft or fire or an injury/damage that your business might accidentally cause. But there are also a number of other problems that you might find yourself faced with that a business policy would not usually be able to help you with. This is where Legal Expenses Insurance can come to the rescue.

What Cover Do I Get With Legal Expenses Insurance?

Legal Expenses Insurance provides cover (up to £250,000) for your legal costs and expenses for a generous range of legal disputes that you could find yourself involved in such as:

• Employment disputes including compensation awards
• Defence of prosecutions
• Property disputes
• Tax investigations
• VAT appeals
• Representation for compliance and regulatory matters (eg. health and safety)
• Employees extra protection defence

Do I Get Other Benefits With Legal Expenses Insurance?

Yes, Legal Expenses Insurance also gives you really helpful advice and support in running your business, whenever you need it:

• Legal helpline, 24 hours, 365 days
• Tax helpline manned by tax experts during office hours
• Business legal services online that help you to build and download legal documents relating to your business such as employment contracts and health and safety policies
• Confidential staff counselling helpline

How Much Does Legal Expenses Insurance Cost?

With Tradesman Saver, there is no additional cost for this valuable cover. We provide it automatically with your Tradesman Saver policy as an extra benefit! When you consider that nowadays, you could easily pay a solicitor a fee of £200 + VAT for every hour of their time to advise you, our Legal Expenses Insurance could save you a small fortune.

Accidental Death

Essential Cover For You and Your Staff

Provides a lump sum payment of £10,000 following accidental death of you or any of your employees covered by this policy caused by a sudden, unexpected event.

Employers Liability

Your Staff Aren’t Invincible

When you’re running a trade business and employing staff, the last thing you need to worry about is your staff getting injured on the job. Not only does it dent your profits while they’re out of action, but worse still, a compensation claim could potentially cost you from the tens of thousands into the millions, if someone were to die as a result.

Employer’s liability insurance acts as a buffer for these unexpected circumstances. Instead of having to pay a claim from your own pocket, if you include employer’s liability as part of your cover, you’ll be covered by your policy and your insurer will pay the costs for you. This leaves you free to focus on the day-to-day running of your business, while we watch out for what’s coming on the road ahead.

Unlike public liability, employer’s liability cover is not an automatic cover, but it can be added onto any standard Tradesman Saver policy if you need it.

The Legalities Of Employer’s Liability: Do You Really Need It?

For anybody running a business and employing staff or using labour-only sub-contractors, employer’s liability is legally required by law. There are, however, a few exceptions worth noting though.

If your business is a Limited Company which has only one employee who owns 50% or more of the issued share capital in the company, then you aren’t obliged to take out employer’s liability insurance. If your business isn’t a Limited Company and either, a.) you’re the only employee, or b.) you only employee close family members, then once again, employer’s liability insurance isn’t compulsory. However, even in these exempt circumstances, having it is still advised, as it can provide a safety net in case of an unforeseen accident.

The Limits Of Employer’s Liability: What Do You Get?

Our standard cover is:

• £10 million employer’s liability cover

You can even add cover for working partners or cover for temporary staff as optional extensions to your employer’s Liability cover. Our policy is designed for a maximum of 10 manual employees, exceding working partners and clerical staff (if you have more than 10 employees, please contact us directly and we’d be glad to arrange whatever cover you require).

Tools / Equipment

Don’t Be A Tool: Protect Your Tools & Equipment

When you’re running a business, you know the most important things you need to do your work are your tools and equipment. Whether you work as a carpenter or consultant, or a plumber or photographer, you’ll know that you wouldn’t be able to carry out vital work without them. They’re the lifeblood of your business, which makes covering them an absolute essential.

Our tools & equipment cover offers protection from theft and damage, so in the event the worst should happen, you won’t find yourself run out of pocket for the replacements. We have varying levels of cover to accommodate big and small businesses, which means you can focus on keeping things running smoothly, while we look out for the bumps in the road along the way.

Tools & Equipment Insurance: What’s Included In Your Cover?

Our policy provides from between £1,000 and £5,000 cover per person for your tools and equipment. You can tailor your policy to your specific needs and choose the amount of insurance you want, in steps of £500, which means you’ll always pay the lowest possible price for the cover you need.

Contractors All Risks

All Risks Cover For All Seasons

Sometimes known as contract works insurance, contractor’s all risks insurance is an optional cover that can be added to a builders, or similar tradesman policy if you will be carrying out work on a contract site. This optional cover is designed to protect your business against a range of potential hazards that might occur with this type of work.

Contractors all risks cover can be added to your trade policy, and provides cover for any contract works, your own plant, tools and equipment, your employees’ tools, hired-in property and temporary buildings during construction.

The Trades Contractors All Risks Insurance Applies To

This cover can apply to a wide variety of trades, including (but not limited to):

• General building contractors
• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Plasterers
• Tilers
• Carpenters
• Joiners
• Bricklayers
• Double glazing installers
• Heating and air conditioning engineers

What Contractors All Risks Insurance Cover Includes

• Contract Works
  Up to £500,000 cover for loss or damage to building works while you’re responsible for them. This insures your construction projects (both permanent and temporary), as well as any materials you’re using on the project
• Plant, Machinery, Tools & Equipment
  Up to £75,000 cover for theft or damage to construction plant, tools and equipment for use in connection with the contract
• Temporary Buildings
  Up to £20,000 cover for damage to temporary buildings (site huts, etc.) for use in connection with the contract. This cover includes fixtures and fittings
• Hired-In Property
  Cover for damage to hired-in property including construction plant, tools and equipment up to a maximum limit of £50,000 for any one item. It also includes up to £50,000 for continuing hire charges that you’re liable to pay following any damage

Business Contents

What Is Business Contents Insurance?

Business contents insurance is designed to cover items other than the tools and equipment that you use for your trade or profession; for example, PCs, desks, furniture, photocopiers, fax machines, telephone systems etc. Tradesman Saver gives you wide, all risks cover for these necessary things. If the unexpected should happen and they were stolen, destroyed or damaged, then business contents insurance will protect you.

Why Do I Need Business Contents Insurance?

You almost certainly rely on your items of business contents for the smooth running of your business, but some people tend to overlook them when then they think about their insurance and tend to focus more on other cover such as public liability and their tools or equipment. However, it would almost certainly disrupt your business if you were suddenly left without them – especially if you had no business contents insurance. Finding the money to replace them could be a great strain on your business and it’s a problem that you can avoid by including business contents insurance in your policy.

How Much Business Contents Insurance Cover Will I Get?

You can have up to up to £20,000 cover for loss or damage to business contents stored at your premises and used in connection with your business. The level of cover for business contents insurance starts at £5,000 and you can increase it in steps of £5,000.

What Is The Cost of Business Contents Insurance Cover?

The cost of business contents insurance starts at less than £15 per year but it will depend on the amount of cover you choose and the area your premises are in.

Do I Get Business Contents Insurance Automatically?

No, unlike other covers that you get automatically with Tradesman Saver like public liability, products liability and legal expenses cover, business contents insurance is optional. You can add it as you go through the quote process if you want to include it.

Professional Indemnity

What Is Professional Indemnity Insurance?

Professional Indemnity insurance is a form of liability insurance that covers your business against claims of professional negligence. It protects you from having to bear the cost of defending such a claim and the damages awarded.

Is Professional Indemnity Insurance Automatic?

No, professional Indemnity insurance is not included automatically BUT is available as an optional cover for selected trades. Our optional cover provides a standard limit of £50,000. If cover is not available for your trade OR you need a higher limit, just contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss the cover you need and arrange a stand-alone policy for you.

Is Professional Indemnity Insurance Compulsory?

Some professions such as solicitors, architects and accountants are required to have professional indemnity insurance by their regulatory or governing body. Many other types of businesses such as engineers, consultants and designers also take out this cover.

Do I Need Professional Indemnity Insurance?

You should think about taking out professional indemnity insurance if your business provides specialist advice or services, especially to other businesses. If you are negligent or make an error that results in your client suffering a financial loss, then professional indemnity insurance will give you the protection you need. Not sure if you need it? Just contact us and we’ll be happy to answer your queries.

How Much Professional Indemnity Insurance Do I Need?

Only you can decide on the amount of cover (or in other words, indemnity limit) that your business needs. You will need to try and estimate the damages and legal costs that your business could be faced with. The level of professional indemnity insurance you need may be specified in the contract you have with your client or customer (although this figure may not reflect your actual requirements!). If you belong to a professional body or association, they may require a minimum level of cover. If you find it hard to decide, it may be a good idea to take advice from your solicitor because it could be disastrous to be under-insured.

What Cover Is Usually Provided With Professional Indemnity Insurance?

The cover is described at the top of the page, but other things that are often covered by a professional indemnity insurance policy include libel and slander, unintentional breach of confidentiality, infringement of intellectual property rights, dishonesty of employees and loss of documents and previous partners/firms.

Examples of Professional Indemnity Insurance Claims

An architect draws up plans for a new building. The materials are bought and the construction begins but part way through the project it comes to light that an error was made which has major consequences. The structure has to be re-built and new materials bought. The architect would face a claim of negligence resulting in financial loss to the bulding contractor, which would only be covered by professional indemnity insurance. (Public liability insurance would not cover this situation because no one was injured and there was no damage to property).

An electrician certified the electrical installation of a new retail unit as being safe and compliant with regulation. It then came to light that the electrical installation was in fact not safe. As a result, the opening of the shop was delayed and the owner claimed compensation from the electrician for loss of income. The claim was covered by the electrician’s professional indemnity insurance. However, if the electrician had not taken out professional indemnity cover, he would have had to have paid the claim out of his own pocket. There was no injury or property damage and so his public liability policy would not have protected him against this problem.

Things to Remember About Professional Indemnity Insurance

It’s important to bear in mind that professional indemnity insurance is usually written on a “claims made” basis. Claims made policies give cover for claims actually brought against the policyholder in the period the policy is in force. What this means to the business owner is that there is a risk of an unknown or unreported claim being made long after the policy period and not being covered because the claim was made outside the period of insurance. So, if you stop trading or retire, then if your insurance was written on a claims made basis, “run-off” cover will be needed for protection against new claims in future years. Also, if you change from one insurer to another with claims made cover, then “retroactive cover” must be considered to protect against claims that may arise from previous work.

In order to try and minimise the risk of a professional indemnity insurance claim, document your projects carefully. Make sure that contracts with your clients set out very clearly the responsibilities that you undertake and if you receive any complaints, keep full records and deal with them swiftly.

Don’t leave it to chance – either include Professional Indemnity cover when you get your quote or contact us now and we’ll give you a quote for a separate policy that you’ll find hard to beat.

Personal Accident

What is Personal Accident Insurance?

Personal Accident cover will provide you with a lump sum payment in the event that you cannot work on a permanent basis or suffer a major fracture or dislocation, and is available for you and your employees aged between 16 and 70.

Cover is on a worldwide basis and operates 24 hours a day.

What Cover Do I Get With Personal Accident Insurance?

The Limits of Cover you will be provided will be:

What if I need extra cover?

Should the standard limits of cover not meet your requirements, please contact us to arrange a separate Personal Accident &/or Sickness policy.

Short Term Income Protection

What Is Short Term Income Protection?

If you are unable to work as a result of an accident or sickness, how would you pay your bills? Available in conjunction with Personal Accident Cover, our Short Term Income Protection (including Sickness) cover, provides you with protection in the event of you not being able to work as a result of an illness or an accident.

What Cover Do I Get With Short Term Income Protection?

In the event that you are unable to work as a result of accident or sickness, we will pay £250 Per Week or your gross weekly income — whichever is less, up to a maximum of 12 months

What if i need extra cover?

Should the standard limits of cover not meet your requirements, please contact us to arrange a separate Personal Accident &/or Sickness policy.