Business public liability insurance crucial for success

Every business, from sole-traders, shop keepers and large global enterprises all need public liability insurance policy that is designed to the requirement of the customer’s specific business risks. You need the policy to be very flexible so that it can easily be adapted as and when your business model changes. This will ultimately ensure that your entity is protected financially in the event of a small accident or even a large catastrophe.

An important point to note is that public liability insurance is not legally required under UK legislations. The question is, are you prepared to or even could your business afford to defend a negligence claim? Even if you win the legal battle, the bill for defending the case can amount to considerable sum of money. With the correct business insurance policy, these sorts of worries can easily be eliminated.

For retail shop owners, it is crucial they have the cover to protect themselves, their staff and the customer. Adverts on TV are riddled with personal injury lawyers making the public aware of their rights to claim compensation for slips and trips. So do not be naïve, thinking that your customers are all loyal and will never sue you in the event they get injured in your shop.

£1 million is normally the minimum level of cover and for most tradesman and business owners that amount is more than adequate for their needs. However some will require higher levels of public liability insurance protection and can opt for levels up to £10 million. These higher levels are more common for high risk trades that operate at off-shore and airside locations. Most policies are flexible and allow you to tailor the amount of cover to you business needs.

There are a number of details that you need to be aware of when taking out this type of commercial cover. You need to look out for any height restrictions, location restrictions, heat use and maximum number of employees that you can have at any one time. Liability policies are based on either per capita or wage roll and turnover bases. The other items to scrutinize on your policy schedule are the exclusions. Sometimes a cheap public liability insurance plan may well seem very appealing but excludes factors that are crucial to the success and running of your business.

Any businesses that operate in a manner where the work is carried out at the clients abode certainly should have business liability insurance. Also any businesses with premises where customers and member of the public have access to, also needs this type of agreement. Businesses with any staff, even temporary, short-term or seasonal employees by UK employment law need to have employers liability insurance cover. Normally the minimum limit for this is £5 million but most insurers provide a standard limit of £10 million.