Liability insurance, also commonly known as liability insurance, is something that all self-employed individuals should even consider when writing their business plan. Liability insurance should be considered a necessity for all self-employed people, whether they are manual workers, office workers or professionals who want to protect their business.

The standard benefits of a products/public liability policy are that you are insured for your legal liability for injury, illness or disease to any member of the public, loss or damage to your property that occurs during the period of insurance. For example, if you are a plumber and you accidentally flood a property you are working on, the cost of the damage will be covered by your liability policy.

With a liability insurance policy, you typically have three standard options for the level of coverage required. The compensation limits are £1,000,000, £2,000,000 and £5,000,000. The indemnity limit you are covered for simply means that the insurance policy will cover any insured risk up to the required limit, ie £1 million. When choosing the level of coverage you need, you should consider the value of the properties you work on. For example, if you work in a school, you must have a public liability level of compensation that is sufficient to rebuild the school if necessary. If you work on very large properties, you may need a compensation level of more than £5 million. This can be fixed by purchasing an additional liability policy called an excess layer. This policy is in addition to the standard policy and can increase the level of compensation to £10,000,000.

Employer’s liability insurance can be added to a public liability policy. Employer Liability insures you for your legal responsibility for injury, illness, death, sickness or nervous shock of any employee caused during the insurance period. If you have a labor-only employee or subcontractor, you are legally required to carry employer liability insurance. The minimum level of employers’ liability insurance is £5,000,000 by law, but most insurance companies have a level of £10 million. An example of an employer liability claim is if your employee was on a defective ladder and fell and hurt himself. Employer liability claims are typically higher tier than public liability claims.

With a liability policy, you can also have the optional additional coverage of tool insurance and goods in transit coverage. Tool coverages are for loss or damage to hand tools and portable hand tools owned or leased by the insured. The level of cover for tools is normally £1,250 to £2,500 with a single item limit of approximately £250. Tool coverage can also be increased to include unattended vehicle theft. Goods in transit can also be included for up to £2,000 for any occurrence.

Finally, before purchasing a liability policy, you must ensure that the insurance company and the insurance broker are regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulates all UK insurers and brokers. This regulation is to protect the customer. Also due to this regulation, insurers are required to provide what is known as key data or a policy summary for any insurance policy they have available. These are perfect if you want a quick overview of what the policy does and doesn’t cover.

An instant quote can be obtained by clicking on the following link Civil Liability Insurance.