Public Liability Insurance

Paul_Varjak

I live in rented accommodation and my landlord requires that when I have any work done within the property that I only use persons with Public Liability Insurance.

Recently, I wanted to have lever taps fitted because I am having difficulty with standard taps and I asked several local plumbers if they had Public Liability Insurance for this work.

any plumbers did not have such cover because, they said, it so expensive. But two plumbers claimed they had this insurance but when challenged to produce insurance documents both produced Employers Liability Insurance documents!

Both plumbers were, effectively, self-employed but their businesses are run as a limited companies. As such, they are employees of the company and the company is legally required to insure them as employees. This ensures they are protected should they be injured, but it does not offer any insurance protection to anyone they work for.

Does anyone else have any similar experiences of possible misrepresentation?

Han_naH

The plumbers, if they formed a Ltd Co., are mostly likely the Director.

(The Director is an office holder and not necessarily an employee of the company, but that's another story..)

More importantly: from Feb 28th, 2005, companies with only 1 employee (such as Director if you want to describe him as such) with 50% or more of the shares (plumber likely 100%) do not need Employer's Liability Insurance. This insurance concerns employee's sueing employer's for injury etc.

PLI (Public Liability Insurance) is not required by law, except for a few sectors. I don't know if your plumber belongs to one of those sectors. This insurance protects against the public sueing the company.

The absence of this insurance does not stop you from sueing the plumber in the event of an issue. However, the plumber's resources to meet your claim may be limited and he may crie lack of funds. Conversely his PLI would pay up to 1million, 2.5million or whatever.

Hope this helps.

Lee.