Small Business Insurance Discussion Area

Harryo

You will need Public Liability, Employer Liability (if you are employing anyone - even the other half), possibly Product Liability and if you carry out design work (which inherently you are likely to) you may decide that Professional Indemnity Insurance is worthwhile. You really need to speak to an Insurance Adviser who specialises in Plumbing Insurance. I would suggest Courtprice who are an Industrial Associate of CIPHE as one to contact (you will want to contact a few). You can find their details on CIPHE website right in the middle of the home page under Industrial Associates. While you are there have a look at whether you could become a member of the CIPHE. Also likewise on the APHC website. They have a scheme called PlumbGuard. Don't skimp on insurance. I was recently involved with an office block in London. The plumber plumbed up their Tea Room dishwasher. The hose failed over a weekend causing supposidly £2 mill of damage to computers and offices below. Looks like he will loose his house and everything as he did not have correct insurance cover. All for a couple of hundred quids of work. HarryO.

debtfreebyxmas

Thank you Harryo- much much appreciated

dacouch

Harryo I assume you use heat, is your work solely domestic or solely commercial or a mixture?

P.S Assuming your a sole trader, you do not technically need Employers Liability if your only employees are "Close Family Members" although it's wise to include it as if they are injured at work and you have cover they can claim against it.

emmah89

Just thought I'd recommend Quote Line to everyone. Just got my Public Liability sorted through them at almost half the price I'd been quoted elsewhere!

Jemma130

In reply to the first post - I've found Qdos Contractor to be really helpful. As a contractor, a colleague recommended them, and I've found their PI Insurance is very affordable. They do other liability covers too I think.

karinelleno

I am wondering if anyone could help me.

My husband has public liability insurance for his gardening business. A few days ago he had an accident a work where whilst strimming a stone flew up from the ground and smashed the customers glass door.

My husband called his insurers but they have said that they would not pay for the repairs as they don't feel he is liable due to him checking the ground before strimming for any large stones and it wouldn't be reasonable for him to find every single stone before commencing.

Is this right? I thought public liability insurance was for these kind of accidents?

Harryo

Overall anyway it may be better for your husband to pay for the repair. There is probably an excess to pay and also it would be a blot on his claim history which could increase his premiums for some time. That all needs to be thought about.

As to whether he is liable, I would say that he was but I am not a Lawyer. It certainly was not the customer's fault. He was the one who caused the damage, I cannot see that could be disputed from what you write. I cannot see that it is relevent whether he did or did not look for stones other than if he had not looked for stones to the best of his ability then he may be considered negligent. If that was the case the PLI should cover a claim. Or if he had seen the stone and ignored the risk then he would also be negligent and in that case the PLI should cover the claim. Therefore if he was not negligent then the damage was an accident and again the PLI should cover the claim. I think they are doing what a lot of insurance companies do - wriggle.

Do check the wording of the policy. For instance my policy wording states "We will indemnify you for all sums for which you shall be legally required to pay.....". If this was your husband's wording then that should cover him as he is legally liable to pay for damage he causes.

If you do want to continue with the claim then I would suggest that you check in the policy for complaints procedures and then tell the insurance company that you are going to make a complaint. That might instantly change their mind. Have a look at "how to use an ombudsman" on the CAB site.

You could also see if you have free Legal Advice on one of your insurance policies (even if it is the same insurance company) or perhaps with a trade association membership or something similar.

Good luck with the matter anyway. Let us know how you get on.

KarrieP

Duplicated from main board: Are we liable to pay VAT on insurance claim?

Hi, hope someone can kindly advise.

My partner and I run a small business. 2 years ago we had a claim filed against us for injury. Our insurance company instucted us to accept liability and they set aside £20,000.

The claim has been settled but we have received an invoice for the VAT element of one of the solicitor's bills. We suspect this is not the final solicitors bill.

We are registered for VAT on the Flat Rate Scheme. If we were not Flat Rate we could reclaim the VAT we pay but as we are flat rate we can't reclaim any VAT, we simply pay hmrc at a lower rate.

Surely our insurance company should be paying this VAT invoice as part of settling the claim? What if the legal fees were tens of thousands of pounds? We would be bankrupt despite having public liability insurance up to £5,000,000.

Can anyone clarify this please?

Harryo

Hi. I think the insurers usually ask if you are VAT Registered. I am pretty certain if you are then you normally become responsible for paying the VAT element on the basis that you can claim it back and if you are not then the insurance company pay it. Do not know what would happen in your case though. It is too risky lying to an insurance company and saying you are not registered. You could phone the VAT helpline but then you have to give your number, so probably not the first choice. Do you have an Accountant? Or perhaps just phone up the insurance company and put it to them?

KarrieP

Thanks Harryo,
I guess we probably were asked about VAT registration when the claim was filed 2 years ago.
I've just found the following on The Law Society website:

Where the policyholder is partly exempt (and cannot recover all his input tax), or where the insurance does not relate to the policyholder's business, or, even if it does, the policyholder is not VAT-registered, the position will remain that Customs and Excise would expect any VAT invoice to be addressed to the policyholder. Unless he can partly recover input tax, there will be no object in actually delivering the invoice to the policyholder and it can be sent direct to insurers for payment as hitherto. In this situation also, Customs would have no objection to an invoice being addressed direct to insurers for the whole of the solicitor's bill, provided that it is clearly not a VAT invoice.

As we cannot recover the input tax I think this applies to us. I think we'll have to fight it with the insurers.