Public liability vs professional indemnity

wpwatson

Could anyone please help, I am in the process of starting my own business as a health and safety consultant, i.e. self employed, I am not sure whether I need public liability or professional indemnity insurance as I will only be giving advice and recommendations and not performing any manual work.
Thanks in advance.

dunstonh

In very simple terms...

Professional indemnity can protect you against negligence or breach of a duty of care, Negligent misstatement or misrepresentation, Infringement of intellectual property rights, Intentional dishonesty of your partners, directors, employees or self-employed freelancers

Public Liability Insurance covers you for any damages that a member of the public may be awarded as a result of injury or damage to them or their property caused by your business. It also covers legal fees and other expenses to do with defending any claim.

I would say that you need Professional indemnity insurance (often known in short as PI cover). If you have home visitors or visit the premises of others where a possible injury could occur or you could cause damage to their property then you need PL cover as well.

Its quite possible you need both. What does you trade association suggest?

MortgageMamma

Indeed I would agree with DH its seems you need both sorts of cover. Why don't you speak with a commercial insurance specialist?

waster_2

You really need both PI and Public Liability Insurance (sometimes also known as All Risks insurance). You are severly exposed if yodo not carry both

Additionally, if you are going to trade as a company and you will therefore be an employee and draw a salary, you will also need Employers Liability Insurance. I know you said self employed, but sometimes people use this term even if they are trading as a company that they wholly own. Sometimes the financial benefits can be greater if you trade as a Limited Liability Company. If your wife/spouse/relatives are not working you could potentially employ them as say admin assistants, PA's, etc and pay them a salary that does not exceed their personal tax allownace, etc. Speak to an accountant. If you are a company the Employers Liability Insurance is a statutory requirement that you cannot “opt” out of.

I would strongly recommend that you speak to a good insurance broker that deals with business insurance, not your high street motor merchant.