Public Liability - How do I know how much to get?

jennivallins

I am planning on going self-employed, as I have been made redundant from my main job, and now have several bits of casual work coming up. I work as a tutor/trainer, so it is relatively common to be self-employed, and my current employer is fine about it, as long as I get Public Liability Insurance. The people I'm about to start work for are very negative about it, as say that I will probably need insurance up to £10m, and that it will be very difficult for them.

Is this new boss just being awkward, as she doesn't like the paperwork do you think? And more importantly is it up to the client to state how much insurance I need, or is there a way of working it out?

I don't teach dangerous stuff, just normal classess, and IT classes in the client's own rooms, no knives or anything!

Any one got any ideas?

Jenni

Astaroth

Certainly future clients are able to and will stipulate the minimum amount of PL cover their suppliers/ contractors must have to even be considered for getting a contract.

How much is a very difficult question to answer. The natural is to work out what the worse case scenario of what someone could claim from you... depending on what sort of thing you are doing then this could be a massive personal injury case which can easily run into a multi million pound settlement.

If you speak to a good broker then they should be able to advise. If there is any professional body for your chosen field they may also be able to give advice on level of cover, what sort of proportion of clients require you to have what level of cover and may have a deal in place with an insurer/ broker for its members

martindow

Yes, your employer probably is paranoid but a lot of organisations have policies that are going to want you to have insurance. Once you've got it it will be a plus when approaching other potential employers. Small business insurance policies usually include public liability insurance. I would try phoning a few brokers who deal with commercial insurance and explain the situation.