Public Liability / Professional Indemnity for PC Technician

Fozzie_Bear

I am a self employed (Sole Trader) IT Engineer who repairs peoples PCs and home networks.
The vast majority of my work is with domestic customers who use their PCs for accessing the internet, sending emails etc. However I also support a number of small businesses who run their businesses from home plus a few who operate from factories and offices. To date (5 yrs+) I have never had Public Liability or Professional Indemnity insurance, but recently realised that customers PCs are not covered by my Car Insurance or Home Contents insurance.

Firstly should I have Public Liability or Professional Indemnity? I am very careful about backing up customers data but there may come a time when something goes wrong and I accidentally lose business information. I don't really give Professional Advice in the same way that a Solicitor or Structural Engineer might and what I do is unlikely to put my customers in danger such as an Electrician or Tree Surgeon.
If I do need Public Liability are there companies that specialise in insurance for Sole Traders and specifically IT Technicians/Engineers such as myself?
Fozzie

paddyrg

Public liability is more for if someone trips over a cable you've laid than anything, it's cheap, you deal with the public, get it. Professional indemnity might be useful for if somebody tries to sure you, but that might be useful to address in your terms of business. Maybe for each engagement get a signed agreement that covers what is and isn't included in the work - specifically stating your working on a best efforts basis and cannot accept liability for any conditions on the customers systems (including but not limited to viruses, rootkits, hardware failure, unlicensed software, unsupported operating systems, etc) before, during our after your engagement.

I can think of a thousand ways a customer can screw things up, then blame you as the last person to touch the system (despite it being dog-slow ie6 with every toolbar known to man running on windows 98). It needs to be clear that you either set the rules and they but all hardware and software through you as a managed service, or it's without warranty best efforts only.

Mistral001

What is usual in your business? If you do not know because you are a one-man band and all the people you meet who are in the same business are effectively competitors, are there any computer-type trade associations you can join that might help you find out what is usual in the business regarding insurance.

fishybusiness

What happens if you replace a PSU and two weeks later it fries itself, zaps the board, data is unrecoverable?

Or same scenario and knocks off office electrical supply or causes a mini fire in an office or even someone's home?

Unlikely but possible, IMO liability insurance would cover you.

DKLS

Give Hiscox a ring, and tell them your business and they will give a quote, then you can ring round a few others to get a more competitive quote. I went with the insurance octopus who sold me a Hiscox policy £300 cheaper than Hiscox direct.

InsideInsurance

DKLS wrote: »

Give Hiscox a ring, and tell them your business and they will give a quote, then you can ring round a few others to get a more competitive quote. I went with the insurance octopus who sold me a Hiscox policy £300 cheaper than Hiscox direct.

Hiscox Direct and Hiscox via Brokers certainly used to be different policywordings so you are not 100% comparing apples and apples. Some brokers may even have bespoke wordings underwritten by Hiscox and so there could be even greater deviation from the Hiscox Direct coverage though I'd be surprised if Hiscox was willing to put their name to a real budget policy.


As to the OP, first of all you need to understand what both policies cover....

PL - covers injury/damage caused by your actions. So it would cover you should someone trip over a cable you laid and tried to sue you for their dislocated shoulder. It wouldnt cover you if someone broke into your home and stole a customer computer whilst it was there

PI - covers you for any advice you give. So if you advised one of your SMEs that for their data storage needs they should sign a 5 year contract for three dozen 12 core blade servers with fibre channel SAN and they later discover a £75 NAS from PC World would have been more sufficient then the PI would cover you for defending the claim for the price difference between the contract you recommended and what they actually needed.


Do you need it? Thats really up to you. As a sole trader everything you own is technically on the line if you get something wrong but the chances of you accidentally burning down the factory is probably fairly slim. The PI cover will be driving most the cost and that will be depending what level of cover you want for it.

Many contractors buy PI/PL cover because they are contractually obliged to by their clients rather than because they've risk assessed it and deem it to be good value

Fozzie_Bear

Thanks to all who have responded. It is much appreciated.

I think Mistral001's idea of getting advice from a trade body is a good idea. I will have to hunt around the net and see what are available. I could probably contact the local chamber of commerce and see what they might suggest.
I also have some links through my old Trade Union body and the Insurance Broker who deals with their benefits package.
Thanks Again
Fozzie

InsideInsurance

Fozzie_Bear wrote: »

I think Mistral001's idea of getting advice from a trade body is a good idea. I will have to hunt around the net and see what are available. I could probably contact the local chamber of commerce and see what they might suggest.

TBH its just a risk decision, exchange the risk of a large loss for the definite of a small loss (premiums) or accept the risk of the large loss and potentially never have any loss.

Remember that your trade body will be giving you advice and as such could be held liable for the advice if it were proven wrong (a claim off their own PI insurance). It will naturally therefore be err on the side of caution to cover their own backsides should you later run into problems.

I personally do want PI insurance because of the size of the projects I manage, my current one is advising an insurer how to free up over £0.5b of cash thats currently locked into low returning investments. If that went sour it could be a big bill just defending the claim even if there is little prospects of success against me. PL I am not personally bothered for but am contractually obliged to hold and given it only adds £32 onto my annual premium which is also tax deductible I am not going to cry over it.

Ultimately your choice, any "professional" (person or organisation) you ask will recommend insurance though because of not wanting a claim made against them for bad advice.

Savvy_Sue

Fozzie_Bear wrote: »

but recently realised that customers PCs are not covered by my Car Insurance or Home Contents insurance.

I'd say that should be your most urgent concern. I could be wrong, but it's not just that customer's PCs aren't covered, you may find you don't have any cover at all because you've breached the terms. Please check that out!

Also, if you are renting, you should have your landlord's permission to run a business from home. If you have a mortgage, you should have your lender's permission.

Mistral001

A few years ago I installed a network in my office and needed a computer technician. He said, if I remember correctly, that he was not responsible for loss of data. I assumed he meant that he would replace the computer or fix it if he fouled up, but would not pay damages caused by loss of data. If that is the way the industry works in general, and insurance does not cover the loss of data, then the loss of a computer either in your home or car or through your negligence while carrying out your work, might not be too much of a burden to bear (say £400 to £500). If loss of data is generally covered by a technician such as yourself, then the sky is the limit in damages. Again it is what is usual within your type of business.

TheTracker

I insure and only insure when I can't afford the loss. Monevator had an excellent article on this somewhat unpopular approach a while back. I don't buy 3rd party insurance for: phone, boiler/gas, health, life, travel. I have insurance, it is called savings.

Last I bought PI PE insurance hiscox was massively overpriced vs the likes of Qdos.