Contact 1st commercial insurance
Q. I am considering employing somone - do I need any insurance in case they have an accident or are off sick?
A. Once you employ anybody you must by law have employer's liability insurance (EL) which covers the employer for any injury that befalls the employee in the course of their employment. While there is no legal requirement to take out PL (public liability insurance) and therefore no minimum level of indemnity, EL must provide a minimum of £5 million of indemnity (although £10 million is more common) and the certificate proving that the cover was in force kept for at least 40 years. This is because in the past is has often been almost impossible for employees, employers and often insurers to establish who was responsible for the origination of long term illnesses such as industrial deafness, asbestosis and emphysema.
Q. Why should I have commercial legal expense insurance?
A. As ever following the lead of the United States, Britain is becoming increasingly litigation minded. The encouragement to sue and make a few thousand pounds could come from a television advertisement, newspaper or even a legal agent waiting outside the school gates asking if there have been any accidents that day.
Employers are vulnerable to claims that can cost thousands of pounds to administer (and much more to ignore), arising from employment disputes, legal defence, tax investigations, VAT disputes and more. Your legal costs can be insured at reasonable cost but if you think it could not happen to you.
Q. Why would I need excess public liability insurance?
A. Sometimes a public liability insurance limit of £1 million or £2 million is not enough for your customer but your existing insurance company may decline to give you a higher limit. Local authorities, other public bodies and large contractors may demand that you have £5 million pounds of cover but this does not have to be provided by a single insurer nor will it cost the same for each million. Because the majority of claims are for significantly less than £1 million this limit is usually the most expensive with subsequent millions costing rather less.
Q. What does the insurance policy for a shop include?
A. This covers everything you might naturally expect plus some things you might not have considered.
Your stock in trade, money, public and employers liability are all included, plus electronic equipment such as cash registers, computers etc.. If you carry high theft risk stock such as spirits, tobacco, car radios you must declare a separate sum insured for these because they will affect insurers view of what is adequate security in your case.
Please complete the simple enquiry form below and we will call you back as soon as we can.
|
