Insurance for US company selling into UK

[samd80]

Does anyone have any experience or advice on how a US company can buy UK public liability and professional indemnity insurance for its software and services being sold to UK companies? The US company has no legal entity in the UK and no UK employees. Brokers I have approached so far in the UK have been unable to help.

 

[japancool]

As you have no legal entity in the UK, presumably, if someone were to take legal action against you, it would have to be in a US court - therefore, you would be looking for a US company to provide you with insurance.

Are you sending US employees here to work on customer premises?

 

[samd80]

The contracts are being written in English law, so we would expect any legal action in English courts. It is possible but unlikely that employees would travel from other countries to client sites (it's a SaaS software company).

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

Hi @samd80 ,

Do you buy this cover in the US?

In the US the equivalent insurance covers are:
- Public Liability = General Liability
- Professional Indemnity = Professional Liability / Errors & Ommissions

You have to arrange cover in the US - Your US policy can be extended to include work in the UK and claims made against you under English Law.

 

[japancool]

If you do not have employees working on-site and no clients visiting a premises in the UK, I think you wouldn't need public liability insurance, but @Frank the Insurance guy is probably best placed to answer that one.

 

[Frank the Insurance guy]

If you do not have employees working on-site and no clients visiting a premises in the UK, I think you wouldn't need public liability insurance

Its unlikely you will cause physical loss, damage or injury to your clients (or anyone else) if you are not visiting the UK, so @japancool is probably right in that there is little need for Public Liability Insurance. However it is likely you will still need to have this to meet the Insurance requirements in the contract.

 

[samd80]

Thank you for the advice everyone! The contracts we are signing to stipulate Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance, so we will need adequate cover. We will approach our US insurer to see if cover can be extended to the UK - hopefully for not too much of a premium!