Public Liability Insurance

[nats0128]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, thinking of starting up a self employment business for out of work Trades People (Plumber's, Plaster's etc...)

I Cannot find an information on the internet about public liability insurance for self employment,

As i am hiring people on a self employed basis do i also need to provide this as the trades people will be working in people's homes.

Also if people have any information that could help that will be very much appreciated Thank You

 

[TheGuru2010]

It depends on how your business is set up, can you advise some more on how your business will work.

Let calls you company X

Does the public come to X and say I want this this & this doing & they then pay you and you have the work completed.

Or

Do they come to you for the work & you then put them in touch with the self employed agent & they pay you a referral.

 

[nats0128]

The customer will ring the company up and explain the work that's needed,

I will then assign a self employed contractor to go and fix the work, once the work is completed a invoice will be sent to the customer and the customer will pay the company which then X amount is taken off for the company and the rest will go to the self employed contractor who completed the work,

 

[laurap]

I'm not an expert but have a feeling this could make you liable in some fashion for things that the contractor does.

If you were just providing the lead to the contractor, with the contractor billing the customer directly and then giving you a commission or payout for the lead then you'd be fine. You could obviously still get public liability insurance but I think you'd struggle to injure or damage someones property sitting in your office forwarding customers onto contractors - but hey, safety first and should get a policy anyway!

If you are actually billing the customers then you become the company they are paying for the job and therefore the company they approach if anything goes wrong. I'm sure that obtaining Public Liability Insurance for this set up would be very difficult and expensive and you would need to protect yourself against every single trade you offer and every tradesman you use.

This may all be wrong and I'm happy to be corrected but I've been obtaining liability insurance for my business for several years and speak to my friendly insurance broker quite often about business (sad I know!) and this is the impression I get.

 

[lockyer]

If you are taking the money from the client then you are liable in the eyes of the law for any damage done. Usually you or your insurance would pay out, then recover from your contractor. But you are reliant on their claim being paid.

If you engaging a self employed contractor and paying him for just his labour, then you are also seen as the employer, and you require Employer Liability cover.

If the contractor is supllying materials as well as labour, then he is a bonafide contractor, and you have no employers liability requirement.

 

[nats0128]

I thought i would need insurance on some form but thought it might be low priced .

All materials needed will be bought by the contractor but the invoice will be sent to the company, and added to the charge for hours. the contractor will receive the price for the materials and also extra for their hours.

Could they be a way round this if the self-employed contractor has insurance? His / hers insurance would be lower then mine. And if anything happens i claim with the customer against their insurance ?

I dont know if im jumping the gun with that question but it will certainly help me with all this .

 

[lockyer]

There are many contractor networks out there and they just invoice the contractor a commission for exactly the reasons above. And these are quite sizeable companies.

There is te risk you don't get te commission, but that rarely happens as the contractor is unlikely to bite the hand that feeds them