Public Liability - Joint Named?

[Deleted member 314807]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum, looking for help with public liability insurance.

I am setting up a small retail shop. All my prep work is done, and I'm pretty much good to go. I have received the lease from the landlord, which contains one clause which is proving impossible to comply with, and as such I can't sign the lease.

This relates to public liability insurance. I know it's not a legal requirement to hold this insurance, but I will certainly be having it! The lease requires me to take out joint named public liability cover in the name of both landlord and tenant.

I've contacted six different insurers/brokers, and they've all told me exactly the same thing - such joint named insurance doesn't exist, because landlord risk and tenant risk for public liability are two completely separate things. I agree with this, as if someone injures themselves in my shop due to my negligence, it will be me they raise a claim against, not my landlord. And as six different insurance professionals have given me the same message, I have to yield to their knowledge as being correct.

I've relayed this to my landlord, who won't budge. They insist I still get joint named cover, despite my best efforts showing that this doesn't exist.

Does anyone know of any insurance providers that can do this please?

The best quote I've had for my combined shop insurance so far (public liability, employers liability, contents/stock cover, shop front cover, and business interruption cover) is from Axa at £226. This meets my needs, and I would buy it immediately, if it wasn't for this seemingly superfluous clause in my lease.

Many thanks for any help that forum members can give.

 

[kulture]

What does your solicitor say? You should get your solicitor to suggest an alternative clause. I suspect that all the landlord really wants is for you to take out an insurance policy to cover HIS liability. What you could instead offer is to pay for HIS insurance policy when HE takes it out. With the proviso that he gets a decent deal.

 

[Deleted member 314807]

Thank you.

My solicitor says this is a fairly standard requirement, that he's seen enough times before in similar leases.

The landlord has landlords insurance for the building which covers his public liability for the building (e.g. a tile falling off the roof, and hitting a passer-by). He's insisting that I add the landlord as a joint insured to my public liability insurance for my shop (e.g. a customer tripping over a cable in my shop, that I'd not secured). (I presume the other tenants in the building have the same clause, there are 3 or 4 retail units in the building)

The landlord recharges the tenants for his landlords buildings insurance, so as soon as I sign the lease, I will be liable to pay my portion of his insurance.

 

[Mr D]

So ask the other tenants about the clause and who they use.
Or ask your solicitor to contact one of his other clients with the clause and see who they use.

 

[Noah]

(I presume the other tenants in the building have the same clause, there are 3 or 4 retail units in the building)

Have you asked them how they met this requirement?

 

[Deleted member 314807]

With thanks for the advice received, I've now resolved this. One other tenant I've spoken to simply advised that he let his solicitor deal with the landlord, and he just bought his own insurance. From that I don't know whether they negotiated the superfluous insurance clause out of the lease, or whether this tenant is unknowingly in breach of this clause.

I did contact my solicitor following Mr D's suggestion and asked if he knew who his other clients have used. He referred me to two insurance brokers. They both said the same, in that joint named public liability doesn't exist. However one of them proposed a solution which the landlord has since accepted. The solution was to go with one of the insurers in their pool who offers 'indemnity to others upon request'. So if my landlord did get a claim for an act of my negligence in my shop (which won't happen, as nobody will claim from the landlord if it's me that's negligent), I'd simply call my insurer and invoke this 'indemnity to others' clause.

Landlord agreed this in writing, so lease now signed.