Public liability Insurance

If you own a business, whether you are a sole proprietor working from home or an LLC with a separate business location, having public liability insurance coverage is essential.  With this type of business insurance, you are protected if someone visits your business and is injured in any way.  This includes customers, clients, and anyone from the public that may be trespassing on your property. 

Protecting Your Business with Public Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance keeps your business protected in many ways.  If someone is accidentally injured while on your business premises, your business can be held liable for those injuries.  Obviously, paying for medical injuries can easily bankrupt a business.  Therefore, by having this insurance in place, you can keep your business financially viable while also paying for the lawsuit you may face.

Public liability insurance also provides you with coverage if you cause damage to someone else’s property while you are on business.  If you build homes and you accidentally break a customer’s window, for example, the insurance coverage will pay for those damages on your behalf.  This includes paying for your legal fees as well as paying for the damages the person incurs.

Understanding Levels of Care

When it comes to paying for damages to the public, there are actually three different degrees of level of care.  Level of care refers to the amount of care your business is expected to make in order to prevent injury. If you are a dog trainer, for example, and a client is injured because you failed to properly inspect your protective equipment, you are guilty of providing a low level of care.  The amount of care you are expected to give to different individuals depends upon which of the three categories they belong to.  These categories include:

• Invitees – people you invited onto your property, which can include extending a personal invitation or an understood invitation.  Customers shopping at a mall, for example, would not necessarily receive a personal invitation to your property.  Because of the nature of your business, however, the invitation is understood.
• Licensees – people such as commercial travelers and salesmen.
• Trespassers – a person on your property without permission.  Although your level of care is low for this group, it is still possible to be found liable for injuries they sustain.  If children are able to easily enter your property or if wire is exposed, for example, you can be held responsible for the resulting injuries.

While your level of care will vary from one group to the next, you can very easily be found liable for any injury that occurs on your premises.  Therefore, it is best to have public liability insurance coverage in place in order to keep your business protected.

Determining How Much Coverage You Need

The amount of public liability insurance coverage you need depends upon your business.  Obviously, some businesses are more at risk of damaging the property of others than other businesses.  In addition, some businesses have equipment onsite that makes them inherently more dangerous to the public.  Therefore, you have to take a look at your business and your business activities in order to determine the amount of coverage you should have in place. 

Many small businesses choose to have £1,000,000 worth of public liability coverage in place.  While this may seem like much more than you could possibly need, keep in mind that it is possible to have several claims filed against you at the same time.  In this case, you will need to have a great deal of coverage in place in order to keep your business protected.  In addition, many businesses find that having £1,000,000 worth of public liability insurance in place is quite affordable.

Home | Contact | About Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Sitemap

Credit Cards | Loans | Business Finance | Insurance | Debt Solutions | PPI | Bank Accounts | Financial Information