Why You Need Self-Employed Public Liability Insurance
If you work for yourself, there’s a chance you could be held liable in the event that someone is injured or incurs property damage as a result of your business activities. It’s important to take out public liability insurance so that you’re covered in case anything goes wrong with your business. Read on to find out why it makes sense for self-employed people to invest in this type of insurance, and what kind of cover it offers you.
What Is Public Liability Insurance?
Public liability insurance is a type of policy that protects you against claims made by third parties in the event that they suffer an injury or property damage on your property, such as your home office. It differs from other types of insurance policies because it covers claims made by individuals who are not named as insureds on the policy.
This means that if you’re self-employed and working at home, business liability insurance allows you to protect yourself against claims made by people who visit your home while they’re there.
It may sound confusing at first, so let’s break down exactly what this means: If someone visits your house for any reason (for example, if a client comes over), their injuries could be considered related to their visit and therefore covered under the public liability part of your policy.
How Much Does PLI Cost?
The cost of PLI depends on a variety of factors. The type of business you run, the risk involved in your business, how many employees you have and how much damage your business has caused in the past are all considerations that affect premium rates.
For example: if you employ ten people as part of your small company, then it’s likely that the amount paid would reflect this fact. On the other hand, if you were running an online shop selling handmade jewellery from home then it’s highly unlikely that anyone would be injured by one of your products – so premiums could be lower.
Whilst working out how much cover will cost is difficult without knowing what type of coverage is needed or which risks apply to each individual business situation – one thing is certain – it’s always better to buy too much than not enough!
What Does Public Liability Cover?
Public liability insurance covers you in the event that someone makes a claim against you for injury or damage caused by your actions.
This is usually split into 2 parts, as follows:
- Accident and emergency cover (A&E). This covers any costs incurred as a result of an accident, either to yourself or another person, including ambulance costs.
- Liability claims. This covers claims made against you for personal injury (including psychological trauma), death, loss of or damage to property, loss of or damage to goods, and money owed by customers who can’t pay due to their accident/injury being caused by something you did wrong – such as faulty wiring in one of your properties.
Why Self-Employed People Need Public Liability Insurance
If you’re self-employed, you can be sued if someone is injured or incurs property damage as a result of your business activities. If the case goes to court and you lose, the judge will award compensation for damages to the person who was suing you (such as medical costs).
However, not everyone has public liability insurance. Many people who are self-employed don’t have it because they don’t realize how important it is for their business’ success. If you don’t have public liability insurance, this means that if anyone sues your business – whether it’s related to an accident that happened at work or simply because they were unhappy with the service they received – then they’ll get all their compensation from YOU personally!
If you work for yourself, there’s a chance you could be held liable for someone’s injuries
If you work for yourself, there’s a chance you could be held personally liable in the event that someone is injured or incurs property damage as a result of your business activities. Here are some examples of the types of things that could happen:
- If someone gets hurt at one of your events, they may seek damages from you personally. This might mean paying them out-of-pocket for medical bills and lost wages. It could also mean that if the person doesn’t recover from their injuries, they’ll sue for further compensation (such as pain and suffering).
- Even if no one gets injured at all during an event, it’s possible for an individual to sue for any damages caused by their presence on your premises—for example, if their car was damaged when parked near yours.
- In addition to being sued by individuals who’ve suffered harm because of something related to your business activity outside its normal scope (like hosting an event), it’s possible that someone will sue simply because they got hurt while visiting your property (such as slipping on ice outside due to bad weather conditions) even though this wasn’t technically caused by anything related specifically with what was going on inside! This would be similar.
Conclusion
Self-employed people are often exposed to greater risk than salaried employees, as they have no employer to step in and defend them if anything goes wrong.
Therefore, it’s vital that you make sure you have the right insurance in place before starting your own business. Public liability insurance is one type of policy that can pay for any legal expenses or damages that may occur due to accidents at work or during an external activity such as participating in sports events or going on holiday with friends.