Contractors Insurance

Contractors Liability Insurance

At Sills, we specialise in the contracting trades, so whether you are plowing in a Lincolnshire field, hanging off the side of a building, or cleaning your customer's offices, we ensure that you have the right cover in place, whatever the eventuality.

The contracting sector is vast, it spans many manual trades, such as those in the building or construction sectors, but it can also include many allied or associated trades, many of which are trade sectors in their own right, so obtaining the right contractor's Insurance for your business is essential.

What is Contractors Insurance?

Everyday Contractors can be exposed to many risks in their work including external factors where they could face legal action, sometimes even when it's not their fault, all in a day's work, you might say.

Ensuring all the protections are in place is essential to ensure that should the unexpected happen, there are specialists on hand to take over and work on your behalf. Even if proven not your fault, the legal costs can be considerable.

Contractors usually work away from their own premises, so legal defence will be a top priority.

• Public Liability - Contractors' Public Liability insurance will defend you against allegations of negligence against a third party, such as a member of the public; it will provide specialist legal services that work on your behalf to defend you; it also pays compensation that might become payable to the claimant.
• Employers Liability Insurance – for most in the contracting trades having people to supply labour can be essential; as soon as you have employees or people working for you, it's your legal obligation to provide Employers Liability insurance. Employers Liability provides legal defence to the business against allegations from an employee that they have fallen ill or become injured in the course of their work; just like public liability, it will also provide compensation where it becomes payable.
• Professional Indemnity Insurance - mistakes happen; it's a fact of life, whether you are an IT Contractor, a Builder or a Mechanical Engineer. The cost involved in a claim against you could be significant, having hugely detrimental effects on your business; Professional Indemnity Insurance protects you and your business against allegations of professional negligence, providing legal defence and compensation payments.

What cover do contractors need on a liability policy?

Contractors' Liability Insurance will have something called a Limit of Indemnity; in simple terms, this is the amount that the insurer will pay up to in the event of a claim. Having the right amount of cover in place is essential; many factors go into this, such as minimum amounts your employer requires before they will let you on-site or minimum amounts by the contract. Even if there are no stipulations, it's essential that you understand what is needed; this is where we at Sills can help you decide from the varying limits of indemnity

What Liability Indemnity Limits are available for Contractors?

Like most things in Insurance, there have to be financial limits; these are important whether that is for proof to an employer that cover is in place or just the peace of mind that you are covered to your pre-agreed limit.

Whilst £1 million might seem a lot; it really isn't. Working on construction sites, you might be required to prove £2 million, £5 million or £10 million Public Liability Insurance.

Contractors' public liability usually comes in options of £1m, £2m, or £5m; speak to us about which limit is best for you, and if you need £10 million or more, we can accommodate these amounts for you.

What Insurance does a contractor need?

Whilst Combined Liability Insurance and Professional Indemnity Insurance are the default covers for many contracting businesses, other Insurance is available to meet the exposures and risks your business might have.

Contract Works - Sometimes as a Contractor, you might be using materials on-site; a building contractor, for instance, might have bricks, blocks and other materials on site; plumbing and heating materials are costly as well as being rather thief attractive so it's essential that these items are covered whilst storing them on site.

A contract works Insurance will, as the name suggests, cover the works themselves until you have effectively handed the keys over, covering your part of the works against perils such as Fire and Storm damage.

Own Plant Insurance can be taken out to protect your expensive plant. Whether it's mini diggers, dumpers, agricultural equipment or specialist lifting equipment, it is essential that they are protected against damage or theft.

Hired in Plant Insurance isn't always covered by the people you hire from, so to protect yourselves and the equipment owned by them, taking out Insurance is straightforward and will cover most items. Unless you are using specialist items of the plant every day, it makes sense to hire it in, so, from disk cutters to mini-diggers to multi-million-pound cranes, hired-in plant insurance is not only essential, it's also cost-effective to take out.

Business Premises Insurance, whilst the bulk of a contractor's work might be on-site, it's likely you have at least an office, whether that's a managed office or an office at home. Office and Premises Insurance will provide cover against many perils, Fire, Flood, Storm and, of course, Theft.

Depending on what your business is can determine what cover is needed; whilst you might be a contractor, you could hold an amount of stock for use on contracts, or you do an amount of design so cover for CAD systems and plotters.

Getting from A to B means you need business vehicle insurance; this can be anything from a single car or commercial vehicle to a large fleet of vehicles. Just like a personal car cover is available that provides fully comprehensive cover but with extended business use or cover for carrying goods.

Commercial Legal Expenses Insurance sometimes is included as standard with insurance policies; these can be worth their weight; they provide legal advice across a whole range of business issues that you might encounter, they can cover employment disputes, disputes with HMRC and similar and defend you in court for many legal disagreements.

For Directors of limited companies and officers of a business, it's very easy to fall foul of many things, even if you had nothing to do with what happened, discrimination, wrongful financial acts, and even breaching government directives.

The problem is that as a director of a business, you can be held personally responsible; there is no upper limit to liability like there is in a limited liability company so you could be putting your own personal assets at risk. A Management Risks Insurance policy, including Director's & Officer's Liability, protects you against these types of issues by providing legal defence.

There are many types of cover a contracting business can have; as the saying goes, no one company is the same as the next, so having a one size fits all policy doesn't work for everyone.

Contracting trades are all different, and that is where we at Sills can help; we are knowledgeable, experienced brokers based in Lincoln, and we will happily provide advice but won't leave you to sort things out yourself. Importantly we are not a Call Centre so that you can speak to the same person each time.

Call us now on 01522 527232 and discuss your insurance requirements.