Business insurance can help protect your business, your expertise and your hard work. Growing your business and serving your customers is what you want to do, and insurance can help if any unforeseen problems should arise.
By the nature of your work, you have to deal with hazards such as working at heights and in tight spaces, among others. Even if you pride yourself on the quality of your work and the strict safety procedures you have in place, accidents can still happen.
Insurance can help you protect yourself if someone is injured as a result of your work, while on your property, or if their property is damaged by you or your staff. There are many organisations out there that provide business insurance, however need to be very careful when considering your options, as the extent of the cover is a real consideration alongside the price alone.
Nobody wants to find that they don’t have the proper cover in place when an incident occurs, and as a result find themselves and the business are completely financially exposed.
So what type of coverage do you need? Let’s break it down to the big three…
- Public liability insurance
If one of your customers or a member of the public is injured, or their property is damaged as a result of your actions or inaction, public liability insurance protects you against the cost of repairs or any legal proceedings that may be filed against you.
If you are working on high value or commercial properties, a fire or flood could well cost more than a £1 million, particularly if the claim included loss of income because the business using the property was unable to trade for a while as a result of the incident. You should think about what could happen and be sure to insure your business appropriately to avoid huge costs in the future.
The minimum recommended level of public liability insurance for a small plumbing and heating business working in residential properties is £2 million, and will need to increase for work taking place on larger value properties and businesses.
As such, it’s important to bear in mind that your insurance needs to include proper cover for the use of heat producing equipment such as blowlamps. You also need to consider cover involving work at heights and in excavations, as well as in taller buildings. There are often severe restrictions within the policies for these areas, and in some policies they may be explicitly excluded.
Some clients may even require proof of cover, so it makes sense to invest in public liability insurance to avoid all risks and exceed their expectations.
- Professional indemnity insurance
Professional indemnity insurance is similar to public liability insurance, but rather than covering compensation claims arising from things that you have done or failed to do, it covers claims arising as a result of professional negligence.
If you are providing advice, designs or specifications for a fee, you need this insurance to protect your business against compensation claims made against it. Design work often comes into play when it comes to work carried out by businesses as a pre cursor to system installation. So in the event that you make a mistake with the design, public liability insurance will not in itself cover the necessary remedial work that may be demanded by your customer.
As with public liability insurance, professional indemnity insurance is not a legal requirement. However, you may be required to have this type of insurance as a condition of a contractual requirement imposed by one of your clients.
- Employers’ liability insurance
This cover is a legal requirement by law and the minimum cover is £5 million. Failure to take out the correct policy could leave you in danger of being fined up to £2,500 a day. This covers you and your staff, so as an employer, you do have a legal responsibility to ensure that you have provided a safe and secure workplace for employees and visitors.
- Additional insurance
You can also select from a wide range of covers such as machinery/contents, stock in trade, optional buildings cover, product liability, goods in transit, business interruption, personal accident and sickness and much more… With so many options available to you, we recommend employing the help of an insurance broker, who importantly should provide an analysis of the most suitable terms for your business. You can then be confident that you are paying the best possible price for the specialist cover that is right for your business and its needs, should a significant event occur.
How APHC can help…
Premierline (a part of Allianz insurance) operates APHC Insurance Services, providing a comprehensive range of insurance cover exclusively for members including Public Liability, Employers’ Liability, Professional Indemnity, Goods in Transit, Motor Fleet and Tools & Business Equipment – all tailored to the specific needs of individual plumbing and heating businesses. 
When you have the right cover, you gain the financial peace of mind you need to put your full focus into your clients’ needs and the success of your plumbing business.
If your plumbing and heating business is interested in joining APHC and taking advantage of benefits such as this, then please get in touch on 0121 711 5030, or email membershipsales@aphc.co.uk for further information.
