Starting your own company

[Climber Chris]

I've been in the industry for 6 years now and I'm looking at starting up my own company which I know won't be easy.

Just looking for advice on what costs would be envolved, for example average cost of public liability insurance and best company's around. 

Any other help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks Chris 

 

[Steve Bullman]

Public liability is pennies.  Employers liability is the expensive one.  Best of luck with it all

[treevolution]

Depends on what cover you want.

 

To start with, 2m public liability and 10 million employers liability would be fine.

 

Price wise I would guess around £1400 which you can pay monthly.

 

It's also worth having insurance for your tools.

[Climber Chris]

Am I right in thinking that you need employers liability even if you have just sub contractors on site? 

[Steve Bullman]

Yep that is correct unfortunately.

 

RE public liability, treevolution is correct that 2mil would be ok, although its worth noting its not a legal requirement to have it at all, unlike employers liability.  What you have to consider though is that no larger companies will be interested in using you if you don't have at least 5 million in place, and some I believe like to see 10.  

[maybelateron]

I have a guy who has set up recently on his own, and he subs for us a bit. He was told by his insurers that he would have to have EL as well as PL, in fact he says they declined to provide only PL. I guess although it will cost you more, you will have the comfort of knowing it is one less loop hole insurers can use to avoid paying up if a subbie working for you gets hurt.

 

Regarding cost, I am with Trust Insurance, who specialise in arb insurance. Premiums are priced on the basis of turnover and what types of arb work you do. I am a very small firm, turnover varying between 80-120K per annum in recent years, and my combined cost for PL and EL has been around £950-1000 for several years.

[Climber Chris]

Thanks for the help 

 

[maybelateron]

Forgot to say that my insurance gives £5M PL and £10M EL. It also gives a some legal fees cover in the event of claim having to be defended etc.

[jfc]

I am paying about £2k for pl, el and professional indemnity, turnover of approx £65k. This is through tree surgeon insurance. I was paying about £700 for pl and el on turnover of £40.

[MattyF]

I had to sell me moto x bike to pay for employer and public liability when I first set up.
No one will touch you for public work or home owners with bigger trees who are savvy with out it,could of brought it back 6 months later but there is an endless list of kit you could buy for this job and first few years are hard.