New to this game and need liabilities insurance

[Jake the Fiddler]

Howdie,

I'm new to this game and want to get legit and insured for public liability.

 

I'd be glad of any advice as to what to ask for and how much I should be paying. I've just spoken with Arbrisk who are going to email me a quote... the fellow guessed at between 3 and 4 hundred quid.

 

I expect to be doing small pruning and dismantling jobs as a secondary income from my work as a musician. I've done the CS 30,31,32,38 and 39 and first aid training. And have been picking up a little bit of experience doing work for other people over the last year. I'm guessing at a turnover of well under £10 k in this first year.

 

cheers

 

Jake:001_smile:

[treequip]

Any of the brokers in the adverts on this site will make sure you aren't on the fiddle

[Hodge]

I can recommend trust as I have been with them for about 8 years and they are reliable and paid out when I had a claim no problem.

 

 

Sent from Outerspace.

[Rupe]

With a turnover that low what will your insurance actually be for? Remember that public liabilty insurance is (as the name suggests) to cover your liability to the public or a third party, it effectivley stops your client getting sued by someone (the third party) if they should suffer loss or injury. If working on your own then any claim against you by a third party won't hold up as you need to be working with someone else, i.e an employee, so......

 

You will then need employers liability aswell to cover your groundsman, (your liability to him, not the damage he might cause to a third party)

[Jake the Fiddler]

Thanks for your reply Rupe,

I guess I just want clients to be covered in the event of things going wrong... despite obviously giving meticulous care to avoiding such. When I'm doing any climbing work I'd be asking both bona fide and non bona fide groundies so I'm going to have to get employee cover on that basis... I know we're supposed to have a second climber available, but I've not met any small scale operations that do...

grateful for any further advice.

Many thanks

Jake

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Any work in the CS 38/39 area would need a suitably qualified rescue climber to meet industry best practice and validate the insurance. They don't have to be your employee though (if they were, you'd need employers' liability insurance) they could be a self employed sub contractor (subject to meeting HMRC definition of self employed) Tree Surgeons Insurance.co.uk get my renewal premium this year!

[treequip]

Any work in the CS 38/39 area would need a suitably qualified rescue climber to meet industry best practice and validate the insurance. They don't have to be your employee though (if they were, you'd need employers' liability insurance) they could be a self employed sub contractor (subject to meeting HMRC definition of self employed) Tree Surgeons Insurance.co.uk get my renewal premium this year!

 

Only if the underwriter conditioned it

[Rupe]

Any work in the CS 38/39 area would need a suitably qualified rescue climber to meet industry best practice and validate the insurance. They don't have to be your employee though (if they were, you'd need employers' liability insurance) they could be a self employed sub contractor (subject to meeting HMRC definition of self employed) Tree Surgeons Insurance.co.uk get my renewal premium this year!

 

Sorry, but your in a right muddle there.

 

Any groundsman working with you on a job would be deemed your employee for that day, they can still be self employed but you have got them in to work with you so the employers liability is for your liability to them, i.e if they get injured while onh your job. The definaition of self employed is to do with where they choose to work i.e they call the shots with regards to who they work for and when, there are other factors, to determine self employment, described by HMRC such as taking "risk" on the job but this is very often misunderstood to mean "risk" as in danger or risk of damge to persons/property (and therefore needing insurance) when in fact this is not what is meant by "risk" in this instance. It means risk financially so its the same as fixed price for a job.

 

So you cant really have a sub contractor groundsman, unless you do the climbing and they come along another time and clear up the rubbish for afixed price, that woul dbe sub contracting. The groundsman working with you is employed by you (or the firm you are both working for) regardless of self employed, this is why they dont need seperate PL cover.

[Rupe]

What I am getting at is that being self employed does not make you a sub contractor, and the definitions of either wont make you not an employee when working for someone on thier job.

Edited June 10, 2013 by Rupe

[Rupe]

Thanks for your reply Rupe,

I guess I just want clients to be covered in the event of things going wrong... despite obviously giving meticulous care to avoiding such. When I'm doing any climbing work I'd be asking both bona fide and non bona fide groundies so I'm going to have to get employee cover on that basis... I know we're supposed to have a second climber available, but I've not met any small scale operations that do...

grateful for any further advice.

Many thanks

Jake

 

Your right, many small scale ops dont have ariel rescue cover and even the ones that do often only have a junior with CS38 (and maybe 39) with so little experience that the chance of rescuing a decent climber from some of the positions they could get into is pretty small. But as Treequip says that would depend on the insurance underwriters to decide, the fact that is best practice does not necessarily matter.

 

So, just to clarify, what is it you want your clients to be covered for?

 

And what do you mean by bona fide and non bona fide groundies? Are you in a muddle as well? see my post above. Groundies working with you are employed by you(as far as insurance goes, regardless of self employed or not) and this inlcudes any damage/injury they cause to a third party, that would all be your repsonsiblity and covered by your public liablity if you chose to have any. So dont worry about if they are sub contractors or not, you cant sub contract out the grounding aspect of tree surgery (the person with you) although you could technically sub out the subsequent clear up of debris but I would guess thats very rare.