Public Liability Insurance

[Andrew C]

Not directly theatre, and not relating to me, but...

 

One of our cleaners asked me for advice buying PLI for himself, doing carpet cleaning etc on the side. He had been told he needed £3M for some clients. Easy enough to get, and not expensive.

 

However, every policy we looked at specifically excluded "damage caused by carpet cleaning" or similar phraseology. This means the single most likely accident on his policy, and I suspect many others, isn't covered.

 

So, if you have cover for your lighting business, are you covered if your lights cause a fire that burns the building down?

[stevep]

I'd have thought that was an exclusion relating to the use of chemical cleaners rather than using a hoover - ask the insurance company direct if they'll cover what you're doing (and get it in writing)

failing that go find a broker

[kerry davies]

The cleaning case is odd but standard cover for an LX business would be Public and Product Liability as a minimum so you would normally be covered.

 

Obviously with insurance policies and exclusions being as variable as the weather it would pay to double-check the details with your broker/insurer.

[Wingwalker]

On a slightly off topic but in a similar vein...

 

My parents recently had one of their bedroom ceilings collapse due to excessive water building up on the flat roof. Without even sending an assessor round the insurance company said they were not covered first of all giving one excuse then saying another. The long and short of it is that when they took out the policy they were told on the phone that they were covered. They didn't get any paperwork with small print - just the general documents confirming their details and are naow facing a rather large bill to pay. The small print can be found online. In their particular case they are pursuing things through an ombudsman who believe they have a case but that of course could take months and winter is rapidly approaching. My parents are both well into retirement age and to have to deal with something of this nature is not good - especially as my dad was up on the roof in the driving rain 6 o'clock in the morning trying to put tarpaulins down to prevent any more damage.

 

The moral of the story - check the small print.

[Andrew C]

Hmmm... I've just tried the same exercise with a hypothetical PAT business... Similar exclusion. Not covered for any loss due to PATing. :huh:

[Grum]

Could this be a case of the difference between Public Liability Insurance (PLI) and Professional Indemnity insurance (PI)?

 

PLI covers you against death / injury to anyone except yourself and employees.

 

PI covers you for negligence and accidental damage to property and increased costs, i.e. costs incurred through damage to/loss of property. in your case, the carpet cleaner using the wrong chemicals and damaging a carpet.

[McIvy]

What you are seeing here is the Public Liability Insurer's intention to cover injury and damage resulting from the Policyholders general professional presence, but excluding damage to the "thing" being worked upon.

 

Hence the exclusion for damage to carpets being cleaned, or the equipment being PAT tested itself.

 

The Chippendale chair accidentally scratched by the Cleaner, or the Engineer forgetting to properly secure a lighting fixture after testing so it falls on someone's head, should be covered, subject to any other relevant exclusions.

 

Professional Indemnity Insurance does indeed cover the work itself.

 

McIvy

[brainwave-generator]

It comes down to the individual policy basically, you should advise them to speak to an insurance broker that deals especially with the service industry as they will know and understand what cleaners need to be insured for.

 

For instance, you get your BECTU or whatever PLI and yes that'll cover you when you drop something on somebody's foot and break it, but it won't cover whatever you dropped on their foot. But then, you get things like the 'Crew Cover' (Precision - who are a specialist live entertainment broker) which features 2 parts - PUBLIC Liability Insurance, and PRODUCT Liability Insurance. The latter is what we are talking about. You get £5m to spend on whatever it is that you've broken, and you also get cover for 'property being worked upon'. Meaning if you wheel a flightcase through a doorway of a listed building and take half the doorframe off with it, you're covered on that too. (Mad example but it does happen, I know somebody who ripped up a load of aluminium cladding on a building with a forklift because the forks stuck out the palette a bit further than he thought. The company actually covered it but he felt a lot happier knowing he was actually covered himself too.There's got to be plenty of people who've reversed a bit far in a dock and done that old chestnut!).

 

As I said really the best course of action is to find an insurance broker who deal especially with the services industry - such as cleaning. They will help your friend work out what kind of cover he needs, what level of cover he needs, any specific areas of cover he needs, and so on. Whilst I don't know many people who do, it can be a wise decision to get a legal professional to look over the policy wording for you and explain everything from a legal standpoint, it will cost you some more it may save a palava later on when you find out in a more stressful environment that you weren't covered for something you thought you were, and now you need it you're not covered.