Public liability when working in customers’ homes

How this applies to the work

Your invoices and diary will usually describe the business more accurately than a broad label. They show the tasks, sites and customers that the policy has to accommodate.

A public liability policy is concerned with certain claims from people outside the business. Your own tools, an employee’s injury or the cost of redoing poor work can fall elsewhere.

A sensible description of the risk should take account of: water escaping after a fitting is disturbed; paint, tools or dust damaging belongings; and a resident trips over equipment. The examples are there to test the description of the business. The policy wording still decides how a claim is handled.

Have the following details beside you: work involving heat, water, electrics or structure; typical property values and job sizes; and any keys or unsupervised access. If one point is uncertain, ask how the question should be answered and keep the reply.

Do not file the documents unread. The business description, limits, excesses and endorsements deserve a first-day check. Make the enquiry before accepting the policy rather than after an incident.

Points to think through

These are the less obvious ways trouble can start:

• Water escaping after a fitting is disturbed
• Paint, tools or dust damaging belongings
• A resident trips over equipment

If one of these examples is a regular part of your work, make sure it has not been lost in a broad trade description.

Suppose the issue was “water escaping after a fitting is disturbed”. A provider would need more than the trade name. It may need to know the job, the property involved, the precautions required and when the problem first became apparent.

Now compare that with “paint, tools or dust damaging belongings”. It may involve a different cause and a different part of the wording. Similar-looking claims do not always follow the same route.

An insurer may still reach a different view after investigating a real incident. At the buying stage, accuracy is the part within your control.

Useful records for the quotation

Recent invoices and contracts should help you establish:

• Work involving heat, water, electrics or structure
• Typical property values and job sizes
• Any keys or unsupervised access

“work involving heat, water, electrics or structure”, “typical property values and job sizes” and “any keys or unsupervised access” may come from different documents. Bring them together before requesting a quotation so that dates, activities and contractual requirements do not conflict.

Do not send sensitive records merely to prove a simple figure unless the provider asks for them through a suitable route. Usually the answer itself is enough at quotation stage.

Two reminders from this page are “photograph the work area before starting” and “agree how fragile items will be moved”; keep them beside the documents when you check the quotation. If the policy takes a different approach to “work involving heat, water, electrics or structure”, ask about it before the cover is needed and retain any written reply.

Save the answers you submit. Check the insured name, business description and dates when the policy documents arrive.

Look closely at these points

• Photograph the work area before starting
• Agree how fragile items will be moved
• The item you work on may be treated differently

If a clause is unclear, ask for an explanation before the cover is needed. Keep that explanation with the policy.

One last read-through

Keep the quotation answers, schedule, wording, endorsements and certificate together. They are parts of the same record.

If the business changes during the policy period, ask whether the provider needs to be told rather than waiting for renewal.

Put the renewal date somewhere it will be noticed before any long-running contract passes through it. A customer may need an updated certificate, and the renewed policy may not use exactly the same terms.

Keep one further reminder with the quotation: the item you work on may be treated differently; check how this affects the jobs you accept and ask for clarification if the policy takes a different approach.