Antony G asked:
I’m about to set up a small sole trader business in the UK making furniture and I am going to be moving into a small industrial unit which I will be renting. I have been advised by the people who are renting out the unit that I need to get personal and public liability insurance. I have done a few searches on the internet but I can’t see any companies that have a combined policy. In other words it seems I have to get two seperate insurance policies for personal and public insurance. Is this right? Or is it the case that public liability also includes personal liability.
I’m about to set up a small sole trader business in the UK making furniture and I am going to be moving into a small industrial unit which I will be renting. I have been advised by the people who are renting out the unit that I need to get personal and public liability insurance. I have done a few searches on the internet but I can’t see any companies that have a combined policy. In other words it seems I have to get two seperate insurance policies for personal and public insurance. Is this right? Or is it the case that public liability also includes personal liability.
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Shouldn’t be a problem…call an insurance agent.
Landlords typically are looking for a General Liability policy which would pay for injury to someone who gets injured on your rented premesis as well as pays for defense costs for product liability (i.e. you leave a staple or nail sticking out of a peice of furniture and it injures someone). The nice thing about this is that you can generally couple this with a property policy (to cover your equipment and inventory) in what’s called a BOP (Business Owners Policy). I am not too familiar with the market in the UK as I am from the US, but I would assume it’s not much different.
So after all that, the short answer is yes, just call an insurance agent and let them get you some quotes. Insurance companies that will sell you a policy over the internet probably won’t be able to help you out with this one.
Good luck!
OK, I filter to US Only questions (not english only) and this came up, so I’m guessing that maybe you’re not going to get many UK answers.
Here in the US, and most of the rest of the world, it’s true – there are TWO different kinds of liability – personal, and business. “Public” is a misnomer – public can be either personal, or business. Or maybe it’s just a UK way to say ‘business’.
But, you CANNOT combine the two. The rating basis and coverages are WILDLY divergent. Business liability does NOT include personal liability, but it DOES extend coverage, to some extent, over employees IN THE COURSE OF EMPLOYMENT. With exclusions, of course.
Normally you get two separate policies. But this should not be a big deal.
I work for a public liability insurance company and have never seen a policy combining these two types of insurance.
Regardless, they are both simple to obtain separately.