For years Kiwi Tradies have had the attitude that if someone get injured ACC will pay and if we break something, we’ll fix it. But as health and safety has become a more prominent risk to the larger companies, it’s filtering down to tradies in a van.
To avoid injuries or some could cynically say reduce their Insurance premiums, larger organsation will spend a lot of time on risk reduction, safety and procedures. Then to reduce their exposure to being sued by visitors to their site or fined by the regulatory authorities they will ask for those visitors or the visiting companies to share the risk. This may involve carrying a minimum amount of some form of income protection and is also require a minimum amount of General Liability cover.
The income cover will reduce the loss to a worker or contractor therefore reducing the amount of compensation the worker or contractor’s solicitors could claim in a law suit.
Now sure in the event of an accident, ACC is likely to cover some of the cost, but they or the injured party may seek to recover their costs.
Liability insurance protects the policy holder’s business against financial loss or property damage to a third party as a result of the policy holder’s negligence.
Tradies tend to think of property damage as a foot through a ceiling, a broken window or small damage that’s easily fixed. But liability claims can cover small losses through to complete losses and consequential loss running into the millions.
A broken pipe in a highrise, a spark causing a fire in a commercial building or cutting telecommunication wires are a real Tradies claims that resulted in multimillion dollar losses.
The tradies never set out wet, burn, or break anything, but the cost of those claims to the tradie? They simply had to pay the policy excess, in most cases $500-$1000 per claim.
Many business will advertise that they are fully insured, a scenario the our brokers may disagree with, however, the fact that liability cover is in place, will reassure your clients and prospective clients that their assets are in good hands
Do you have a claim scenario you would like to discuss with our brokers? We can assess your business risk and tailor an insurance solution by comparing a number of insurers policies to find the option that best suits your needs.