Like any other insurance policy, public liability insurance has exclusion clauses that stipulate which risks cannot be covered under that policy you have just signed up for. Such exclusions vary from one insurer to another. For instance, the exclusions may include damage to a client's property resulting from faulty workmanship. This article discusses four options that you can ask for in order to get additional protection for your construction company.
Professional Liability
People may depend on your professional advice to decide what decisions to make. You may be held liable if any damage results after the client acts on your advice. For instance, a builder can be held liable for recommending a certain kind of weatherproofing if water ingress damages a client's building and it is found that the building didn't have the right kind of weatherproofing for that area. Professional liability cover would be helpful in such a situation.
Employee Liability Cover
Public liability insurance generally covers damage or injury to members of the public resulting from your work. However, an employee may sue you for an injury he or she sustained while performing company work. That is why you need employee liability cover to take care of such eventualities that may not be covered by your public liability policy.
Faulty Workmanship Insurance Cover
Some public liability insurance providers exclude damage resulting from poor/faulty workmanship. For instance, if you hammered a nail through a power cable and it caused a fire, the company may say the fire was a result of faulty workmanship, so they are not obliged to compensate your client for that damage. It is for this reason that you should acquire faulty workmanship cover as an addition to your public liability insurance if you find that it is excluded from your policy.
Defamation Liability Cover
A member of the public can sue you for making a statement that is construed as damaging to their product or reputation. For instance, you may have mentioned to a client that a certain building material does not last as long as the manufacturer claims. You may be sued for defamation if a company representative of the makers of that product overhears that statement. Your public liability insurance policy may have excluded such a risk, and you may end up incurring a high cost to compensate the company that sued you. A defamation policy rider (additional cover) may come in handy to save you when such a suit is filed against you.
As you can see, it is much better to get all the protection you can get instead of taking the chance that a risk will never occur. Talk to a professional insurer like Unity Insurance Brokers, and get the additional cover in the areas above so that your business is given all the protection it can get.