Public Liability Insurance for Subcontractors

When you’re working as a subcontractor, you’re generally going to be responsible for the financial cost of your own actions and often you won’t be covered by the insurance of the person or company who hired you.

For this reason, it’s not surprising that subcontractors are the main users of Public Liability Insurance.  A lot of tradesmen work as subcontractors and public liability insurance needs to be a major consideration.

Why bother with insurance?

It’s important to remember that when you work as a subcontractor, even if you work under a person or company, you are effectively running your own business.

When you go about your work, you will be financially responsible for any damage to property or people that might occur.  The people or company that you are working for won’t cover the costs for you.

To protect yourself from having to cover the cost of work related damage yourself, it’s important to have Public Liability Insurance in place.

Do I need Public Liability Insurance?

For some subcontractors, it’s easy to know if you need to be insured because you will need Public Liability Insurance to enter a work site or to get a contractor’s licence.

If you work in hazardous areas, such as construction or building, there is often a higher risk that something may go wrong as a result of your work.  To protect yourself, it is vital to take out Public Liability Insurance.

Remember that if you have Public Liability Insurance, it won’t cover any damage or injury to yourself, and will only cover damage to people or property that has happened because of your actions at work.

What if I hire subcontractors?

If you hire subcontractors, your insurance generally won’t cover them if they do anything to damage property or another person.  For this reason, it’s important to make sure that all your subcontractors have Public Liability Insurance in place.

There are sometimes policies with companies that cover subcontractors but this is not common.

There may be instances where both and your subcontractor are responsible for damage.  In this case, you would each take shared responsibility and would each be allocated a certain percentage of the claim amount.

It’s vital for you both to have Public Liability Insurance in place so you will be able to pay your part of the claim amount.