What is public liability insurance?

Among third parties which may become inadvertently harmed by normal operations of any business, there’s of course the general public. Public liability insurance aims to protect businesses against all unfortunate events which can happen to a customer of a company when this company is doing its normal business operations.

Even if public liability insurance is not compulsory, contrary to product liability insurance, businesses, even small businesses should really look into this kind of business insurance product and think about the risks.

Risks covered include situations where members of the public are interacting with the policy holding business in any way. This includes deliveries to a customer’s home, and vice-versa, visits to a shop or office by a customer. If you so much as spill coffee onto a client’s PC during a meeting, causing him to lose precious data, you’ll be very happy to be covered by a public liability insurance. In fact, even a sole trader can be held liable for a bad fall suffered by a customer while visiting his home or office, after tripping on a carpet!

Even a little scratch to personal property of a customer can lead to heavy fines, and that’s not counting the legal fees required when going to a court of law. All these costs are covered by a public liability insurance policy.

Depending on the level of exposure to the general public insurers will require the coverage to extend to £1 million, £5 million or even more if the policyholder is in the public sector.