Make the Best out of your Public Liability Insurance
Would you agree the Internet has really revolutionized the world of insurance? Builders can shop quotes online and compare premiums for Public Liability insurance. Most of them however would never check policy wordings or terms. This post is going to provide you with a real life story of a small business owner and his necessity for Public Liability Insurance?
Bad Day for the Project? Or reasons to have Public Liability insurance.
Accidents just happen… Yes, they just happen. An intelligent approach against them is to have a plan and a backup option when one takes place. This story is about a client of mine for past few years. He has learned about a necessity for public liability insurance insurance in New Zealand through hard learning. The reason for him to do so was a project which didn’t go too well.
Our Auckland builder was not on the building site. Just a few days before he was thinking very highly about himself and was extremely proud about what he managed to achieve with his business. He had a few other guys working for him and he could rely on his team. He had an emergency in the family that day- so he had to be away from work & the building site.
One of his contractors was fixing the ceiling in the commercial building. You know- big building, big job, big money and according to the underwriters- big risk. My client had no public liability insurance at that time. He believed in insuring all his risks against the “pray for everything” policy. But we sometimes tend to forget the common things happening around us. One of those common things is that we’re used to be praying from the heart “after” something has gone wrong. For example, when a doctor comes and says that only prayers can save your patient now- normally it means the doctor does not really know – what would happen from now on…

Photo courtesy of quapan(CC Attribution)
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*Premiums for indicative purposes only. Each application is rated subject to work conditions you have. Please submit your application to get exact premiums for your business.
Premium excl GST and it's not available for businesses that
- are involved in commercial developments that exceed $500,000
- have a turnover greater than $2m
- have more than 10 employees
- operate outside New Zealand
- have had insurance declined, cancelled or refused
- have had a claim lodged in the past 3 years
The job at that stage was in the final phase and the developer of the building was very happy “still-yet”. Who would have thought that his happiness wasn’t going to last for long? The contractor I mentioned above was operating a scissor and accidentally hit the sprinkler which was there – right in the ceiling for fire emergency. Fire protection sprinklers designed to release water and therefore have big pressure and once the guy hit it – the sprinkler started doing its job – pouring as much water into the building as possible. By the time a plumber reaches on site to help -there were gallons of water inside the building. Everything got swept away with flood. The developer did have an insurance policy which covered the losses. However, my client is yet paying his bill to this day- the insurer charged him through court to recover the losses. He must have prayed to God once again and I think God told him that builders should have the public liability insurance. God has His own ways of telling things.
Moral:
Better care than cure.
Public Liability Insurance:
Your public liability insurance gets you covered for any compensation that needs to be paid to third parties or damage to their properties. It is applicable within New Zealand. Does it sound even better when we say that we’ll also pay for the investigation and defending claims or prosecution? Please download the Public Liability policy wordings to get some knowledge about what you are going to be covered for.
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Featured image courtesy of Phillip Roberts