Newbie Question: Insurance

[SimonMac]

I have got the details from the agency through about my contract, and they are asking for "copies of relevant insurance", in respect to EP, PL and PI which are required by law, and which are just good practice to have.

[SueEllen]

How many people does the company you are director/legal secretary of employ?
Does the company you are director/legal secretary of have more than one director that isn't related?

Legally you don't need any of the insurances except in specific situations.

The company needs EL insurance if:
1. The company has more than one employee who is also not a director
2. The company has more than one director and the directors are not related.

The company need PL if the company is working at a premise that doesn't have insurance to cover their employees (including yourself) on site i.e. serviced offices, or to cover company premises if you have any member of the public on the company premises. (That's why you should never have clients visiting your house if you have a home office.)

You are not legally obliged to have PI but if the company works on live systems or needs to indemnify the work the company does then you should get some. The amount you need depends on the sector you are working in.

My company started out with only PI insurance , then had to I got PL last year due to the premises I was working at. I don't have EL because I don't have any directors who aren't related to me, or any employees - subcontractors are responsible for their own insurance. The current agency I working through for this main contract is happy with this when I pointed out legally I don't have to have EL as the other company director is one of my relations.

[SimonMac]

How many people does the company you are director/legal secretary of employ?
Does the company you are director/legal secretary of have more than one director that isn't related?

Legally you don't need any of the insurances except in specific situations.

The company needs EL insurance if:
1. The company has more than one employee who is also not a director
2. The company has more than one director and the directors are not related.

The company need PL if the company is working at a premise that doesn't have insurance to cover their employees (including yourself) on site i.e. serviced offices, or to cover company premises if you have any member of the public on the company premises. (That's why you should never have clients visiting your house if you have a home office.)

You are not legally obliged to have PI but if the company works on live systems or needs to indemnify the work the company does then you should get some. The amount you need depends on the sector you are working in.

My company started out with only PI insurance , then had to I got PL last year due to the premises I was working at. I don't have EL because I don't have any directors who aren't related to me, or any employees - subcontractors are responsible for their own insurance. The current agency I working through for this main contract is happy with this when I pointed out legally I don't have to have EL as the other company director is one of my relations.

I am the only Director and Shareholder, no one will be visiting my premise and its a large multi national so I think its safe to assume that they will have PL. So the only think would be PI, I will be mainly working on Dev/Test/Pre-Production servers so it could be classed as live. Would the Agency be open to me asking what the client requires interms of insurance, I don't mind looking like an idiot as I'll admit I am still learning as I go along.

[SueEllen]

Being a shareholder is irrelevant.

Would the Agency be open to me asking what the client requires interms of insurance, I don't mind looking like an idiot as I'll admit I am still learning as I go along.

due to your poor English.

I'm presuming you are asking - Can the agency demand that you have the insurance the end-client requires? And the answer to this is "Yes".

Most don't bother because it's hard work due to the variety of company structures people can work under so they simply demand you have all the insurance as standard. It's up to you to find out (Hint- use google.co.uk) if your business structure requires particular insurance and the amount you need to be insured by.

[SimonMac]

Being a shareholder is irrelevant.

due to your poor English.

I'm presuming you are asking - Can the agency demand that you have the insurance the end-client requires? And the answer to this is "Yes".

Most don't bother because it's hard work due to the variety of company structures people can work under so they simply demand you have all the insurance as standard. It's up to you to find out (Hint- use google.co.uk) if your business structure requires particular insurance and the amount you need to be insured by.

Sorry, it made sense in my head lol!

Basically I was asking would it be best to go back to the agenct and ask what the client requires in the form of insurance, which I have now done. The client is asking for PI & PL.

[northernladuk]

This in my mind is a non issue. QDOS sell it for about £250 for the year which you can claim as a business cost so even cheaper on the pocket.

Buy it and forget about it. It just isn't worth worrying about.

If you want to put a contract in jeaopardy for £250 then you are on your own.