Professional indemnity insurance necessary?

[Chris]

Morning all,
As of this week i have registered with Napit so for the work that i do for myself outside of the company is all legit and i can sign it off myself.

I was told by Napit that i would only require public liability insurance for the scope of work i do, however when on the phone with napit insurance it sounded like (and they made it sound like) i should get professional indemnity insurance too.

The scope of my work is entirely domestic.
Rewires/CU changes/EICR's/Part rewires/Kitchens. That sort of stuff!

Does anybody know if Professional indemnity insurance is something that i should buy as well or is the insurance company trying to make some extra £££?

Any advice/comments appreciated, thanks.

 

[SparkyChick]

As I understand it, once you start doing EICRs, you're providing advice and guidance on the safety of an installation. Your public liability insurance covers you when you're on site, but it does not cover the words/reports you write.

This is where professional indemnity comes in.

 

[Nigel]

PI Insurance is an insurance against a loss of money by your client for bad design or advice. So if you designed an installation and a fire were to occur due to the poor design your PL Insurance would cover the buildings and life and your PI Insurance would pay for your defence and any compensation claims for loss of profit through trading downtime.

It is up to you whether you feel you need this insurance. All depends on the advice you will give and how confident you are in your ability to do it.

It is a misconception that you need PI Insurance to carry out EICRs. EICRs are a statement of fact and should not include design detail or advice.

 

[telectrix]

as above. PI insurance is to protect you from being sued by a client if you give them bad advice. couple of years ago, I advised a client that he did not need a rewire as all cables were pvc and tested OK, albeit with a few faults such as o/c cpc on ring,and upgrade of accessories and CU was recommended. after a lot of threats and blustering by client, , i contacted my insurers who advised forwarding all emails etc. once they had been in touch with client, he backed down and it went no further. boils down to the fact that your insurers have the clout and legal sharks to put clients off legal action.

 

[Chris]

Once again really helpful advice guys I will go for it, better safe than sorry!

If only it covered the bad advice of going for 'One drink after work'...

 

[Squid]

I used to use Hiscox if I was on a contract that required for me to be insured.

 

[Octopus]

Stroma did me a stonking deal this year for Pl and PI ......

I would say its worth having PI just in case ....

 

[Chris]

Yep I've paid for PI and PL,
Went with Napit insurance which is provided by hiscox.
Just need to book my assessment in now.

 

[Carl S]

I did a lot of work for the military, not electrical work. £2M PL and £5M PI wasn’t that expensive as I used the same company for all of our insurance.


I only had one claim against me, it ended in court where the claimant was imprisoned for fraud. It seemed I wasn’t the first he tried to screw.

 

[Marti]

Stroma did me a stonking deal this year for Pl and PI ......

I would say its worth having PI just in case ....

Useful to know as I have my Stroma Assessment in a couple of weeks.

 

[JK-Electrical]

From the 10-part Checklist For Electrician as listed in Annex A of the Scottish Government's Electrical installations and appliances in private rented properties guidance can be found this heading:

Evidence of competence to carry out an Electrical Installation Condition Report for the purposes of assessing the safety of electrical installations, fittings and fixtures in private rented property.

Under which there is this particular requirement:

I have professional indemnity insurance (£0.25 million is recommended for contractors undertaking electrical installation condition reporting)