Sponsored: How Jelf can help you protect your reputation
A history of excellent service is what keeps people coming back and recommending you to others. That’s why your reputation is worth defending, especially if your business ever has to face a worst case scenario.
With that possibility in mind, can you insure your reputation?
The answer is yes. There are two main types of cover to consider when protecting your professional reputation; Professional Indemnity and Efficacy cover. Both policies can play a crucial role in defending your reputation and your business if the quality of your work or advice is ever called into question.
Unfortunately, many professionals overlook this type of insurance. For that reason, this article sets out to bust the myths around these covers and explain what they are, and how they could help you.
What does a Contractor’s Professional Indemnity Insurance policy cover?
Not all Professional Indemnity policies are the same, and of course, they’re not specifically designed with your industry in mind. However, Professional Indemnity is there to provide cover for the legal costs and expenses in defending a claim, as well as compensation payable to your client if you are found to be responsible for providing inadequate advice, services or designs that cause your client to lose money. It should cover issues such as negligence, errors and omissions, and unintentional breaches of contract.
Do I need professional indemnity cover?
A client regards any person who provides advice, designs or offers a service in a professional capacity as an expert.
Such clients have high expectations from their professional advisers and in today’s increasingly litigious society, whether you are at fault or not, they may take issue with the advice you have provided or the work you have carried out and seek compensation.
Even if you are not at fault and can successfully defend a claim, there may still be significant legal costs involved, which can be crippling to you and your business.
How much cover do you need?
A number of factors will determine the breadth and the amount of cover that you require, including:
- Contractual obligations - Many contracts now stipulate that you carry a certain level of professional indemnity insurance and that you do so for a certain period after the contract has ended.
- Value of your contracts - This should be a consideration when deciding on the limit of indemnity required. Consider the worst-case scenario if you were to make a mistake and a claim for financial redress made against you.
- Cost - The cost of the policy is ultimately going to be a deciding factor and weighing up what the business can afford against the cover available will be key.
When should I report a Professional Indemnity claim?
All professional indemnity policies incorporate conditions that mean that before your insurers will indemnify you, under the terms of your policy you have a duty to notify them of:
- any communication (either written or oral) intimating a claim or an intention to make a claim against you arising from any professional neglect in the conduct of your business, or for any loss which may be covered by the policy
- any circumstances which may give rise to a claim against you
In addition, any notification of a claim or circumstance should be made immediately and before expiry of the policy otherwise there is a substantial risk that insurers may refuse to indemnify you.
What is efficacy cover?
Efficacy cover insures against legal liabilities than can arise from injury to third parties or damage to their property as a result of a product or service failing to perform its intended function.
It’s easy to see why this might be a useful cover for electrical contractors, depending on the nature of your job – but remember, efficacy cover is not always included in standard electrical contractor insurance policies, so check before you buy.
We’re here to help
Jelf works with IET to help its members and associated tradespeople find exactly the right insurance cover they need.
We’ll help work through all these considerations and more before providing a no-obligation quote on cover that’s tailored for you.
So, if you are in any doubt about the cover you need, give us a call on 0345 894 4684 and we will help you decide what level of Professional Indemnity Insurance is right for you.
Jelf is the new name for Bluefin
This year Bluefin is re-branding as Jelf; bringing together the rich heritage of two leading community brokers under a single name.
Jelf is a broker with a reassuring heritage, built on decades of experience, with specialist expertise in the electrical, engineering and technology sectors.
Please visit https://www.jelf.com/for-business/associations-and-schemes/iet/ for more information.