Insurance for Electrical Contractors & Security & Fire Alarm Installers

Click here for more information on Contractors Insurance with S.A. Faughnan

Public liability insurance is designed to cover your business in the event that you are sued by a third party who feels that they have suffered a loss as a result of your negligence. It covers your legal liability to a third party in the completion of an electrical contract. Even if you did not act negligently and no damages were awarded you could still have a large legal bill to pay in defending a claim for third party injury or property damage.

 

Examples of possible electrical claims are: poor electrical installation giving rise to system faults or fire, employee getting an injury during work, electrical power surge giving rise to damage to client machines or computers, third party injury on a client site due to your negligence etc.
Sole Traders must be sure to keep their Public Liability cover in force, because in the absence of insurance, they can be personally held liable for damages awarded against them.

 

Employers Liability for Electricians & Fire Alarm Installers Features that Public Liability cover can offer:

  • Limits of indemnity of €2.6 million or €6.5 million
  • Indemnity to Principal extension
  • Automatic Indemnity to County Councils, RECI & ECSSA
  • Specialist clauses: subrogation waiver, non-vitiation clauses, joint insureds
  • Personal Accident cover for insured
  • Legal Expenses Cover

Having adequate Employers Liability Insurance cover is very important for your business.

It protects your business against your legal liability for injury, illness, disease or death of any employee under a contract of service with your business.

 

Workplace accidents are very common in Ireland, particularly falls from heights and working with machinery in this trade. Although Employers’ Liability (EL) insurance is not compulsory in Ireland, most prudent businesses will have EL insurance in place to cover claims made by employees for injuries at work or, by others, where the employer is being held liable for acts or omissions of an employee.

 

What is an employee? The definition of a direct employee will include: Labour-Only Sub Contractors or persons supplied by them, Self Employed persons, Apprentices, persons hired or borrowed by the insured under agreement, persons engaged in training, education or work experience.

 

Key points to remember regarding Employers Liability Insurance:

  • Disclose ALL workers to your insurer, whether cash only, PAYE, sub-contracted (LOSC), apprentices, work experience or agency staff.
  • Declare ALL payments and wages to your insurer which are paid by you to BFSC and LOSC
  • Make sure ALL staff have Manual Handling, Safe-Pass and appropriate on-site safety training including that involving machinery
  • Make sure ALL staff have Personal Protective Equipment including Clothing & that they use it
  • Make sure all work is supervised and instruction is provided
  • Carry out a sufficient risk assessment and take the suitable measures to protect employees and report incidents.

 

Efficacy Insurance

This particular insurance is designed to cover the failure of an item to perform its intended function.

It is commonly required by businesses involved in the manufacture, service, supply or installation of performance critical products such as fire alarms, intruder alarms, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers, etc.  Trades involved with fire, security or electrical contracting will often have to prove they have Public Liability and Products Liability which includes Efficacy cover before they are granted a contract.

 

Efficacy cover is normally a standard exclusion applied to Product Liability insurance policies in respect of failure of a product to perform its intended function. Product Liability is there to cover injury or property damage caused by the product, not if it has failed to deliver the results.

 

Efficacy cover is usually purchased as an extension to Products Liability or Public Liability insurance as it provides cover against the legal liability for injury to third parties or damage to third party property arising from a product or service failing to perform its intended function. A manufacturer’s guarantee will normally not provide this cover as the guarantee is there to only repair or replace the product if something goes wrong with it within a set amount of time after it has been purchased.

 

Insuring Tools & Equipment with your Liability policy

For the majority of businesses, work tools are crucial. If yours were lost, stolen or damaged, would you have the backup to keep on working? Having cover for Tools & other work equipment lets you get on with what’s important. Whether it’s hired equipment, or your own personal tools, you need to keep your business running. Tools, stock and business equipment insurance is available as an optional extra when you buy public liability insurance. It covers you against the loss or theft of, or damage to the essential items you need to run your business.

 

Contractors with a design liability
In recent years it has become commonplace for contractors to incur a design liability, either by offering a design service as part of an overall building package or through a design and build contract where the design work is sub-contracted.

 

Professional indemnity Design & Build Insurance is intended for designers, consultants and subcontractors involved in all different aspects of designing and constructing a project. It is more and more common for clients to insist that everyone involved in a contract carry their own insurance cover, even if a contractor is doing little or no design work. So if you do not have any involvement in the initial design aspect, as a contractor you may adjust a design given to fit the actual work you carry out and on that basis you have contingent exposure to design liability and Professional indemnity Design & Build insurance cover will be a necessity.

 

If you provide design, certification or specification regarding a system you are installing, this is a professional risk and normally excluded under a Public / Products Liability policy.

 

Consider the exposure you have to the management company of an apartment block where you have either designed, installed, tested or certified the fire alarm and fire extinguishers. A fire there could lead to a claim from the management company or their insurer where you are accused of negligently installing or certifying a fire alarm that failed to work causing injury or death or damage to the property. Efficacy cover may not come in to play here if the issue was negligent wiring or certification as opposed to the alarm failing to function.

 

Remember: Electrical Contractors, Fire & Burglar Alarm Installers…BE PREPARED and have the necessary insurance covers in place before going on site. Make sure at a minimum you have an efficacy extension on your policy. Consider Professional Indemnity Insurance as Public/Products Liability cover does NOT extend to cover ‘professional risks’ i.e. design, certification & specification.

Click here for more information on Contractors Insurance with S.A. Faughnan

At S.A Faughnan (Brokers) Ltd. www.safaughnan.ie we can assist you in arranging the correct package to cover your trade or business including the completion of all insurance forms issued by ECSSA, RECI and more. We are insurance professionals and we deal ONLY with A-Rated (financially secure) Insurers at competitive prices.

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