Maintaining Your Electricians Insurance During Lockdown

The UK’s lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 has left many electricians facing disruption and uncertainty, with many seeing their workload reduced, or being forced to stop work entirely.

This will inevitably mean reduced income and the need to reassess the costs you have to cover. This may mean looking at your electrical contractors insurance: why do you need insurance if your business isn’t running? Is this a cost you could cut to save money? But the reality is, whether you are able to continue working or not, maintaining your electrical contractors insurance is as important as ever. Otherwise, you risk leaving yourself and your business exposed.

Five reasons to maintain electricians insurance

Protect your property, tools and vehicles

If you’re working less, or not at all, it’s still vital to maintain these covers. If you lost your tools, vehicle, stock or premises ‒ could you cover the cost without insurance?

• Tool insurance.
• Business premises insurance.
• Stock insurance.
• Commercial vehicle insurance.

If an incident, like a theft, were to happen now, it could take you longer to get back to normal once restrictions are eased if you don’t have insurance in place. Even if your premises are unattended, or your vehicle is not being used, they’ll still be covered as long as you follow any recommendations from your insurer.

Protect against public liability claims

Public liability insurance is there to protect you if a customer or member of the public makes a claim against your business. For example, claiming an injury has been caused by faulty wiring you installed. If you are still providing emergency services during the COVID-19 outbreak, your public liability insurance for electrical contractors with NICEIC Insurance will still be valid as long as you are following the latest government advice:

• Social distancing.
• Wearing a mask and gloves.
• Disinfecting surfaces.

Remember that your continued NICEIC membership also requires that you have public liability insurance in place.

Employers liability insurance is a legal requirement

If you employ people, even part-time, you are still legally required to have employers liability insurance in place. This applies even if they are not currently working every day. This cover can also help with legal defence costs and compensation payments if an employee gets hurt or falls ill at work.  You could face fines of up to £2,500 per day if you don’t have cover in place. Could you afford this cost without insurance cover?

Historical professional indemnity claims

You won’t be covered for historical professional indemnity claims if you don’t have cover in place. Professional indemnity can protect you if a customer makes a claim that there was an error or omission in your professional advice or service. But even if you aren’t currently working, a customer can put a claim in for work you have done previously. And if your professional indemnity insurance isn’t in place when they make the claim, regardless of when you actually did the work, you won’t be covered. Then you could be facing legal fees and compensation costs that could significantly damage your business.

Cost doesn’t have to be a barrier

There are ways to cut or spread the cost of insurance. At NICEIC Insurance, we offer NICEIC registered contractors a 10% discount on the cost of electrical contractors insurance. We can also offer a monthly payment plan to spread the cost, thanks to our relationship with finance provider, Close Brothers. 

If you are about to take out new cover or renew, get in touch with us to see if the reduced risk you may be facing may affect your premium. But it is vital that you revisit your cover again once things start to return to normal, to make sure you are properly protected. If you are underinsured, this could lead to a claim not being paid out in part or fully.

If you need to speak with us, please call the NICEIC Insurance team on 0333 015 6629.