PLUMBER INSURANCE: A Cautionary Tale

Here's a cautionary tale. About plumber insurance. And it all begins when a plumber - let's call him ... how about ... you - is distracted one day and forgets to put an important seal in place when working on the installation of, say, a customer's new bathroom. A leak develops, behind the scenes, and thousands of pounds worth of damage is done to the décor and the fittings of the kitchen below.

Now, you don't have any plumbers insurance. Or, if you do, it doesn't include public liability insurance. Here's how the story unfolds.

The customer, who blames you for what has happened, makes a claim against you through his lawyers. Which leaves you with very little choice but to find your own solicitor (and they don't come cheap.) Having looked at the claim, he explains that you have a choice.

You can settle out of court, which means you'll have to pay an agreed compensation figure (and remember, the damage ran to thousands of pounds) as well as his bill. Or you can have your day in court. But if you lose, you could be facing an even bigger compensation payment and not only your own legal costs but possibly the customer's legal costs on top of that. Even if you win, you might still have to pay your own legal fees. And whatever happens, the whole process will have cost you a lot of time and worry..

Of course, if you had taken out the right kind of plumber insurance then, once you had given your insurance company all the relevant information, you could simply have got on with working for your other customers happy in the knowledge that, whatever the outcome, it wouldn't be you footing any of the bills.

And the moral of the story? Simply follow the link to find out more about insurance for plumbers.