New research has suggested that as many as 64% of sole-traders and small business owners within the UK don’t own professional indemnity insurance, with building contractors, engineers and estate agents as the biggest culprits.
Professional indemnity insurance is designed to provide business owners with cover when a claim is made against them as a result of a problem with the business’ work or professional advice.
The poll, conducted by construction and small business insurance specialist constructaquote.com, asked 2,165 UK small business owners ‘Do you already own professional indemnity insurance?’, to which 64% stated ‘no’ and the remaining 36% stated ‘yes’.
Further questioning revealed the following ranking of those without professional indemnity insurance broken down by business sector:
1. Building/construction – 13%
2. Engineering – 11%
3. Property – 9%
4. I.T. – 9%
5. Health/Fitness – 8%
When asked why they didn’t yet have the insurance, respondents stated ‘I don’t feel as though I’ll ever require it’ (39%), ‘I don’t know enough about what the insurance policy would guarantee me’ (33%) and ‘I don’t think I can find the budget to pay for it’ (12%) as the top reasons why.
Speaking of his decision to take out professional indemnity insurance with constructaquote.com, Adrain Buckmaster, owner of cladding contractors Terraclad, commented: “Terraclad is a very new venture, at just two months old, and it is a vital requirement within the cladding industry to have professional indemnity insurance.
“I have previously worked with and for companies that have not invested in professional indemnity insurance and witnessed them struggle with the limited cover when incidents have occurred.”
