Insurance

[jaydub]

Whilst I am in my last couple of months before I fully qualify as an electrician I will be self-employed and doing electrician mate work for various people. What do I do about insurance?

I was looking at trade direct insurance and they seem like a good company, does anyone have any experience with them?

Do I need to be fully qualified before I can take out an insurance policy?

What are the grey areas here?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Taylortwocities]

I had my PLI insurance with Trade Direct. Reasonable premiums. Never had a need to claim, and that's when you really find out if an insurance company is up to the task!
Then NAPIT came up with a reasonable alternative insurance as part of their membership, so I switched to them.

IMO, as you are self employed you really must have PLI for yourself. You will never know if the person you are working for/with has a policy that includes you.

Do I need to be fully qualified before I can take out an insurance policy

I do not know, ask the insurance company!

 

[jaydub]

I called them and they say I do not need to be fully qualified and there PLI and tool insurance is a must IMHO now I've looked into it so I will probably go with them, they seem quite helpful and it's not very expensive.

Thanks for your reply

 

[davesparks]

Make sure you specify what you want to be covered for, some insurance will just assume installation work on single phase only, you have to talk to them if you do any 3 phase, inspect and test, emergency lighting etc etc.

Also it's worth seeing if you can get personal accident and injury cover included

 

[Dan Johnson]

I was looking around for my insurance for quite a while as I had a bad experience trying to make a claim a couple of years back with my old insurer. In the end I went for a company called tradesman insurance 4u, they made it really easy for me to add on personal accident cover and I insured my tools as well. I don't think you need to be fully qualified but they were pretty helpful with my questions I had so just ask I guess. Their site is - Tradesman insurance 4U

Hope this helps!