Your public liability sorted in one chat.
Tell us what you do. We compare across insurers and lay the differences side by side, in plain language.
What does public liability actually cover?
Damage your work causes to someone else.
You drill into a wall at a client’s place, hit a pipe, and the water runs through the ceiling of the floor below. A visitor trips over a cable in your premises and breaks an arm. A member of staff puts out no sign after mopping and someone falls.
In cases like these, this insurance can cover the compensation and the legal costs.
That much is simple. What is hard:
- Knowing whether your sums insured hold up when it really goes wrong.
- Knowing what is excluded for your particular activity.
- Knowing whether you are paying too much, without losing half a day to it.
You do not need a form for that. You need someone who asks the right questions.
What you get in that one conversation
You type what you do. We ask the questions. You fill in nothing yourself.
We are a broker, not an insurer, so we have no policy of our own that has to be sold. We compare across several insurers and say where the differences are. If that difference is small, we say that too.
You hear what can be covered, where the limits are and what is excluded for your activity. In plain language, not in forty pages.
How much cover you take is your decision. Check what your clients require of you contractually: that amount is in their contract.
No forms. No hold music. No office hours.
And it all stays in the same conversation. If something changes in your business, or something happens, you just open it again.
How to start
You send a message through the chat on this page.
You answer a few targeted questions about your activities. Who comes to your premises, where you work, what you hold in safekeeping for clients. No long questionnaire.
You get a tailored proposal usually within two working days, explaining what is covered, up to what amount, and what is not in the policy.
If you agree, you confirm the proposal.
What a conversation with Ōmata looks like
You do not need to know which policy you are looking for, and there is no form to fill in.
Start your request
Viktor is online
You are talking to an AI assistant. You can ask for a human colleague to take over at any time.
- CustomerA customer fell in the shop and is holding us liable. Are we covered?
- ŌmataProbably, if you hold public liability cover. Report it to your insurer today, even if you dispute liability. Do you have a policy number to hand?
- CustomerI am not sure, we have had something running since we opened in 2019.
- ŌmataNo problem, we will look it up. Send me the name of your insurer in the meantime — what is the nature of your shop?
- CustomerA clothing shop, with one part-time member of staff.
- ŌmataNoted. I will pass this on to our expert, who looks up and checks your policy. You will hear from us usually within two working days.
Try it yourself
Who this is for
Wherever other people, their goods or their buildings come near your activity, this is the policy that comes first.
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Shops and hospitality
Customers on your floor, and a floor that can be wet. The most common claim of all.
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Contractors and installers
You work in someone else’s premises, and tools have no patience.
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Production and workshops
Suppliers, customers and hauliers coming onto your site.
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Care and welfare
People in your building, often less mobile than average.
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Offices and service firms
Visitors, rented premises and other people’s equipment on site.
Who this is not for
- Anyone working purely online from home. Without visitors, without premises of your own and without travel to clients, the risk is thin. Family liability cover already does a lot privately; start there.
- Anyone who only sells advice. An error in your advice does not belong here but in professional indemnity. Different policy, different risk.
- Anyone already covered by a group policy. Working under a franchise or a larger principal often means cover already exists. Two policies for the same risk do not pay out twice.
- Anyone who cannot cause physical damage. If there is no scenario in which your work injures a person or damages an object, there is little to insure here.
What public liability insurance covers
Public liability insurance usually covers the bodily injury and property damage third parties suffer because of your business: your staff, your building, your machines, your goods and your vehicles on your own site. Defence costs come on top, and usually goods entrusted to you and the premises you rent.
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Injury to visitors A customer, supplier or visitor injured on your site or in your building.
Their medical costs and loss of income.
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Damage caused by your staff What your people damage on a third party’s premises while at work, including away from your own premises.
Injury to your own staff falls under occupational accident insurance.
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Damage from your building or installation A canopy that comes loose, a leak that runs down to the neighbour, a tile that falls.
Including when you rent the premises.
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Goods entrusted to you Customers’ property in your hands to work on or to store.
Usually with its own limit, lower than the main sum insured.
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Tenant’s liability Damage to the premises you rent, for instance after fire or water damage.
Often a separate section with its own sum insured.
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Defence costs Lawyer, expert and court costs when a claim is brought against you, even if it later turns out you did nothing wrong.
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Post-delivery liability Damage your delivered product or completed work causes afterwards.
Usually a separate section that has to be switched on explicitly.
What public liability insurance does not cover
Not covered are your own losses, an error in your advice or design, and pure financial loss without anything broken or anyone hurt. Intent is never covered, and neither is what you promised contractually beyond what the law requires.
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Your own losses Your machines, your stock, your building and your vehicles fall under fire or equipment insurance, not under liability.
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Professional errors A wrong estimate, a missed piece of advice or a faulty design belong in professional indemnity.
The line between the two is the most common argument after a claim.
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Pure financial loss A loss without damage or injury, for instance a client missing revenue.
Sometimes insurable as an extension, never included as standard.
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Contractual promises What you took on in a contract beyond what the law requires falls outside the policy.
Have heavy liability clauses reviewed before you sign.
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Intent and gross negligence Deliberate damage is never insured.
For gross negligence it depends on how the policy defines it.
Just ask
Post-delivery liability: the most common gap
Public liability covers what goes wrong while you are working. If something goes wrong after you have delivered or left the site, that is a different section: post-delivery liability. A pipe that comes loose and brings down a ceiling months later, a delivered batch that fails at the customer.
Anyone who installs, fits, repairs or supplies needs that section. Check your policy for whether it is there, and with what limit. It often is, but with a considerably lower ceiling than the main cover.
Objective liability: an obligation, not a choice
If you run premises accessible to the public — a café, a restaurant, a hotel, a dance hall, a shop above a certain floor area — you are legally required to hold objective liability cover for fire and explosion. No fault has to be proven there.
That obligation stands apart from your public liability policy and is not automatically covered by it. It has its own page.
What determines the price
A figure without your details is a guess. What determines the premium, we can list.
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Sector
Construction and hospitality sit structurally higher than an office.
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Annual turnover
With most insurers the basis of the calculation.
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Payroll
How many people work there, and in which roles.
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Sum insured
Per claim, and separately for bodily injury.
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Excess
What you carry yourself per claim.
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Claims history
What happened over the past five years, and how often.
Frequently asked questions
Is public liability insurance legally required?
As a general rule no, but there are exceptions.* If you run premises accessible to the public you are required to hold objective liability cover for fire and explosion. On top of that, many principals, landlords and public tenders demand proof of cover before you may start. In practice you often need it.
What if a client falls on my premises?
Report it to your insurer the same day, even if you believe you did nothing wrong. Note what happened, where and when, and whether there were witnesses. Do not admit liability: that is for the insurer to assess. The policy covers both the damage and your defence when the claim turns out to be unfounded.
What is the difference with professional indemnity?
Public liability is about damage you physically cause during operations. Professional indemnity is about the consequences of an error in what you delivered as knowledge: wrong advice, a missed deadline, a faulty calculation. Anyone who does both needs both.
Is post-delivery liability included as standard?
Not always, and it is the section where a gap most often sits. It covers damage your delivered product or completed work causes afterwards. Check your policy for whether it is there and with what limit: it often is, but with a lower ceiling than the main cover.
What if the damage came from a subcontractor?
You usually remain the liable party towards your client, and your insurer can then recover from the subcontractor. So ask for proof of cover before you work together, and have it recorded who answers for what.
How high should the sum insured be?
That depends on what can happen at worst, not on your turnover. An accident with permanent injury quickly reaches amounts that exceed most businesses. Have the sum set against your activity rather than taking the lowest standard.
Who is behind Ōmata?
Ōmata Insurance is the AI-first studio of the Induver group and a sister company of Group Induver NV: two companies within the same group, not parent and subsidiary. Ōmata puts you in touch with Group Induver NV, an insurance broker holding FSMA number 016880; that is where the advice and the policy come about. The full identification is set out in the legal notices.
About Ōmata
Ōmata is the AI-first insurance studio of Group Induver. You tell us what you want to insure over chat; usually within two working days you receive a proposal, drawn up by an insurance broker at Group Induver NV, registered with the FSMA under number 016880.
Ready to start?
Send us a message and tell us briefly what you want to insure. You get an immediate reply and your proposal usually within two working days.
Notes on the asterisks on this page
- Whether this is mandatory for you depends on your sector and your situation (objective liability, certain permits, some leases) — we check this for your specific file.