Partner Article

What insurance should your clearance company have

Whether you are thinking about hiring a clearance company or setting one up yourself, understanding the insurance that should be in place, who this covers and what the benefits are, are extremely important.

What insurance(s) should a house clearance company have in place?

Public Liability Insurance (PLI): every company really should have this insurance as it protects both them and their customers for anything that should go wrong.

The house clearance company will be covered in the event of a claim being made against them by anyone who has suffered an injury or a loss which was caused by the company’s actions. For example, liability insurance covers the clearance for moving furniture from one floor to another, dropping it and causing damage to the walls and stairs of the house. An example of more ‘serious’ complaints that are covered is a customer falling over something that the clearance company has dropped resulting in serious injury. Not having liability insurance in place means that the owner personally may be responsible for paying damages.

The customers are covered as all of their belongings and their home will be covered under the liability insurance, any damages would be fixed and paid for by the clearance company’s insurer and therefore customers have peace of mind. If you, as a customer, were to hire a ‘rogue’ clearance company that does not have insurance, and something were to go wrong, you may end up having to pay to fix this yourself.

Insurance for a Commercial Vehicle: is not something a customer really needs to worry about, but something the owner of a clearance company should take into consideration. A standard insurance policy cannot be used for business purposes, it is for ‘domestic, social and pleasure use only’, having a standard policy and using the vehicle for your business is almost as bad as not being insured at all, furthermore the insurance may be invalidated in the event of a claim. Commercial vehicle insurance insures a vehicle for use within a business, so that the company would be covered if the vehicle were to reverse into the customers car parked on the driveway, for example, or get into an accident on the road. If you had standard vehicle insurance you wouldn’t be covered for the costs of damaging the customers car, and my incur severe repercussions for not having correct insurance if the vehicle was in an accident.

Optional GIT insurance: covers both the customer and the company. If you are a customer using a junk removal company to remove goods from your home and requiring the company to move these elsewhere for you, you may want to check if the company has GIT insurance (Goods in Transit). If, for example, you hired a clearance company to help you clear the house for your move abroad, the lorry or van would be full of all your most valuable possessions, things are no longer covered by your home insurance as they have been removed from the home. A goods in transit insurance will cover the items being transported in the van, so that if the worst was to happen, the customer would be reimbursed for their losses.

Before you start running a clearance company ensure you have the relevant insurances in place first. If you are hiring the services of a clearance company, when you call them for a quote ask them what insurance they have and whether this is included in the price that you are being quoted.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Scarlet Fletcher .