Need advice on Public liability Insurance for Coppicing & Green Wood Working

[paul standley]

Hi all, Does anyone have any experience of public liability insurance ?.

I am soon to start green wood working and as part of this I'm (hopefully) going to have permission to use a local small local Forestry Commission wood to a) coppice and re-generate their old hazel stock as a conservation and dormouse habitat project and in return, they will let me have all of the hazel rods and b) let me do my green wood working in their wood.

Part of their stipulation is that I must have £5 million PLI to use their woodland for this, which is fine except that my internet research so far can only turn up PLI policies for businesses and I am not a business or self employed and I'd be doing this as a person project/hobby.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Paul.

[Realearner]

Hi I don't think it matters wether you are a business. They want public liability as cover for there own ends, if something happens and they can put the blame on you their insurance will go to your insurance to claim.
Better to have it than not :)

[jus_young]

PLI is usually seen as a business insurance. Although you are not deriving an income from your activities, you are using a commercial woodland that must be financially protected. You can hold an insurance policy without being a business, your activities are not bringing a financial return therefore no accounts would be required or any notification to the Tax man. Your only problem is going to be trying to stipulate your activities to a narrow minded sales person on the other end of the phone.

"Green woodworking bushcrafter? What the **** is one of them?" :D

I can just picture it now.

[paul standley]

"Green woodworking bushcrafter? What the **** is one of them?" :D

I can just picture it now.

lol...! - I'll ride off into the sunset on my 'shave horse' now then...

[rossbird]

I can understand them wanting PLI.
But 5 million cover won't come cheap.

[happybonzo]

Have a look at this website. You will have to register but it is a free site and it's aimed at people like yourself. It's for people with small woodlands

http://www.swog.org.uk/forum/

[paul standley]

Have a look at this website. You will have to register but it is a free site and it's aimed at people like yourself. It's for people with small woodlands

http://www.swog.org.uk/forum/

Cheers happybonzo, I reviewed the web site and looks like they use a insurance broker that could help me so I've contacted him today and waiting for a response.

Paul

[rossbird]

Here'rs hoping you get a favourable quote.

[rich290185]

I work for my self as a Handyman (mainly joinery) i have 2 mill PLi and its about £18 a month. as with all insurance its one of them things you never want but if you need it you the god you got it. not sure about getting it if your not self employed but might give you an idear of price. Rich

[paul standley]

Cheers Rich, Still waiting for prices from the broker via the SWOG website but yours gives me a good idea, many thanks.

Paul.

[kesom]

i'm a formwork carpenter,i basically build the concrete superstructure to multi story buildings,like emirates stadium,wembely stadium and the h.s.b.c. building in canary wharf
we always had to have pli in case we dropped something from a height and it ended up outside the "hoarding" of the site(the site had its own insurance) and if that did happen it would more than likely end up in some of the public being seriously hurt if they were lucky so we had to get the 10 mil pli cover and it used to cost me around £100 a year i got it for £80 some years :)
i cant see yours costing more than mine did ;)
hope this helps
peace ken :)

[rich290185]

[QUOTE=kesom;29393]we had to get the 10 mil pli cover and it used to cost me around £100 a year i got it for £80 some years :)

i must be paying to much!!!

[rossbird]

[QUOTE=kesom;29393]we had to get the 10 mil pli cover and it used to cost me around £100 a year i got it for £80 some years :)

i must be paying to much!!!

My thoughts too.

[Realearner]

A lot depends on the risk, or the chance of claims, I have 2 mil PLI as a self-employed contract electrician/ controls technician and cost me £275 annually. This is required even though I only sub to another contractor who has higher
PLI. So depends, good luck and I hope you get cheap insurance :o

[paul standley]

Thanks for the inputs, the update is that I've had several quotes for this and it turns out that Arborial type insurance companies understood my requirement the best and gave me the best quote.

Annual Quotes varied from £395 to £241.

The cheapest quote was also the best by a mile with PLI cover + product liability cover + employee (& volunteer helpers) cover and this was through a specialist broker who knows the woodland business sector, they can be found at http://www.thebeechtree.com/ and my contact was Gary Alexander.

Beechtree was recomended to me from a couple of sources including the SWOG site.

Thanks, Paul.

[Izzy]

Hi Paul,
I work as a self employed gardener and my PLI costs £76 per year for £1,000,000 cover but a previous policy for £5,000,000 was around £160 per year. I looked at the arborial types of cover because I do sometimes fell small trees but unless you are regularly felling medium to large trees or working at heights over 3 meters you should not require the more expensive arborial insurance.
My policy is with a company called "Your Insurance"

I hope this is of some help, good luck and best regards Izzy.