8th February 2012

Irish construction insurance

April 10th, 2010 Cat: Financial Services with No Comments »

Interesting facts about the Irish construction industry is that it takes no legal requirement for a construction company, no construction insurance! In fact, the only insurance required by law, an Irish entrepreneur, in the basic automobile insurance has on their cars!

Although there is no legal requirement to keep under Irish law for a contractor to build a reasonable assurance, it is extremely important that the coverage is adequate.

A major reason is the high risk of injury and death in the Irish construction sites. A major positive outcome of the construction boom of recent years, the number of deaths per thousand ratios has declined in recent years, but there is still much too high.

For example, in 2001 28% of fatalities are related to building and construction industry in Ireland is still in second place at the Irish agriculture and forestry. How to keep many entrepreneurs with their primary insurance construction contractors requires reality, while the construction insurance is not required by law, it is usually a prerequisite to obtaining work on construction sites so that the majority of countries need to build the insurance is a necessity in all things, but Act!

While construction insurance is a fairly complex area, the four main areas of coverage include:
• Public liability insurance
• Employers Liability Insurance
• Contractors All Risks
• Personal Accident
Public Liability Insurance
Liability insurance [PL] provides insurance cover in case the policyholder is sued by a third party whom he believes suffered injury or loss resulting from the negligence of Police (negligence).

Consider the following examples, which is cover liability insurance:
• You run a plumbing business. One day you are called to an office, solve a problem in his kitchen. Inadvertently, they broke a pipe, the office and floods. Your client then makes a complaint against you for damage to their carpet and computer systems that have been damaged by water.
• You are a building contractor. While walking along scaffolding one of your men drops a piece of equipment that falls on the road, injured a pedestrian. The pedestrian zone is a claim against your company.
Of course, these examples are very simplified and we do not have the complexity of the product liability / tort liability and duty of care, etc., but should be discussed to provide a basic understanding of the liability insurance.

Employers Liability Insurance [EL] provides insurance coverage if one of your employees for injury or death, and it is proved that you acted negligently, as an employer and as that result has been able to have prevented their loss. If they decide to continue paying compensation for the cost of insurance claim.
Consider the following examples, which cover the liability insurance for employers is
• You run a carpentry shop. One of your employees loses a finger while using a chainsaw and decides against you for his injury claim
• You are a scaffolding contractor and scaffolding is erected around a block. During the erection of scaffolding is one of your employees and seriously injured. It is against the demand of your business.
Please note that the liability of public employers and offered “go together” is that in the arrangement of construction insurance you have both public liability and employers liability insurance agreement together [as a combined liability insurance] known as liability insurance for the employer is not a stand-alone basis.

Contractors All Risks Insurance
Contractors All Risks Insurance (also known as operating contract of insurance) is an insurance policy specially designed for manufacturers and a number of other trades working on a construction site. Contractors All Risks insurance can include contract work, own plant, hired in equipment and tools of the workman. The main contractors all risks insurance is the contract works section of the coverage of the property is being developed (e.g. new house, etc.). But it is impossible to cover existing property (for example, the existing structure when building an extension) and must continue to be insured under their own insurance.
Consider the following examples where Contractors All Risks insurance is as follows:
• You are a construction company and build a house for resale. So far, you have spent € 200,000 on materials and labor. The property catches fire and is destroyed before it is completed. • They are the basis of the contractor and are currently excavating the foundations for a new subdivision. Of course, you leave the shovel on the site until the work is finished, but one night your excavator is stolen.

Personal accident insurance
Personal Accident Insurance [also available as a safety net] Insurance is known to high for a single entrepreneur, business partners and entrepreneurs combined insurance that covers injuries recommended that no partner of a sole proprietorship business / because it is extremely difficult to be for companies to sustain their own business administrators. A policy can be tailored exactly to your needs and strategies of a non-taxable monthly allowance, a lump sum [capital include] and hospitalization.

Consider the following examples where is Personal Accident Insurance cover:
• You are a carpenter without independent employees. You cut your hand and are unable to work for eight months. As you have Personal Accident cover will receive a tax benefit of € 1,500 for one month and continue at this level until you get back to work.
• Although Personal Accident / Income Protection Insurance is not a substitute for full-time salary to provide income if you are not able to make money and it will reduce your financial worries at a time when your recovery should be your top priority.

Plant & Machinery
Machinery and equipment insurance is usually determined on a case by case basis and provide cover fire accidents and theft of machinery. This policy is usually made by entrepreneurs who want to cover a number of products.

Health & Safety Executive
In Ireland, the HSE [Health & Safety Executive] have the ultimate authority on construction sites and have the ability to close a site if it is a dangerous sense of security. Their initiative is the first ‘Safe Pass’ – a day instead of a training program for safety.

Who needs to go safely to do educational work?
Safe Pass is a program of security awareness day for general construction workers, craftsmen and “on-site security personnel” is in the construction industry. The program objectives are:
• Security awareness in the construction industry
• ensure that all personnel on site to make after the awareness program one day, a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents and disease, while on the job site work
• A list of personnel trained
• Participants with a security card FAS Registration Pass the owner during an official visit in the health and safety awareness
Under the Health Security and Protection at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 Pass Safe / Awareness Program Security
(A) Vessels and general construction workers,
(B) Any person, company, site security, and
(C) Persons or classes of persons as may be prescribed by the Minister.
For more information on the safety of Irish site please visit the website of the Health and Safety Authority Insurance.

What can history tell us?

January 7th, 2010 Cat: Financial Services with No Comments »

According to The Beatles, “It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.” So, in 1988, voters in California passed Proposition 103 which, as history tells us, proved to be one of the best Propositions they have voted for. Why? Because it pushed forward reform of the automobile insurance industry. The result? Evidence shows California has the most competitive market in the US with the slowest increase in premium rates. If you ever wondered what consumer protection should look like, California is the model all the other states should follow. Curiously, Illinois is the most unregulated market and the least competitive. Are Californians pleased with the result? Looking at the pattern of increases in the rest of the US, the estimate is that Californian drivers have saved more than $17 billion in premiums. That’s almost $2,000 per driver. What’s not to like about that? With the last year of recession, the continuing low premiums and strong competition between the insurers guarantees better service standards on claims, just when family budgets benefit from low monthly instalments and fast payments if there is an accident.

But, when the legislature in any other state suggests applying the lessons learned, the insurance industry begins to spend money through the lobbyists and advertisers. Soon, everyone with even half an ear on the issue of insurance knows the Californian approach has broken the insurance industry. Local insurers teeter on the edge of insolvency, barely able to scrape even a few cents of profit from their underwriting. Were it not for the strong profits earned elsewhere, the Californians would be denied insurance altogether. Put the other way round, the rest of the US is subsidising Californian drivers. Except, of course, this is completely untrue. The insurance companies in the Californian market routinely report profits in excess of 10%. This is the lie that proves the automobile insurance industry at large runs on greed. A mere 10% profit margin is chicken feed and close to insolvency.

So what is the Californian approach? It throws out reliance on the zip code and credit scoring. Instead, insurers must focus on the safety record of the individual driver. That ensures the good drivers pay less and the bad drivers pay a bigger percentage of the losses they cause. In most other states, the good drivers subsidise the bad. To complete the package, the auto insurance companies must disclose the basis on which they calculate the premiums. This empowers the Department of Insurance and prevents insurers from trying to cheat on the rate calculations to recover some of their lost profits.

If the Commissioner finds evidence of overcharging, he can order the company to cut its premiums and refund the amount overcharged. This is the ultimate sanction and, so far, the Californian courts have consistently refused the appeals of the insurers affected. What better way is there to get full consumer protection? None! That’s why the auto insurance industry would prefer you not to know about Proposition 103 and the beneficial effect it has had. History and current events are off the curriculum in other states as politicians take the money from the insurers and look the other way. Only in states where electors get to vote on the issue or can pressure their representatives is there any chance of improvement.