Self employment means there is no employer standing behind you when something goes wrong on a job. Public liability insurance is what stands there instead: it answers for injury to other people and damage to their property arising from your work, and it pays the cost of defending the claim. It is not compulsory, and it is asked for so routinely that most self employed people in customer facing work end up holding it anyway.
Why the self employed buy it even though no law says so
The requirement comes from the people you work for. Letting agents, commercial clients, market and event organisers, shopping centres, local authorities and main contractors all ask for evidence and most name a limit. Public liability is also the only thing between a personal judgment and your own money, because a self employed person has no separate legal entity to absorb the claim.
Choosing a limit without a contract telling you
Where nobody has specified a figure, the sensible test is not your turnover but the value of what you work in and around. One million pounds suits low hazard work in your own space. Two million is the general default for going into other people's premises. Five million belongs to anybody on managed sites or working in buildings where one mistake affects many properties. The price difference between the three is small.
What it will not do
It will not pay to redo work that was simply wrong, it will not replace your own tools, van or laptop, it will not answer for money a client lost because of your advice, and it does not cover anybody you employ. Those are a workmanship extension, an equipment section, professional indemnity and employers' liability, which becomes compulsory the moment you take somebody on.
Reading a starting price
Several UK insurers publish a starting price for this cover and several publish none. The published figures are entry prices: one person, low hazard, modest limit, no claims, and they are genuinely useful as a floor rather than as a forecast. The record on this site quotes each printed figure verbatim with the day it was read, and names the insurers that print nothing rather than filling the cell with somebody else's number.
Questions people ask about public liability insurance for self employed
Do self employed people need public liability insurance?
No statute requires it, but most clients, sites, agents and licensing authorities do, and many will not let you start without a certificate. It is also the only protection between a claim and your personal assets when you trade in your own name.
How much public liability insurance do I need if self employed?
One million pounds for low hazard work in your own space, two million for going into other people's premises, and five million for managed sites or work in multi occupancy buildings. Where a client specifies a figure, that figure is the requirement.
Does public liability cover me working from home?
It covers your liability to other people arising from the business, including a client visiting you, but a household policy will usually exclude business use and business visitors. Tell the household insurer as well as buying the business cover.
Is public liability insurance expensive for a sole trader?
Insurers that publish a starting price put it in single figures per month for the lowest risk cases. What moves it is the trade, the turnover, the limit and any claims, so a high hazard trade on a five million pound limit is a different order of premium from the printed floor.