bertsmobile1
Lawn Royalty
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2014
- Threads
- 65
- Messages
- 24,995
\The difference is I've had that happen too but I didn't invite the guy to make a court case over it.
If you're out looking for a fight chances are you will find one.
Insurance agents love hearing about these things.
I also don't face the street with the discharge chute as I see many do.
Same thing applies here:
If you go out looking for an accident, chances are higher you will find one.
Insurance agents love hearing these stories.
I am guessing you told your insurance agent that "object thrown from the mower put someone's eye out" story at least once.
Yes, making it clear that you are thinking the worst will raise your premium.
For myself instead of a standard "million dollars" I use what's called a 300.500.600 policy.
Can't recall the company right now, I think it's either Hiscox or Progressive.
I pay $341 a year, however I don't invite folks to take me to court and I don't go around confabulating worst case scenarios.
I don't really get what you are trying to get at
Perhaps things are different over there but down here you buy a policy and the policies are fairly well standard and based upon your turnover.
On the grounds the more money you make the more work you do the greater the risk.
The only real variations come from your claims history and your claims threshold.
So I had a $ 60,000,000 policy ( public liability property & personal injury ) with a $ 5,000 threshold per claim.
That cost me $ 1300 / pa
Drop the threshold down to the standard $ 500 and that blows out to $ 3,800 / pa
On top of that I had a "directors & public officers" policy for $ 250 / pa.
That stops any one who was claiming more than $ 60,000,000 sueing me personally because I did not have enough cover.
As for dreaming up unlikely events it does not matter , if something falls off my truck I am covered.
One of my customers had a rubber boot ( gum boot ) fall off the back of his truck which caused over $ 1,000,000 in claims because the driver behind swerved & side swiped a fuel tanker which then rolled over.
The following driver originally got sued but a driver further back had a dash cam which showed the boot flying off the truck so the following drivers insurance company then sued my customer to recover costs.
The vehicle damage was not much but the clean up bill for the spilled oil was massive.
Same story with workers compensation.
That is worked out by how much I paid my workers the previous year and the only variations are for previous bad claim history and the threshold which in my case was 21 days.
medical expenses start from day 1 but wages start from day 22 that knocked down the policy from $ 1800 to $ 425.
Down here , an ambulance to the nearest hospital will set you back $ 1,000 min.
As for not discharging towards the road, do you turn off when turning the mower round ?
or drive backwards when mowing a grasses side walk ?
Do you erect screens when using a line trimmer ?
None of your customers have any windows in their houses ?
And lets not forget the little old lady who slips on the wet grass on the sidewalk before you have had a chance to clean it off.
Anyway getting back to ZAC.
Check with all the insurers.
Down here you get big discounts if you take some of the risk yourself.
This is because most claims are for small amounts , broken windows, stained clothing etc etc, less than $ 1,000.
So if you can keep a couple of grand in the bank see if a higher claims threshold will drop the policy price.
When Workers compensation for self employed people became compulsory down here the price of the policies quadrupled after the first couple of years because operators realised they could buy a $ 1200 /pa policy. then "hurt themselves" in the off season, find a doctor to write them a 4 -8 week certificate then take a nice long holiday and claim $ 4000+ from their insurance.