Public liability claim examples: injury and property damage
Public liability claims can involve a visitor injured by equipment or a customer’s property damaged during work. These examples show which facts and policy terms to check. An allegation does not establish legal responsibility or confirm that a claim is covered.
Someone may make a claim against your business; you may ask your insurer for protection under the policy. These are different uses of “claim”, rather than a fixed sequence. The public liability insurance guide explains the cover.
These examples are fictional and do not confirm liability or cover. Records help establish facts but do not decide the outcome.
Already dealing with an incident? Follow your policy’s reporting instructions promptly; see the claims guide. Necessary safety action takes priority over photographs or paperwork.
A visitor trips over a decorator’s cable
What happened: A visitor trips over a decorator’s cable across a walkway.
What is claimed or lost: The visitor says they were injured and holds the decorator responsible.
Why the distinction matters: This concerns alleged injury to another person during business activities.
What to check: Who controlled the area, the work underway, access, warnings and events. Check the insured work, injury definitions and relevant restrictions.
Useful records: Incident notes, relevant witness information, photographs or notes taken safely, and correspondence. A photograph or sign alone does not prove a defence.
A joiner damages a customer’s screen
What happened: A joiner moving a panel strikes a customer’s wall-mounted screen.
What is claimed or lost: The customer alleges damage to their property during the work.
Why the distinction matters: The allegation concerns someone else’s property, rather than the joiner’s own equipment.
What to check: Who owns the screen, what happened and whether restrictions on property held, controlled or worked on apply. Read exceptions and amendments too. Check the property restrictions as well as ownership.
Useful records: Work order, ownership details, dated sequence of events, safe photographs and any requested repair or technical assessment.
Water escapes during plumbing work
What happened: Water escapes during plumbing work and reaches an adjoining room.
What is claimed or lost: The customer alleges damage to the flooring, alongside plumbing that needs correction.
Why the distinction matters: Repairing the flooring and correcting the plumbing are separate costs to check. Compare the tiling example below, where no separate harm is alleged.
What to check: What failed, the sequence and timing, affected property and insured work. The policy may treat faulty work and resulting damage differently. Check each part of the alleged loss against the relevant terms.
Useful records: Work scope, dated sequence of events, safe photographs and relevant technical findings.
An injury or property-damage allegation may also include related financial losses. Check the legal responsibility and policy treatment of each claimed cost; do not assume every stand-alone financial loss falls within public liability cover.
Landscaping work allegedly damages a neighbour’s greenhouse
What happened: Material dislodged during landscaping reaches a neighbour’s greenhouse.
What is claimed or lost: The neighbour says the material damaged the greenhouse.
Why the distinction matters: Someone affected by the work need not be the paying customer.
What to check: Ownership, site boundary, alleged cause, work methods and insured activities. Check relevant location or method restrictions and amendments.
Useful records: Safe photographs, site and work records, relevant witness information and correspondence. These do not themselves decide a boundary dispute.
A customer asks for uneven tiling to be redone
What happened: A customer asks for uneven tiling to be removed and redone. No separate injury or property damage is alleged here.
What is claimed or lost: The request concerns the quality of the work and its correction.
Why the distinction matters: Public liability is not automatically a workmanship warranty. This raises different questions from the plumbing example’s flooring damage; neither example determines cover.
What to check: What the customer wants put right and how the policy treats faulty work and contractual responsibilities. Additional allegations need their own assessment; contract duties do not disappear.
Useful records: Agreed scope, specification, approvals and correspondence describing the requested correction.
A tradesperson breaks their own drill
What happened: A tradesperson drops and breaks a drill they own.
What is claimed or lost: The business’s own equipment is damaged; no harm to someone else is alleged.
Why the distinction matters: Own-tool damage differs from liability to another person. Public liability is not the automatic route.
What to check: Ownership and any selected tools or equipment cover, including insured events and conditions.
Useful records: Asset or purchase details and event facts requested by the provider.
What changes if the incident involves a worker or a supplied product?
Someone working for the business
Who was injured and their relationship to the business matter more than who caused the incident. Injury to a worker raises questions about the actual relationship, policy definitions and employers’ liability. A subcontractor label alone does not settle them; use the staffing guide.
An employee causing customer damage does not automatically make it an employers’ liability claim. Check the circumstances and relevant sections.
A product supplied by the business
Check whether products liability is included and which supplied products and responsibilities it covers. The product liability insurance guide explains that subject.
Do not assume every incident after completion is a products claim, or that product recall or replacement is included.
How can policy terms affect these public liability examples?
Use the documents for your exact policy and period. Read the wording alongside the schedule, which records specific selections, and endorsements, which amend the terms.
| Check | What to identify |
|---|---|
| Business insured | Correct business, activities, dates and territory. |
| Cover description | Relevant liability, injury/property definitions and timing requirements. |
| Restrictions and amendments | Exclusions, exceptions, conditions and endorsements. |
| Limits and legal costs | Relevant limits, shared limits and smaller limits for particular claims. |
| Excess | Whether a contribution is required, its basis and which costs it affects. |
| Reporting and approval | Required contact, information, timing and consent for commitments. |
An excess is your contribution where the terms require it. Do not assume it applies to every claim or identically to injury, property and legal costs. Ask separately how defence costs and any claimants’ legal costs you become liable to pay are covered, whether each counts towards a relevant limit and what restrictions apply.
Disputed fault, a small amount or a loss below the excess does not automatically remove reporting requirements. Follow the actual-incident steps below.
If a summary is silent, record “not stated; ask” and obtain clarification. The exclusions guide and limits and excesses guide explain detailed checks.
What should you do if an example resembles an actual incident?
Use the similarity to identify questions, rather than decide responsibility or cover.
- Prioritise safety. Do not delay emergency assistance or necessary action to prevent further harm while gathering evidence or seeking routine approval.
- Report through the required policy contact promptly. Explain known facts, allegations and uncertainty honestly. Do not wait for a complete evidence pack, final loss figure or proceedings.
- Forward demands and legal correspondence. Use the required claims route promptly and obtain appropriate help with any stated response deadline. Insurer notification may not complete every other required action.
- Check approval requirements. Before admitting liability, agreeing a settlement or making a payment, ask the claims contact about any proposed commitment.
- Retain relevant records safely. Share only necessary information through the authorised provider’s secure channel, not with Clearcut.
Contacting Clearcut or requesting new cover does not notify your insurer about an existing event or establish protection for it. Use the claims guide and responsible provider for existing incidents; use the public liability guide for future cover questions.
Public liability claim example FAQs
Yes. Different people, property and alleged costs may need separate factual checks. That does not mean each allegation receives a fresh insurance limit or excess; the policy’s definitions and grouping provisions matter.