Site Liability Insurance: Your Ace in the Hole

The Home Building Act, the Industrial Relations Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Work Health and Safety Act, Fair Trading, Work Safe…the list goes on and on.

While nobody in their right mind would argue against the importance of maintaining a safe working environment for the labourers and tradespeople of Australia, government regulations are making it harder and harder each and every year for businesses in the construction industry to make ends meet.

Builders are bogged down with so much responsibility, liability, and duty of care that it’s a wonder more business owners aren’t throwing in the towel under the burden of having to lay their family’s future on the line every time they break ground on a new project.

OK, this last statement might come off as being a bit dramatic. But the reality is that the rules of the game have changed and those who want to continue working as builders need to get with the program to protect themselves on a new playing field.

It’s not just about theft, floods, and bush fires anymore.

It used to be that insuring your work site against crime and disaster was a sufficient safety measure to protect your company’s interests, but as America’s litigious culture infects Australia, accidents and litigation are far more of a threat to your bottom line than some low-life making away with a pile of timber and some of your tools.

Fortunately, Buildsafe offers a Site Liability Insurance product that covers your business in the event of an OH&S incident. And if your company operates multiple work sites and hires tradies and other subcontractors, coverage can be set up to ensure that all your bases are covered, even when you’re not on site. Face it, you can’t oversee every site every day, so why not let Buildsafe mitigate your risks for you?

And to make it simple to plug a Site Liability policy into your budget, the fee is a flat yearly rate regardless of the number of work sites your company is operating. Coverage is worked out on annual turnover.

Why assume 100% of the risk when Buildsafe can help you take the guesswork out of protecting your livelihood?

There’s no need to stick with vanilla. Policies come in all flavours.

Certain types of businesses are exposed to specific hazards that may not be relevant to everyone across the board. If you qualify for Site Liability Insurance by being a Pty Ltd you have the opportunity to protect yourself with the correct insurance policy to cover your particular needs.

If hazardous materials are routinely located on your work sites, then you’re going to want to be covered in the event of a chemical spill or any other environmental catastrophe. Did you know that WorkSafe has the authority to fine offending companies up to $200,000 for such spills?

Penalties of this magnitude are enough to put even large companies out of business, so imagine what it would be like for an Average Joe building contractor to try and cover such an expense.

Wouldn’t it make sense to buy an $800 per year policy through Buildsafe to ensure that you don’t lose everything over a single incident?

Don’t be that guy.

We know that you’re a risk taker, otherwise you’d never have taken the plunge and started your own business in the first place, but when it comes to insurance, this is not the time to be going out on a limb.

Consider these facts the next time you trust your intuition that “it won’t happen to you”:

The construction industry is responsible for the 4th highest number of serious injury claims to workers’ compensation in Australia, and the fatality rate for builders is nearly double the national average. If someone dies on your work site, you’ll be responsible for shelling out more than just a few clams.

11% of all serious injury claims come from the construction industry, and each day across the country, nearly 40 new claims are processed by workers injured to the degree that they will miss at least one week of work. Do you really want to be stuck paying the wages of an employee who’s sitting on the sofa with a broken foot?

It’s great that incident rates are falling in the industry (36% decrease over the past 10 years). It’s good for you and it’s good for your employees, but once you see that site accidents still pose a major threat to your bottom line, it’s time to call Buildsafe.