Key takeaways
- Public liability pays third parties (customers, passers-by, neighbours) injured or whose property is damaged through your or your staff's negligence; Great Eastern's Easi-Biz caps it at RM1,000,000 plus up to RM20,000 legal fees.
- Published limits vary widely: RM100,000 in Great Eastern's food stall package, RM250,000 in its GREAT Shield Home policy and RM1,000,000 any one occurrence in its condo plan for JMBs and MCs.
- Injury to your own employees is not public liability: it falls under PERKESO and employer's liability cover, which Easi-Biz caps at RM2,000,000 per policy period.
- Common exclusions are liability you take on only by contract, property in your care, vehicle accidents, fines and punitive damages, and judgments from courts outside Malaysia.
- After an incident, do not admit fault or promise payment, and send any demand letter to your insurer at once; Great Eastern General allows no settlement without its written consent.
- Professional indemnity is a different cover for negligent professional services; the Malaysian Medical Council requires it for a doctor's annual practising certificate.
What does public liability insurance cover?
Public liability insurance pays what you are legally liable to pay when your business injures someone who is not your employee, or damages their property. Great Eastern General describes the public liability section of its Easi-Biz shop package this way: if you become legally liable to pay compensation or expenses for accidental bodily injury to, or death of, another person, or for loss of or damage to another person's property, arising from your negligence or that of your employees while engaged in your business, the insurer pays those moneys on your behalf.
Three ideas in that definition matter before you buy:
- Legally liable: the policy pays when the law says you are at fault, usually through negligence, such as a wet floor with no warning sign or a loose signboard nobody fixed. If you were not negligent, you are not liable, and the insurer looks at that before it pays anything.
- Third party: customers, visitors, passers-by, neighbours, and the owner of the home or office you are working in. Not you, and not your own staff.
- In your business: the cover follows the business activity you declared. Some packages also limit the place; Great Eastern's food stall package, for example, covers incidents within your stall.
Shop owners and contractors usually buy it for situations like these:
- a customer slips on a wet floor in your restaurant, bakery or salon;
- a loose signboard or awning falls on a passer-by or a parked car;
- your renovation team cracks a neighbour's wall, or a loose pipe joint floods the unit below;
- a child trips over a cable at your tuition centre or event booth;
- a visitor is hurt in the common area of a condominium and the JMB or MC is blamed.
The insurer pays the compensation the injured person can claim from you (such as medical bills and other losses) and the legal costs, up to the limit in your policy schedule. This guide is general information, not legal advice; whether you are liable in a particular case depends on the facts and the law.
What is not covered under public liability, and what covers it instead?
Public liability is narrow on purpose. None of the situations below is covered by it, and each has its own cover. The exclusions in the table come from the public liability section of Great Eastern General's Easi-Golf Product Disclosure Sheet (valid as at 1 November 2025); business policies use similar wording, but always read your own policy contract.
| Situation | Does public liability pay? | What covers it instead |
|---|---|---|
| Your own worker is hurt at work | No: employees are not third parties | PERKESO (see my PERKESO guide) and employer's liability cover |
| Food or a product you sold makes someone ill or injures them | No | Product liability, a separate section in Great Eastern's Easi-Biz Standard and Premier |
| Your advice, design or professional service costs a client money | No | Professional indemnity |
| Your delivery van or lorry hits someone | No: liability from using vehicles is excluded | Motor insurance (third party cover) |
| Fire or flood damages your own shop, renovation and stock | No: that is your own property | Fire insurance; see fire insurance for shops and factories |
| A customer's item in your care is damaged (a phone you are repairing, a car you are washing) | Usually no: property in your care is excluded | Ask before you take on this kind of work; do not assume public liability covers it |
| A liability you agreed to in a contract (an indemnity clause) | No, unless you would be liable even without the contract | Read the clause before you sign |
| Fines, penalties, punitive damages | No | Not insurable |
| A judgment from a court outside Malaysia | No | Tell your agent if you take on work abroad |
| Injury to your own family members | No in the Easi-Golf wording | Personal accident and medical cover |
Packages also turn away some trades. Great Eastern's Easi-Biz page lists excluded businesses: antiques; telecommunications equipment, including handphones, accessories and phone cards; cigarettes, cigars, wine and spirits above 10% of total stock value; jewellery or gold; and Chinese medicines, including herbs and seafood. A goldsmith, phone shop or Chinese medicine shop should not assume an ordinary shop package will accept it.
Public liability or professional indemnity? Public liability is about bodily injury and property damage. Professional indemnity is about negligence in a professional service. The Malaysian Medical Council defines it for doctors as cover for claims of actual or alleged negligence arising out of their medical professional services, paying damages and defence costs, and a doctor must produce evidence of it to renew the annual practising certificate. A clinic therefore often needs both: professional indemnity for the treatment, and public liability for the patient who slips in the waiting room.
Do I really need public liability insurance for my business?
A simple test: if people come to your place, or you go to other people's places to work, the answer is usually yes. These are the businesses that ask me most often:
- Shops with walk-in customers: restaurants, cafés, bakeries, retail shops, hair and beauty salons, gyms, tuition and enrichment centres, clinics.
- Contractors and tradesmen working on site: renovation, plumbing and electrical work, air-conditioning, cleaning, in clients' homes and offices.
- Pop-up and event sellers: night market, mall atrium and weekend market booths, where crowds, cables and tents meet, and the organiser or mall may ask to see your policy.
- Shoplot landlords and condominium management bodies: Great Eastern's condo insurance plan for JMBs and MCs includes public liability at RM1,000,000 any one occurrence.
- Homeowners: some home policies include liability to the public; Great Eastern's GREAT Shield Home lists RM250,000.
Most people start searching when somebody asks for it: a mall or landlord in a tenancy agreement, a main contractor or a corporate client, an event organiser. When that happens, ask them to put these in writing:
- the minimum limit;
- whether it is per occurrence ("any one occurrence") or for the whole year ("aggregate");
- whether they must be named on your policy;
- the period, and the shop or site address.
Then buy to that requirement instead of guessing, so you neither pay for more than you need nor get your certificate sent back. If the contract names other policies as well, send me the clause and I will explain what each one is.
How much public liability cover do I need: RM100,000 or RM1 million?
There is no single right number, but published limits show the usual range. These are the public liability limits Great Eastern General shows on its own pages and disclosure sheets:
| Product | Who it is for | Public liability limit | Legal costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food Stall Insurance | Licensed food stalls that use a partner credit platform | Up to RM100,000 (within the stall) | Not stated on the page |
| GREAT Shield Home (PDS valid as at 26 August 2025) | Houseowners and householders | Liability to public RM250,000 | Not stated in the PDS |
| Easi-Biz | Shops and offices | Up to RM1,000,000 | Plus legal fees up to RM20,000 |
| Easi-Biz Standard / Premier | Businesses wanting a wider package | As stated in the schedule | Inclusive of legal costs, per occurrence |
| Condo Insurance | Condominium JMBs and MCs | RM1,000,000 any one occurrence | Not stated on the page |
| Easi-Golf (PDS valid as at 1 November 2025) | Individual golfers | RM1,000,000 | Not stated in the PDS |
Four things decide the right limit for you:
- What your contract asks for. A tenancy or contract requirement is your minimum.
- Per occurrence or in aggregate. "Any one occurrence" is the most paid for one incident; "aggregate" is the most paid for the whole policy year.
- Legal costs inside or on top. Within Great Eastern's own range, Easi-Biz pays legal fees on top of the RM1,000,000, while Easi-Biz Standard and Premier count legal costs inside the limit. On a large claim that difference is real money.
- Your worst realistic day. Think of the most serious injury or damage your business could cause: a packed shop, a ceiling that comes down, a burst pipe in a high-rise.
Worked example (every figure below is an assumption for illustration, not a real case): a renovation contractor in Puchong leaves a pipe joint loose. Overnight it floods the unit below and damages the ceiling, furniture and a home office. Assume the contractor is found liable for RM130,000 in compensation plus RM20,000 in legal costs, RM150,000 in total.
| Assumed item | Policy A: RM100,000 limit, legal costs inside | Policy B: RM1,000,000 limit, legal fees up to RM20,000 on top |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation to the neighbour (assumed) | RM130,000 | RM130,000 |
| Legal costs (assumed) | RM20,000 | RM20,000 |
| Insurer pays | At most RM100,000 | RM150,000 |
| Contractor pays out of pocket | RM50,000 | RM0 |
If the policy has an excess, it comes off in both cases. Real awards depend on the injury, the loss and the law; the example only shows how the limit and the treatment of legal costs change who pays.
How to buy public liability insurance: what to prepare and check
Buying public liability is not complicated, but a few small details decide whether a claim goes smoothly:
- Prepare your business details: SSM registration, what the business actually does, the shop address or main sites, number of employees, and any claims in past years.
- Get the requirement in writing from the landlord, mall, main contractor or organiser: limit and conditions.
- Declare everything accurately. Great Eastern General's disclosure sheets remind buyers that they must give all the facts in the application form fully and accurately. Cover is based on the business you declare, so a café that also does catering or deliveries should say so.
- Read the schedule when it arrives: the insured name exactly as registered with SSM, the address, the business description, the limit per occurrence and in aggregate, legal costs, the excess and the period.
- Diary the renewal. These policies run for 12 months and have to be renewed every year.
While you are at it, ask whether your package includes employer's liability, and whether your renovation and stock are on a fire policy or need one (for homes, see fire insurance). Great Eastern's product pages also note that benefits payable under eligible policies are protected by PIDM (Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia) up to its limits.
Someone was injured at my shop: how do I make a public liability claim?
When someone is hurt in your shop, the natural reaction is panic, then "sorry, I will pay for it". That is exactly what to avoid. Follow this order:
- Help first. Get the person medical attention and call an ambulance if needed. Being kind is not the same as admitting fault.
- Record the facts the same day: photos or video of the spot, CCTV footage (save a copy before it is overwritten), names and phone numbers of witnesses, the time, and what the person said. Write your own account of what happened; the insurer will ask for it.
- Do not admit liability, promise payment or hand over money. Great Eastern General's claim document checklist says no liability should be admitted, and no settlement or promise of payment made to the third party, without its prior written consent.
- Tell your agent and insurer early, and forward every letter. Any lawsuit, demand or claim you receive from the third party should go to the insurer immediately. For Great Eastern General, the claims line in its disclosure sheet is 1300-1310-88 and the email is claimscare-my@greateasterngeneral.com.
- Submit the documents listed below.
For liability claims, Great Eastern General's checklist asks for:
- the claim form, the e-payment form and the top part of a bank statement showing the account details;
- the demand letter from the third party;
- your own detailed account of the circumstances;
- for an injury: the medical report and the original medical bills and receipts;
- for damaged property: a copy of the purchase receipt or the original repair or replacement bill;
- photographs of the injuries or the damage.
Since 1 October 2021, a business policyholder also sends registration documents. A Sdn Bhd or Bhd sends Form 24 and Form 49, or the Super Form, or its latest annual return, plus the NRIC of the authorised signatory. A sole proprietorship or partnership sends Form A (and Form B if the owner has changed), plus the NRIC of the authorised signatory.
Not sure what your shop policy covers? Let Lulu check it
Many business owners I speak to already have some insurance: a fire policy from the bank loan, a package bought years ago, group cover for staff. What they rarely know is whether public liability is in it, at what limit, and whether it matches what the landlord or client is now asking for.
Send me these on WhatsApp:
- the insurance clause from your tenancy agreement, contract or event terms;
- your current business policy schedule, if you have one;
- what your business does, where, and how many staff you have.
I will tell you whether public liability is already there, what limit you have and how legal costs are treated, what is excluded for your trade, and whether your staff, stock and renovation are covered elsewhere. If one of the Great Eastern General packages fits, I will show you the schedule before you decide; if your trade needs something arranged separately, I will tell you that too. For the other covers a business usually needs, see business insurance for SMEs, factories and shops.
I am based in Seri Kembangan and look after shop owners, contractors and families across Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, including Serdang and Puchong, in Mandarin, English or Cantonese. No hard selling.