Before entering a claim for compensation (a public liability claim) you need to know the following.
All claims are assessed on the basis of whether we were legally at fault for the incident. Often events occur that are unfortunate but are no one’s fault.
Making a public liability claim doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get compensation.
We are not a private business and are publically funded, this means that claim payments are made using taxpayer’s money. We need to be careful that any payments we make are justified and we ask people to bear this in mind if they are thinking about making a claim against us.
How to make a claim
All claims must be made in writing.
To make a public liability claim you need to send us either a formal letter of claim or a completed liability insurance claim form:
You can send the completed form to us by email or by post.
If you’re represented by a solicitor you need to submit a claim notification form. Your legal representative will need to know what our Public Liability insurer policy number and portal ID is.
For incidents occurring on or after 1 April 2019
- Area: Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole
- Insurer name: Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
- Policy number: QLA11U111-0013
- Portal ID: C00650
For incidents before 1 April 2019
Bournemouth Borough Council
- Area: Bournemouth
- Insurer name: Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
- Policy number: QLA11U006-0013
- Portal ID: C00650
Christchurch Borough Council
- Area: Christchurch
- Insurer name: Protector
- Policy number: 548805
- Portal ID: C00585
Borough of Poole
- Area: Poole
- Insurer name: Zurich Insurance Company Ltd
- Policy number: QLA11U005-0013
- Portal ID: C00650
How to get help making your claim
Making a claim can be complicated and confusing. If you’re not going to use a solicitor and you need help to make your claim, get in touch with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau for free independent advice.
If you use a solicitor to make your claim for you, they should register qualifying claims through an electronic Portal, and let our insurer know directly.
Our investigation timescales
Investigating a claim properly and making sure we come to the right decision over legal liability is a big task and the time it takes depends on how much information we need to gather and how many service teams are involved.
If the incident was a long time ago, or the details are unclear the process can take even longer.
Other Insurance Policies
If you have your own insurance that covers the loss of your property, for example a vehicle or home buildings and contents policy, then you can approach them.
If your insurer agrees your claim and considers us at fault they will approach us themselves for a recovery.
Fraudulent claims
If anyone tries to make a claim against us that is totally untrue or that has been partly embellished this is fraud and is illegal.
We will notify the police immediately and the claimant will be liable for prosecution.