Public liability insurance for associations

Public liability insurance protects your association if a person suffers:

• an injury
• damage to their property.

This might be due to an incident that:

• takes place on your association's property
• relates to the actions of your association (or one of its members).

A court may find your association to be liable for any negligent actions. Seek legal advice about your association’s individual needs.

Your requirements

You don’t always need to have public liability insurance. You do have certain requirements though.

Your committee must:

• assess whether there is a need to take out insurance
• decide how much insurance to take out (if any)
• review your needs each year and report the results at the annual general meeting
• explain the risks to members if you don’t take out public liability insurance.

You must disclose your level of coverage to:

• potential members before they sign up
• nominees for office-holder elections
• any person or entity that your association deals with which could be expected to have an interest (but only if you’re uninsured).

You must have public liability insurance if your association:

• owns land
• leases land
• holds land in trust.

The risks

If your association doesn’t take out adequate coverage, you take the risk that:

• businesses refuse to deal with your association
• your association’s assets are at risk if someone makes a claim.

You may also expose yourself or other individual members to risk. The law will usually protect members from being personally liable. However, this may not be absolute.