Public Liability Insurance

[devadiva]

For over 40 years we have hired a room in the local library once a month to have a meeting there. We have never paid public liability insurance thinking that we were covered by theirs - now they think we should have our own. Where do we stand on this?

[CoffeeLounge]

If you have hired the room and paid to do so surely you should be covered under their insurance as this constitutes part of their business.
The only thing that may be in mind is if the room is not accessible for the disabled the extra insurance maybe for that.

[Maydup]

Not being sure who "we" are, but thye are probably correct. You hire the room and if anything happens as a result of the building or the library's activities you woudl be covered under their insurance.

But their insurance won't cover your activities; so if you were to stack all the chairs into a high pile for example and ran aound them until they toppled on top of you all, the library's insurance would take no responsibility for your actions.

(An extreme example I know but demonstrates the point)

[buildersmate]

Sounds like another jobsworth interfering on the act.

If this works anything like village hall insurance (which is something I know a bit about), groups hiring the room for a meeting are covered by the policy of the host organisation. It is only if the hirer is a COMMERCIAL organisation who is then inviting members of the public to come into the room for an event that the commercial body must have its own insurance.

Try asking the jobsworth's why this is required.