Community Centre Insurance | Village Hall Insurance

In 2018, Ladbrook Insurance launched a new ‘community centre insurance product with our partner Bluefin Underwriting.  The product aims to save community centres, village halls and other community facilities money by reducing their premiums but at the same time, providing good cover benefits that are essential for community facilities.

We have provided this brochure highlighting some of the features of our community centre insurance product.  Our policy is crafted to meet the needs of village halls and community centres. We are working in partnership with the Bluefin Underwriting, to create this exclusive product, underwritten by ‘A rated’ Insurers.

We offer a unique service for community centres, combining excellent cover with extremely competitive rates and a personal service.

Liability Insurance for Community Halls

The Public Liability Insurance for a village hall or community facility is a major consideration.  It essentially defends the organisation (whether a charity or a voluntary group) from claims bought by members of the public such as service users or the groups that hire the facility.  This cover also provides the costs of legal defence.  While some providers offer cover from £1,000,000 or £2,000,000, our product starts at £5,000,000 with an option for £10,000,000 too.  the reason that we offer public liability for community centres at this limit is that often the activities of community facilities involve children – Liability insurance claims involving young people can lead to larger claims.

As a further consideration, community centre and village hall organisations should consider hiring liability.  This extends cover under the public liability insurance in some cases to ‘ad hoc’ hirers of the facility. Often we find that management committees value our advice in supporting them to understand the exposures and responsibilities.  Who is responsible for the activities in your hall?  Who would get the blame if something went wrong and would your insurance provide adequate protection for you, your volunteers, trustees and service users?

Employer Liability Insurance is also very important, even if you do not employ anyone in your hall!  this is because the definition of employee under the policy we recommend, incorporates volunteers.  This is the case, in our experience, in much of the charity insurance marketplace.  We automatically include this cover in our village hall insurance / community facility quotations.  Typical claims might be from a volunteer who has suffered an injury and we would be happy to provide advice and examples.

Community Centres with Youth Groups – While incidents are rare, safeguarding is an issue that any group that work with young or vulnerable people have.  Abuse cover is included and it is provided on a ‘claims occurred’ basis, which is stronger than the ‘claims made’ basis, that some providers offer and certainly stronger than providers that exclude this cover entirely.  It is expected that your staff and volunteers undertake DBS checks and that a safeguarding policy is kept up to date too.

Building Insurance for Village Halls or Community Centres

It is important to arrange adequate community centre building insurance.  This would include protecting against risks such as fire, theft, flood and malicious damage.

Community centres are often vulnerable buildings when they are unoccupied.  They can be subject to vandalism and arson.

One element of building insurance for a community centre that is essential to consider is the sum to be insured.  Any village hall or community facility must carefully check the sums insured under the policy to ensure that these meet with your requirements, and that you do not require any alterations.

Under-insurance may result in “Average” being applied in the event of a claim, which would mean that you would only receive a proportionate settlement dependent on the percentage of under-insurance that has been in place.  It is therefore important to ensure that the sums insured reflect the total rebuild value.

Contents Insurance for a Community Facility

It is also worthwhile considering the contents of your village hall or community centre.  IT equipment, sports equipment and the general fixtures and furniture can be insured on an inexpensive basis.  If you have portable equipment, this can be insured on an all risks basis.  When any contetns are insured, our policy will extend to include equipment breakdown as well as cover for cash too.

Insurance for the Community Centre Management Committee

Trustees give their time freely to help run local facilities all over the UK.  While claims against trustees as individuals are quite rare, they do occur.  Many management committees choose to take out an element of trustee indemnity insurance to protect their interests.  Our community centre insurance policy automatically includes a modest £50,000 of cover and we normally recommend higher indemnity limits.

Other Cover and Considerations for Community Facilities

Bouncy Castles and Community Centres

Many of our community centre clients operate inflatables for their events or children’s party hire.  Many insurers exclude this activity from their cover entirely.  Our community centre product does include cover although there are some conditions attached to it.  If your community centre operates a bouncy castle, discuss your insurance requirements with us.

Other Covers

There are many other covers that may be appropriate for your community facility, rather a lot of it depends on your activities.  For example, a community centre that is involved in professional services, perhaps supporting and advising local housing benefit claimants, then professional indemnity insurance is important.

Fidelity Insurance

We offer cover on an optional basis for dishonesty by an employee or volunteer at your community centre.

Event Insurance for Community Centres

Many community centres organise community fun days or fetes as part of their normal activities.  Our policy includes cover for such events with some provisos.  For example, the maximum attendance under the standard policy is 1,000 people.  We would always advise you to discuss the events that you are planning with us so that we can make sure your community centre insurance is adequate.  Considerations will include the breadth of activities undertaken (inflatables, higher risk activities) and the third parties that are attending (e.g. caterers, craft sales and other activities).  We have written a Guide – Risk and Insurance at Community Events which you might find useful.