Public liability insurance for residents association

T

tosullivan

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We are trying to start up a Residents Association in our area for nearly 200 houses and would like to know is public liability insurance required?

Been reading on a website called ACRA that is is very important to have.

Does anyone know if its necessary and if so, where to shop for it?
 
Are you going to own or be responsible for any of the public areas or are you just going to be a representative body.
 
we will be organising for someone to cut & maintain the green areas and do some general tree pruning, etc.

Does this mean if this person is cutting the grass and a stone flies accidentally and hits someone in the eye, who is responsible? That would be the concern of the RA.

The estate is yet to be taken over by the council, so is still effectively owned by the developer.
 
If the developer still owns the land then he would be very foolish not to have public liability on it.
Do you pay a management fee. Is there a management company.
 
no mgt company and never has been

it was always a loose situation with residents collecting money every now & again to get someone to cut the grass but nothing happened this year

a few of us now have decided to try and get something up & running on it

The only issue I would have with the developers insurance, is if something happened due to a decision the RA made (ie grass cutting) and there was an accident, the builder could say it was not his responsibility
 
I think that if anyone has an accident they will sue both the developer and your organisation (if you employed them).
Perhaps you could only employ people who have their own cover.
 
Residents associations generally arrange PL cover for common areas when the estate is taken over by the residents. If you are not directly doing any grass cutting, maintenance etc the contractor eg landscaper should have cover for the work they are doing. Some RAs have barbeques and other social events for which cover should be arranged. If the common areas are still owned and responsibility of the developer it is likely they will have cover, you can ask them for verification and seek an Indemnity to the RA, this is a common feature of most PL policies.
 
I would advise any residents association that is anything other than a purely representative organisation i.e. doing minor maintenance, grass cutting, social events etc. to have Public Liability including member to member insurance. You cannot hold someone else responsible for your actions, so someone elses insurance will not cover you in every situation. Your organisation is only covered by insurance if it has its own insurance or is specifically named on an insurance policy. It is also possible that if the common areas are owned by a development company (or even local authority), they may ask to be indemnified by you. The cost of PL insurance for small organisations is quite cheap, so better to have it just in case as the alternative is for the trustees of the Association to be liable for any claims.
 
Quoted €185 for PL Insurance for 1 year, so its not as expensive as originally thought.
It also allows us to have BBQ's, XMAS parties etc, which was always wanted by the residents but never able to go ahead due to lack of insurance
 
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