Do charities need Public Liability insurance?
12/18/2024
If your not-for-profit organisation interacts with the public, other organisations, volunteers and/or people using your buildings or services, you have a duty of care to look after them whilst they’re engaging in your activities. Public Liability cover helps protect your organisation, should something go wrong.
Have you ever considered what would happen if your organisation was held responsible for injuring someone or damaging someone else’s property?
If you’re involved in running a not-for-profit organisation, arranging insurance might not be an appealing or easy task. Managing risk across established and new activities and getting to grips with different types of cover can be time consuming, and a little confusing. We’re here to help.
Charity risk management
The work you do to manage risk and limit damage or injury is vitally important. Read our article how to do a risk assessment for your not-for-profit for some tips. Despite best efforts, we know that accidents still happen. That’s why it’s important to consider buying Public Liability insurance for your not-for-profit organisation.
About charity public liability cover
It covers your organisation if it’s found to be legally liable for accidental injury to a third party or accidental damage to their property. It also covers your legal costs if you need to defend a relative claim made against you. Having Public Liability insurance can enable your not-for-profit to undertake your activities, knowing you are protected if things go wrong.
For example, imagine your group rents a room to run a painting class. Paint gets spilt, staining the wall. The hall owners accuse your group of damage to the property and want you to pay £5,000 for the redecoration of the hall.
Or, your charity holds an open day for volunteers and members of the public, at which someone trips over a loose floorboard and breaks their leg. The injured person accuses your organisation of poor building maintenance and claims £10,000 as compensation for the time they’ve not been able to work.
In both of these cases, your organisation could claim on your Public Liability insurance to cover the costs, subject to the terms and conditions of the policy.
Public Liability Insurance with Zurich
With over 17,000 charities and not-for-profit organisations choosing to insure with Zurich, we understand how varied your activities can be. Whether you're a befriending service providing support for elderly people in the community, or a national charity providing grants to UK based charities, our insurance may be suitable for you.
We offer £2,000,000 as standard for some of our online products, with the option to increase to £5,000,000 for an additional premium.
For bespoke policies that are not purchased online, we offer £5,000,000 as standard, however we can consider increased limits for an additional premium.
Not only could you buy Public Liability for your organisation, but you could add additional covers for your trustees or employees with our extra lines of covers.
Whether you are looking for public liability insurance for your charity, not-for-profit or community group, we can help. To find out more, visit our public liability charity insurance page, or call us on 0800 917 9420.
