Comprehensive Exhibitor Event Insurance
“As the event organiser, am I responsible for making sure all my stall holders have exhibitor insurance?”
Imagine this – you spend your spare time organising an event which is very important to you. Whether it be to raise money for a local charity or just do something nice for the local community. You spend time and money putting on your event and it all goes off without a hitch. Well, except for one of the food stalls at the event not cooking one of their meals properly. As a result, the person who ate that meal suffered from food poisoning.
A while later, a solicitor’s letter drops on your doorstep informing you of the incident. It notifies you that you are a potential named defendant in this claim until such a time that it can be proved otherwise. You seek out the relevant person(s) who were responsible for the stall to investigate further. Consequently, you discover they didn’t take out any event public liability insurance to protect should this kind of incident occur. You advise the solicitors of this, only to be told that as the event organiser you should of carried out the relevant checks to ensure all stall holders held comprehensive exhibitor events insurance before being allowed to attend your event. As a result, the claim is to be directed towards yourselves.
The Importance of Checking for Exhibitor Insurance
Your policy may contain a clause that makes it a condition of insurance that any independent stall holder, exhibitor, contractor or supplier whom you engage at or for the event, or otherwise permit or allow to stand exhibit or supply services to the event, must be required to hold third party liability insurance in their own right for the duration of the event. Additionally, evidence of the relevant policy, including the name of the insurer, the policy number and limit of indemnity must be recorded by the event organiser prior to their participation at the event.
Failure to comply with this condition means your insurers may refuse liability. This is due to a breach in contract in relation to the endorsements of your policy not being complied with. An example of this kind of endorsement can be seen below:
Endorsement 1 – Bona Fide Sub-Contractors Clause. It is warranted by the Insured that all sub-contractors that they engage, maintain employers’ liability and public liability policies that provide:-Employers’ liability coverage with a limit of indemnity of not less than GBP10,000,000 for any one occurrence; Public liability coverage with an indemnity limit of not less than the limits provided by this policy; An indemnity to the Insured as principal.
Carrying out the checks prior to ensure that exhibitors hold stallholder events insurance could save you from significant financial loss. It is vital that these checks are carried out to avoid any compromise in your cover.
