Liability Insurance?

February 11, 2010 9:37 PM

My wedding reception site just emailed me requesting very specific liability insurance. Help!

My wedding reception site just emailed me requesting liability insurance. I saw this post from 2007, but I wanted to post the requirements I was given, because they seem to want more than the previous poster was asking for:

Minimum Insurance Requirements Include:

a. Comprehensive General Liability - Bodily injury and property damage, contractual liability coverage for indemnity provided under this contract and products/completed operations liability;

b. Alcohol/Liquor Liability Coverage (only if the entity, group or organization providing the alcohol is in the business of distributing, selling, serving or furnishing alcoholic beverages) - To insure against liability arising from the furnishing of alcoholic beverages to an individual that is under the legal drinking age or under the influence of alcohol; or violating any statute, ordinance or regulation relating to the sale, gift, distribution or use of alcoholic beverages;

c. Motor Vehicle Liability - Vehicle liability covering owned, non-owned and/or hired vehicles;

d. Motor Vehicle Including Pollution Coverage (only if transportation, loading or unloading any commodity that may cause environmental damage) - To insure against environmental damage arising out of the use by or on behalf of the person requesting the permit, its agents and employees or owned, non-owned, or hired vehicles;

e. Minimum Insurance Limits -
• Property Damage for each Accident or Occurrence - $50,000
• Each Person - $100,000
• Each Incident or Occurrence - $500,000
(These are minimums. If higher risk activities are present or heavy equipment is used, the minimums will be higher based on probable exposures.)

f. Additional Insured - The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and Friends of Vista House and its commission, members, officers, agents, and employees are to be named as additional insureds. There shall be 30 days written notice if any insurance changes occur including cancellation, potential exhaustion of limits, or intent of non-renewal. Failure to comply with the reporting provision, except for the exhaustion of aggregate limits, shall not affect the coverage(s) provided to OPRD or FOVH, its commission, members, officers, agents and employees;

g. Certificate of Insurance - As evidence of the insurance coverage, a certificate of insurance(s) shall be provided prior to the event. The certificate(s) must specify all parties who are additional insureds. Failure to provide such certificate may result in the event being cancelled and any deposit received being retained.


This is a wedding, not reception. No booze being served. I will call my condo's insurance next week, but I was hoping for personal recommendations, or someone to explain what I need to be looking for in a policy. They want a lot of things, and most sites I got when looking for "event liability insurance" didn't seem to cover this extensive list. Help!

posted by haplesschild to work & money (9 answers total)

When we got married we just called our home owners insurance guy and asked for a one day liability policy with the facilities requirements. Cost us like an extra 30 bucks for that year.
Pretty standard really, if you have home owners or renters they should be able to clear this up for you.
posted by iamabot at 10:12 PM on February 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is a basic insurance waiver that can be put on your property insurance. If you don't have property insurance, then I suggest you call AAA or the like and send them the requirements and find out what the cost would be for one time coverage. Either way, there's a one page form that they will send you that states you're covered, you fax that to the venue and you're done.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:46 PM on February 11, 2010

Agreed that you should contact your property insurance company and discuss this with them.

Though the list of requirements above seems onerous, it is likely that a simple phone call to your insurance company can resolve this. They likely will tack on a nominal fee to cover the specific events that need to be covered.

Presumably your insurance company has a standard certificate of insurance that they can provide you with, which you in turn provide to your condo association.

Of all the things you need to do to plan a wedding this is likely one of the easiest tasks to cross off your list.
posted by dfriedman at 3:05 AM on February 12, 2010

Your question is inconsistent. You start out saying that this is a requirement of "my wedding reception site" but then state that this is a wedding, not a reception. If it is indeed a wedding only, consider contacting the company. They may have simply made a mistake, thinking it was a reception.
posted by megatherium at 4:33 AM on February 12, 2010

Weird. Never heard of that before. Why doesn't the site have insurance?
posted by stormpooper at 6:58 AM on February 12, 2010

We had to buy insurance for our venue, too. Have you asked the venue what insurance companies other couples have used in the past? We were given a list. The companies on the list totally knew what we were talking about and made it easy for us.
posted by Knowyournuts at 9:42 AM on February 12, 2010

I am not an insurance agent, but I work with them.

It sounds to me like this is something that catering companies usually provide, if this facility is commonly used as a reception site. If you won't be using a catering company, try talking to the facility to see if they will waive this requirement. They may be willing to do this, since you may not be bringing the same risks and liabilities (employees/workers comp/commercial vehicles/alcohol service) that a catering company would bring.

If they're not willing to waive the requirement, just talk to your personal insurance company (homeowners/auto) to get the additional coverage for the event. They should be able to provide this, along with all the certificates of insurance.

If your insurance can't or won't provide this, or if it's too expensive for you, or if you don't have a personal insurance company, then go back to the facility and see if they can charge you an additional fee to have the event covered 100% by the facility's own insurance. This is not ideal, and will be complicated.
posted by faustessa at 10:04 AM on February 12, 2010

My wife used to be an events coordinator for a site used for lots of weddings. They required everyone who rented the venue to get a one-day rider for one million dollars in liability coverage. If you have insurance already, you can call your company and get a rider very cheaply.
posted by EarBucket at 10:15 AM on February 12, 2010

Our wedding site asked us for this too, and they were also happy to provide it through their insurer for a fee. It wasn't that expensive (especially in the context of what else we were paying.) Have you asked the site if they offer this, or who they recommend for the coverage?
posted by gingerbeer at 2:46 PM on February 12, 2010