Insurance - Trustee Indemnity

[Ron Bowater (Romsey)]

Hi Guys ... On behalf of Romsey Men's Shed I have a question on insurance i.e. how many of you have 'Trustee Indemnity' as part of your shed insurance policy and should we as (Trustees of Romsey Shed CIO) add it to our policy when we renew at the end of Feb.

Background to this question is as follows:

- Our policy with Export and General is coming up for renewal and a quote at around £500 seems like a pretty good deal (buildings £50k, contents £10k, £10M product/public, and £1m employer's liability). The only type of cover that is not part of this quote is Trustee's Liability which provides cover for up to £250k in the event of a Trustee of our Shed CIO being sued by one of the members (or maybe even a member of the general public or even another company) in the event of negligence on our part. An example of a possible claim that concerns us is the unlikely event of an accident in the workshop. We (as Trustees) are doing our best to ensure that our members receive H&S training on each and every machine for which records are kept. We also have a H&S policy for the workshop and do a risk assessment on every new site at which we are do work. However, we are all human and might have overlooked something which caused the incident leading to one or all of us being sued.

The cost of Trustee indemnity is an additional £200 which seems rather high but some of our Trustees feel that it is something that we should have. We will have to justify this additional costs to our members at our upcoming AGM and for some, it might be a tough sell in that they expect their Trustees to provide a safe working environment for them.

Two other pieces of information may contribute to this discussion : 1) we are a CIO and 2) when members join, they are asked to sign a 'disclaimer' saying that members are responsible for their own H&S (e.g. providing PPE) and use machines and tools at their own risk.

So, what do you guys think ? Should we fork our the extra 200 quid ?

Thanks
Ron Bowater
   

[Andi]

We decided against renewing with Export & General, and went with a lower quote from John Mitchell at Wessex. after some discussion we decided that our risk level did not justify any extra cover. We are not CIO.
Happy to discuss further if you wish

[John Mitchell]

Should you spend the extra to get Trustee Indemnity insurance?

Trustee Indemnity cover - ours costs £100 + tax, so £112 in total.

The question you need to ask of your fellow Trustees is, what are the chances of an individual Trustee making a decision on his own (for which he is then personally liable) which results in a significant financial loss to the Shed – or to a Shedder?  Of course it is also possible that the Trustees as a group could make a decision which results in such a loss and the Shedders take action against them all.  So, this is never a straightforward one.  If Trustees want the cover, you need to get it or you’ll have unhappy Trustees!  If they feel they want that extra protection you have no choice.  If you don’t buy it, tighten-up your decision making process, keep records of decisions and committee votes and with difficult decisions record that you acted after taking the appropriate advice.

Apologies, this isn't a sales pitch for Trustee Indemnity - it is not my job to persuade you wither way, but to present the facts!

Have a look at:

https://www.angelriskmanagement.com/assets/documents/products/DO/DOCH-ClaimsExamples.pdf

I will be at the meeting in Fareham on the 3rd if you’d like to talk more.

John Mitchell (Wessex Insurance)
01256 674198 / 07768 865983