Paintball insurance

[Sonshu]

Where can I get paintball insurance for a small group using our own site?

Incase we wanted to offer the service to friends. Nothing big but more for us to use?

Think we might need it for the land.

Cheers

Sonshu

[Gups]

Perkins Slade Insurance Brokers offer Insurance for paintballers and site operators in the UK

Broker:
Perkins Slade Ltd.Elizabeth House, 22 Suffolk Street,
Queensway Birmingham, B1 1LS.
Telephone 0121 698 8000. Fax 0121 643 1360

The only insurance you are required to have by law is Employers Liability (if you pay anyone to work there). If anyone came to play at your field and hurt themselves and if you were negligent in some way they may be able to sue you (see below).
Therefore Public Liability is is good idea, to protect yourself from facing a huge liability payout, should an accident be proved to be your fault

You need to take into account who owns the land.... Is it YOURS, a relatives or do you rent it from a local farmer/landowner... as this may effect whose liability an accident is.

The liability for an accident may fall with the OWNER of the land (eg if a tree fell and crushed someone or a car) and therefore THEY would be the person the injured party would sue. Your insurance will not pay out if YOU have not shown negligence. This liability can sometimes be passed to the leaseholder if you have officially LEASED the land.

There may be instances where you are liable as an event organiser... for instance if it was 'directly connected to the activity carried out on the land' (in this case paintball) and you as the event organiser (usually the person who has gained financially from the event) may have to pay compensation (again only if you have been negligent in some way)

If you have clearly told everyone and displayed signs that goggles must be worn past 'Point A' and they take their goggles off and lose an eye as a result then YOU are NOT negligent.

Best advice is to check with a few brokers and see if you are given the same advice from them all re what insurance is needed and who needs to take it out. Hopefully they will all give you the same answer.

Some sites prefer not to have public liability insurance as the premiums are so high.. in some cases well over £20,000 a year! When you consider that the average payout for loss of an eye is in the region of £25k see here, ..civil psla payout bit (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/687987.stm) (3rd yellow box down has the info)
some big sites feel that they can absorb the cost of an accident simply by the saving they make on premiums and in this way act as their own insurer. Obviously this doesnt mean they dont have to pay out if an accident arises, it just means they pay the damages instead of the insurance company.

Hope that answers your question (and then some!) lol!!
(Sorry, i used to be an insurance underwriter before i discovered paintball!) :p

[Sonshu]

Guess it would be something like this and the land belongs to a mates dad. It will be for private use rather than hire or reward.

Nice one!

May do it as a small side line later but for now its for us.

Cheers

[Gups]

Well an educated guess would be that any accident happening due a 'fixture and fitting' on the land would be the land owners responsibility.
But you would still have liability if someone hurt themselves due to an error you had made in the running of such days, regardless of whether money has changed hands or not. Might be worth a phone call to perkins slade to ask their opinion.