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Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about the different considerations when renting out your common and/or party rooms.  What have we learned?

The first thing to consider is what type of event will be hosted in these rooms and whether alcohol will be served.  If you’ve determined that alcohol will be served, you should ensure that the event organisers obtain the requisite Special Occasion Permit (SOP) from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.

The next thing to consider is whether to rely on your housing corporation’s own insurance and whether to enter into a rental contract that clearly outlines each party’s rights and obligations regarding the rental of your common and/or party room.  While the existence of a contract will not likely absolve you of all liability, it will certainly aid in any defence your insurance company lays out for you.

Risky Business - Spring 2010 Edition

Another option is to require event organisers to purchase their own insurance coverage for their events, commonly known as Special Event Insurance or Social Host Liability Insurance.  For additional information on this type of insurance, visit Elliot Special Risks.

Lastly, it is important to remember that your housing corporation’s insurance policy does not provide coverage to any property or contents belonging to your tenants, guests, event organisers or event attendees.  Event organisers should be made aware of this and it should be spelled out in your rental contract or agreement.  Property belonging to your housing corporation will be covered as long as the property was lost or damaged due to a covered risk.

In our ever-increasingly litigious society, it is important to do everything possible to reduce our exposure to common hazards associated with the shared spaces in our residential buildings.  For more risk management tips, check out our newest edition of Risky Business.

When renting out your common and/or party rooms, one last thing to remember is that any property belonging to your tenants, the event attendees or organizers is not covered by your corporation’s insurance policy.  It is important to make this clear when you are renting these rooms and in any rental contract or agreement.  If; however, anything happens at or during the event that results in loss or damage to property belonging to your housing corporation, your policy will provide coverage as long as the cause of the loss or damage is an “Insured Peril” (aka: a covered risk).

We’ve talked about several different aspects of the risks and issues for you to think about regarding common and/or party room rentals recently and our final installment in our series will recap them all.  In the meantime, refer to parts 1, 2 and 3 for a refresher or for anything you may have missed.

Party Room/Common Room Rentals Series

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Last time, we talked about the issues and risks of relying on your corporation’s own insurance coverage when renting out your common/party rooms.  This week we’ll tackle another consideration when renting out these rooms: requiring the event organizers to purchase their own insurance.

Special Event insurance, also known as Social Host Liability insurance, provides coverage for a specific event and its organizers, and often includes general liability and server liquor liability.  If something should happen at or during the event, the injured party can make a claim against the event’s insurance policy, and not your corporation’s policy.

It is important to note that special event liability insurance does not cover the personal property of the event’s organizers or its attendees, nor does your corporation’s insurance provide this coverage.  This is what we’ll talk about in part 4 of our series on common rooms.

For more information about special event insurance, visit Elliot Special Risks

In my last blog entry, I talked about the importance of ensuring that event organizers, who are using building common rooms, obtain the relevant Special Occasion Permit from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, if they are serving alcohol. Today, we’ll look at the liability issues that your corporation could face by allowing events that serve alcohol to take place on your property.

Some questions you need to consider: what happens if a minor consumes alcohol at the event and becomes ill? What if someone leaves the event after consuming alcohol hosted on your premises and gets into a car accident that results in injury or death? The injured party or parties could sue your corporation – even if your only connection to the event is the location.

Protecting yourself with a rental contract
So how do you protect yourself? Make sure you have a plainly written rental contract with unambiguous language that clearly sets out each party’s rights and obligations concerning the rental room. Your contract should include a clause that clearly indicates your corporation is not liable for injuries or damages incurred during the event. A carefully executed contract and a Special Occasion Permit will assist should you find it necessary to defend the corporation against a lawsuit.

Unfortunately, these documents likely won’t be enough to fully absolve you of liability. A better option is to require that the event organizers purchase their own insurance coverage. This is called Special Event insurance or Social Host Liability insurance and that’s what we’ll talk about next time.

Many of you have common rooms and/or party rooms for your tenants’ social events or community meetings. But did you know that there are insurance considerations associated with the use of these rooms? Here are a few things you should know.

There are two ways to insure these events. The first is to rely on your own insurance. The second is to require the event’s organizers to provide their own insurance coverage.

Should you choose the former, there are two important considerations from an insurance perspective: the availability of alcohol at these events and who is responsible for property belonging to the events’ organizers and attendees.

Today, I will talk about the first of those considerations, which is whether or not alcohol will be served at or during the event. If alcohol is being served, the organizers will be required to obtain a Special Occasion Permit (SOP). There are three classes of SOPs; a Sale SOP, a No Sale SOP and an Auctions SOP. Details of these permits and application forms may be found on the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s website.

To protect yourself from liability, you should ensure the event organizers have applied and obtained the relevant permit and should take a copy for your records.

Next time, I will talk about liability and insurance concerns surrounding alcohol-included events.