[hackerspaces] insuring a hackerspace

[Leigh Honeywell]

In Canada it's a similar legal situation - for a commercial space you
are always expected to have renters' insurance.  We got excellent
coverage through an agent that one of our members uses to insure his
studio (where he does similar electronics stuff to what we do, so the
agent was comfortable with the idea when she got my call).

We pay $67 a month, and it pays to shop around - the first quote I got
from the agent my dad recommended was $150 / mo for crappier coverage.

I don't have the paperwork in front of me, but this covers theft and
equipment damage with a $250 deductible, including all contents of the
lab, and fire / flood / etc with a higher deductivle (I think $1000).

We opted to forgo D&O for now, as my lawyer said that was mostly needed
to protect against stuff like libel / slander.  In other words, if ou
have a public blog, don't libel people on it :)  Had D&O been cheaper we
would probably have gotten it just to be safe, but the quote I got was
$2k/yr.

-Leigh, from hacklab.to

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 04:22:46PM +0100, Steve Clement wrote:
> Hi ppl,
> 
> Let's say at least in Luxembourg you HAVE TO get insurance in order to  
> Rent a place.
> 
> To get around that a Person has to Rent it Privately (effectively  
> lying, thus not legal but it's done a lot)
> Then the person is liable.
> 
> And to be honest insurance IS as Big of a Problem/Issue as IT-Security.
> It's totally under-estimated until the House burns down and 3 are  
> Killed (damn, so negative today)
> 
> But seriously, you should always at least consider an insurance  
> especially if you do experiments like:
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/2t5trc
> 
> or similar (I really liked the coin shrinking done in one of the  
> HackerSpaces http://tinyurl.com/a7sa4 )
> 
> As we don't have our space yet we don't thought about insurance, but  
> we will get one and blatantly lie about what we do.
> 
> We do theoretical IT-thinkering Mr. Agent.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Steve
> -- 
> Let's build a Hackerspace in Luxembourg!
> http://www.hackerspace.lu
> mailto:steve at hackerspace.lu
> .lu: +352 20 333 55 65
> 
> On Jan 27, 2009, at 2:59 PM, Philippe Langlois wrote:
> 
> >Since at the /tmp/lab we're in a special situation (not renting,
> >officially occupying for free with knowledge and agreement with the
> >owner), no insurance coverage could be understood.
> >So we went for waiver. For this reason, everybody who came to the
> >first Hacker Space Fest @ /tmp/lab in 2008 needed to sign a waiver in
> >order to enter the conference.
> >
> >I agree with Sebastien (doing fine without) and Paul (aiming for the
> >big problems, not the small stuff).
> >
> >Best,
> >Philippe.
> >
> >On 27 Jan 2009, at 00:46, Paul Böhm wrote:
> >
> >>anyone got thoughts on waivers vs. just insuring against as much as
> >>possible?
> >>probably should do both...
> >>
> >>liability probably depends a lot on local law. there's a lower chance
> >>of getting successfully sued in austria, but
> >>still i'm worried that i don't know if we're fine without the waivers
> >>under austrian law.
> >>
> >>enki
> >>
> >>On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 3:19 PM,  <druid at stonedcoder.org> wrote:
> >>>At htink in NYC we have visited this topic shortly. The feedback
> >>>seems to be
> >>>get renters insurance to cover the expensive tools against theft
> >>>(NYCR has
> >>>it's laser insured I think) and make sure for liability that
> >>>everyone that
> >>>uses tools signs a waiver. Also posting large "you are here at
> >>>your own
> >>>risk" type signs seems popular.
> >>>
> >>>So renters insurance to cover fire/damage/theft, and otherwise
> >>>reduce the
> >>>orgs liability via waivers / postings seems like a winning strategy.
> >>>
> >>>-Eric
> >>>
> >>>On Tue, 27 Jan 2009, Sébastien Bourdeauducq wrote:
> >>>
> >>>>Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>>I know of a hackerspace which has no rent, no money, and no
> >>>>insurance. And
> >>>>it's going very well.
> >>>>
> >>>>There are really more interestings ways of spending our time in
> >>>>hackerspaces
> >>>>than with filling in bureaucratic forms and finding money to feed
> >>>>real
> >>>>estate
> >>>>agents and insurance brokers.
> >>>>
> >>>>Sebastien
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>On Tuesday 27 January 2009 00.02.42 nicolle n. wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>Hi all!
> >>>>>
> >>>>>my name is nicolle, and i live in Chicago.  i'm helping plan
> >>>>>Pumping
> >>>>>Station: One, the soon-to-be hackerspace here.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>i was just wondering...has anyone else on this list gone through
> >>>>>the
> >>>>>process of searching for and finding insurance for a
> >>>>>hackerspace?  did
> >>>>>you
> >>>>>talk to insurance companies directly, or go through a broker?
> >>>>>what was
> >>>>>your experience like?  did you have to have a physical place  
> >>>>>rented
> >>>>>before shopping for the insurance, or could you get the
> >>>>>insurance quotes
> >>>>>lined up before signing a lease on a place?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>i'm in the process of researching the availability of insurance,
> >>>>>and i'd
> >>>>>be
> >>>>>really interested to know what it's like for someone who has
> >>>>>been through
> >>>>>the process of getting their hackerspace insured.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>thank you all...i'm looking forward to hearing about your
> >>>>>experiences in
> >>>>>this.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>nicolle
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>_______________________________________________
> >>>>Discuss mailing list
> >>>>Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >>>>http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>_______________________________________________
> >>>Discuss mailing list
> >>>Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >>>http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >>>
> >>>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>Discuss mailing list
> >>Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >>http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Discuss mailing list
> >Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> >http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> 

> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss