[hackerspaces] insurance

[john arclight]

The issue of alcohol and other specific activities can be pretty variable.
Our insurance agent basically looked at carriers that didn't _exclude_ the
things we wanted to do. For instance, we disclosed that we did light
industrial work, including soldering and welding.

Some of them didn't want anything involving welding, others didn't care.
Some of the landlords we talked to forbid any kind of automotive work.  We
tried to get the space and insurance policy that left the most options open
to us.

Some carriers will want to just take a picture of the outside of the shop,
while others will want to do a detailed inspection.

Another friend of ours runs an art gallery in an industrial area in the next
city over. For some reason, that city made them specifically agree never to
have any alcohol on their premises in order to get zoning approval for their
business license.

I would be upfront with the insurance agent and let them figure out the best
way to get you the coverage you need.

Arclight


On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 3:01 PM, Jeff Cotten <omegix at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> Loki,
>
>  You'll find that insurance programs vary differently from state to state.
>  Makers Local (Alabama) uses the same insurance provider a hackerspace in a
> different state, but they received a cheaper rate than we did.
>
> Makers Local 256 uses State Farm, it runs the organization about $27 /
> month, or $324 / year.
>
> We had a very challenging time obtaining insurance because we didn't know
> how to describe ourselves.
> Many of the insurance companies use automated systems with a drop down
> field for describing a customer.
> They really choked on the fact that we didn't produce a product.
>
> Eventually we figured out to describe ourselves as a Hobby Shop.
>
> I'm curious what role alcohol plays for other hackerspaces in North
> America.  Was this a consideration for you when seeking liability insurance?
> Do you allow it at all, or under special circumstances?
>
> One hurdle you may end up going through is prepping your space to be
> insured.  Our provider required that we complete some safety improvements to
> the space before they were willing to cover us.  Some of the improvements
> were expensive.
>
> ~Omegix
> Makers Local 256
>
>
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 14:28:20 -0800
> From: Lokkju Brennr <lokkju at gmail.com>
> To: discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> Subject: [hackerspaces] Liability insurance in the USA?
> Message-ID:
>    <2d6e831f1001061428g677a6d67xbd15a630ffb86a0 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I'd love some input on what providers those of you in the USA go
> through for getting CGL liability coverage for your space - as well as
> how you describe yourself to your insurance agent or underwriter, and
> how much you pay.  We currently looking to get coverage for our new
> space.
>
> Also, it would be really nice to add a size field to the list of
> hackerspaces, for how many ft2/m2 the space is.
>
> Loki // pdxhackerspace.com
> lokkju at gmail.com
>
>
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