Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Boring insurance question

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 6/19/05 12:02 PM, "Rob Sandelin" <floriferous [at] msn.com> wrote:

> We are thinking of upping our liability coverage beyond 1 million dollars.
> How much liability insurance does your group have?

I don't know how much insurance we have and I'm not an insurance expert by
any means but part of the insurance discussion I think should be "what is
reasonable"? Insurance covers you for the events for which you are liable
because you were negligent. Liability is not automatic. The person suing you
has to prove liability.

Our lawyer is encouraging us to go in the other direction by having
volunteers sign waivers when doing any physical work on the premises that
involves climbing ladders, using power equipment, etc. Any one who is hired
to work in the common areas has to submit proof of insurance.

We also have a risk assessment project going (slowly but out there) to
assess risk and address anything that could be interpreted as negligence.

One problem is insurance companies themselves suing each other and their
clients are being used as pawns. One of our residents hurt her side using
the push mower (I think she fell forward onto the handle). Her insurance
company tied to get information to sue the association for her damages. She
refused to respond to queries and they dropped it.

This is an instance when the resident might not have had a choice about
whether we were sued on her behalf or not. Although they would have had to
prove liability, we would have had to pay the legal fees to defend
ourselves.

The insurance companies are in a battle with each other. Maintaining more
insurance than you absolutely need is just upping the ante for law suits
between insurance companies.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Building Community: A Newsletter on Coops, Condos, Cohousing, and Other New
Neighborhoods
http://www.buildingcommunitynews.org