Craft business insurance is a requirement! As craft fairs are not really that high risk the premiums should not be too high but accidents do happen, so please make sure you are covered.
Insurers offer a range of tailored event related insurance packages for stallholders and organisers. You can get a quote for Public Liability, Employers Liability Cover, Property Cover and Cancellation Cover without the need to give personal details.
Public Liability, Employers Liability Cover, Property Cover and Cancellation CoverNot all insurers will cover a craft business. Not even the ones that sell business insurance. So we have added an ad unit above for the organisations promoting their insurance products:
Insurance for artists and crafts people does need a little thought. You could contact an insurance broker, who specialises in your particular area, whether your an individual craftsman, artist, artisan, craft group or craft club.
Although your craft business may have a relatively low turnover, you may need the standard business insurances of:
You could also look at small van insurance and working from home insurance.
If you are making and then selling your work at craft or other fairs, you will need to consider both public and product liability insurance. As well as other insurance to protect your business.
You will want to be covered for things like, damage and loss, legal costs, expenses etc. Read the small print as an insurer will not cover you for everything.
You can also get insurance cover for your stock, your stands, lighting, tables, chairs or other items used at a fair.
Cover can be purchased against losses due to the abandonment, curtailment or postponement of a fair.
You should also look at cover for equipment and stock at you own home.
As an event organiser you need to check that your traders are insured and that the venue is insured. It is a good idea be make sure that adequately trained staff are made available to help incase of accidents or injury.
You may be asked to prove you have adequate public liability insurance before an event can take place by either the police, a local authority, landowner, venues or other interested parties. You should always be insured against injury or accident, either near or on the site as a result of erection or removal of event signs. Chances are you will need to be covered by at least £5m public liability insurance in case your sign is a contributing factor in a vehicle accident.
Your insurance policy should cover you for running multiple events. The more you run the more expensive it will be but if you run a lot the cost per event may be lower.
Insurance is all about risk. One of your jobs as an event organiser will be to assess the risk associated with running your event. It may well be a condition of your policy to have a written risk assessment. If you do not do this the insurer may not pay out if an accident occurs.
If you are employing staff you will also need to get employers liability cover. The cost will increase based on the number of people employed at an event, 1 to 10, 11 to 20 or 21 to 50 for example. Don't forget that this is not only for paid staff, you need to include all volunteers too.
Most venues are hired out for lots of different types of event and will normally be covered by insurance. However, this insurance is to cover them and not usually to cover you.
If you are managing a venue and hiring out space to event organisers and stall holders. You should be advising people to make sure they are adequately insured.
Do not forget that your private policy may not cover you, if you are using your vehicle for work. Check with your insurer.
NB. Public liability insurance is often known as General Liability Insurance. It covers claims made against you by a third party for personal injury or property damage arising from an accident during the period of insurance.
We have put this page together to try and help but it is up to you to make your own personal choices relating to the insurance of your business.