Participants · supervision · vessels
Liability insurance for a self-employed professional in the leisure sector
Anyone who runs activities on a self-employed basis lets people voluntarily do something that carries a risk. The claim is then almost always about your instructions and your supervision.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Aansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zelfstandige in de recreatie.
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
As an activity leader, guide, watersports instructor or entertainment host you are the one who explains to the group what is going to happen. If a participant is injured, your conduct is tested against Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code: did you give instructions, check the equipment, keep the group to a manageable size and stop the activity when the weather turned? The fact that a participant knew there was a risk does not remove your responsibility, and an exclusion clause in your terms rarely holds up where there is injury.
In this work the exclusions matter more than the cover. Damage caused with or by a vessel or a aircraft is excluded as standard on business liability insurance; that affects sloop trips, RIB trips and anything involving a motorboat. The same applies to motor vehicles such as quad bikes, buggies and a tractor with a covered wagon, for which Article 2 of the Dutch Motor Insurance Liability Act (WAM) requires separate insurance. For those objects you need a separate policy, otherwise you are uninsured for the most predictable accident of all.
Also outside the cover: equipment you hire or borrow, such as canoes, bicycles, climbing gear and wetsuits, because that is in your in your care; a cancelled activity and the costs participants incur as a result, because that is pure financial loss; your own injury; and intent, which under Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code is never covered. How this insurance works in general is set out on the page about public and employers' liability insurance.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
What to look out for
Four subjects that determine the outcome of a claim in guided activities.
Instruction and supervision are your product
In an injury case the court looks at what a reasonably careful activity leader should have done. Work with a fixed safety briefing, an equipment check beforehand and an agreed point at which you stop for thunderstorms, strong winds or low water. Note for each trip who took part and what you told them; in a claim that note is often the only evidence you have.
Boats, quad bikes and covered wagons
As soon as there is an engine underneath, you leave the scope of this policy. Vessels and aircraft are excluded and motor vehicles fall under the WAM. If you use a sloop, RIB or quad bike, take out liability cover on that object itself and obtain written confirmation that commercial use carrying passengers falls under it.
Animals in your activities
If you work with horses, ponies or farm animals, Article 6:179 of the Dutch Civil Codeapplies: the keeper is liable for damage caused by an animal's own behaviour, even without fault. If you use animals commercially that are not yours, that liability shifts to you as the commercial user under Article 6:181 of the Dutch Civil Code . Arrange this before you take out your first group.
Children and groups without parents
With minors the bar for supervision is higher, particularly around water, heights and fire. Work with a ratio of leaders to participants that you can justify, ask for consent forms and record particulars such as swimming ability and medication. For assignments involving children, clients almost always ask for a certificate of good conduct.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover — the basis for a sole trader
- Type of activities — walking and entertainment weigh differently from climbing or watersports
- Participants per activity — group size and the ratio to the number of leaders
- Age of the target group — a heavier duty of care applies with minors
- Equipment used — your own, hired, or the client's
- Care, custody and control cover — for equipment you obtain from a park or hire firm
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is why comparing pays off.
What is covered
| Situation | Basic | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| A participant falls from the climbing wall you were supervising and breaks a wrist | Yes | Yes |
| A participant suffers burns at the campfire you had built | Yes | Yes |
| While unloading you reverse the canoe hire firm's trailer into a bollard | No | Provided that |
| A passenger is injured on the sloop with an outboard motor you use for the trip | No | No |
| Water damage to the hired room where you hold the debrief | No | Provided that |
| You stop the trip because of a thunderstorm and the participants demand their fee back | No | No |
Extended here means a policy on which care, custody and control and tenant's liability are included as separate sections.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often about this.
A participant breaks a wrist during an activity I am leading.
Injury to a third party falls within the cover if you are liable. That liability follows from Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code and turns on your instructions, the equipment and the supervision. An accident without blame does not lead to liability; the risk is that you cannot show this. Report the incident to your insurer immediately, even if the participant has not yet claimed anything.
I take guests out in a sloop. Is that covered as well?
No. Damage caused with or by a vessel is excluded as standard on public and employers' liability insurance, whoever owns the boat. You need liability cover on the vessel itself, and the insurer must know that you carry paying passengers. Without that disclosure, that policy is no certainty either.
A hired canoe is damaged during my trip.
That is damage to property that was in your keeping and falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. The hire firm will hold you liable under the hire agreement. Ask your insurer about care, custody and control cover for hired equipment, or set out in the hire contract that the hire firm carries the own-damage risk.
Does it help if participants sign beforehand that they take part at their own risk?
It helps to manage expectations, but it is not a free pass. A clause excluding liability for injury is often set aside where there are serious failings or where consumers are involved. What does carry weight is being able to show what instructions you gave and what precautions you took. Invest in record-keeping rather than in legal disclaimers.
Read more
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