Insurance information to hire out your property

Here's what you need to know about insurance when you want to let other people hire your venue.

If you own a guiding venue, you might want to hire it out to other groups, organisations or people.

There are different ways to hire out your property and different considerations. You may hire your property out for a single occasion or regularly and to other organisations or individuals.

What to do before hiring out your property

1. Check if you can hire out your property. If it’s leasehold, you need to check that the letting doesn’t go against any terms of the lease.
2. Consider who’s hiring it and if it’s suitable. If something went wrong, would it impact Girlguiding’s reputation?
3. Consider insurance and arrange a hire agreement. If you haven’t already hired out your property, you’ll need to check with your buildings and contents insurers.

What we cover

Girlguiding’s public liability insurance does cover you and your building if someone has an accident because of a fault in the building or because of an unintentional action in the running and management. 

What we don't cover

Girlguiding’s public liability insurance does not cover damage or injury caused by third party hirers.

If something happens when a third party is using your building, you need to claim against their insurance policy because it’s not covered by ours. You need to make sure that their insurance is good enough to meet any claim otherwise you could be left out of pocket. 

What insurance do the hirers need?

Most recognised groups will have their own public liability insurance. We recommend that you only accept bookings that have public liability insurance cover of £5 million or more with a trusted provider.

If their insurance cover is under £5 million, you can risk assess the situation and decide if you're happy with their level of cover. You should ask to see a copy of their insurance certificate or letter of insurance.

If you have any questions about the insurance company, you can check the Financial Services Register (opens in a new tab).

What happens if they don't have public liability insurance?

They should check that they don’t have any public liability insurance. Private hirers might have some insurance as part of their household policy.

Or, Girlguiding has arranged some additional cover called hirer’s liability insurance. This is an extension which covers hirers in case they cause accidental damage or injury. The limit is £5 million which means that this is the maximum that can be claimed for. This cover only applies to individuals and doesn’t cover organisations or groups – who should have their own insurance. You should risk assess the suitability of the hire before deciding to take it on – for example, a knitting group or family camping would be a different risk to a birthday party. You also need to follow local guidance in terms of who you can hire to.

Please note that there is an excess of £100 which the hirer will need to pay.

What is a hirer’s agreement?

This is a contract between the property and the person or group hiring your premises. It contains details of how they’ll use the building and outlines their responsibilities.

What to do for one-off hires

The hirer's agreement form has 2 parts:

• Part A of the hirer’s agreement sets out the time, dates and costs of the hire for your records.
• Part B of the hirer’s agreement asks the hirer to agree that they will pay you back for damage or injury.

All groups should complete part B. Girlguiding groups should cross off the words in the square brackets. Private hirers using the hirer’s liability, provided by Girlguiding, should indicate this on the form.

What to do for regular hires

Please note that the hire agreement is only suitable for occasional hires, such as birthday parties. If you hire out your hall to a group on a regular basis (for example, hiring out to an amateur dramatic group for 2 hours once a week) use this regular hirer’s agreement. The regular hire license has guidance notes on page 1 and 2.

Pages 3 and 4 need to be completed and then the document needs to be signed by representatives from both parties. The hirer’s liability extension doesn’t cover regular hires.

What to do with the hirer's agreement form

1. You need to complete 2 copies of the form. You and the hirer should sign and date both copies. You should keep a copy for your records, and the person hiring the building also gets to keep a copy.
2. Store your copies of the forms securely and in line with our managing information policy. You need to keep them for 3 years after the agreement has ended unless an accident happens during the hire. If an accident is reported, please share a copy of the form along with the notification of accident or incident form with the Insurance team.
3. If you receive a legal letter, email [email protected] within 24 hours so that we can comply with the law. You don't need to reply to the correspondence yourself.