Sugar Plum
Well-Known Member
Does anyone know what the minimum insurance cover types are required to be taken out by livery yards (by law)?
Livery yard insurance requirements
- Thread starter Sugar Plum
- Start date
cbmcts
Well-Known Member
They would need third party cover as they 'invite' members of the public onto the premises. If they have any employees - these do not have to be paid ie a livery who gets a reduction on livery in return for some tasks would be an employee - they must have employers insurance. A livery yard that handled livery horses, in other words nearly all livery yards should have custody/care and control cover - I'm not certain that this is obligatory though. Any other cover would be optional but a business owner could be personally liable if they were sued by a livery.
The issue is that many yards are still run as a cash business under the radar. They are not registered with the HMRC, have no insurance or what insurance they have is only for a private yard so will not pay out once an incident occurs and the ins co discovers that there are paying liveries involved... Apart from the fact that a YO could lose their house to pay damages if someone was hurt badly enough (personally liable) they then have a world of pain to come when HMRC and/or the HSE take an interest.
The issue is that many yards are still run as a cash business under the radar. They are not registered with the HMRC, have no insurance or what insurance they have is only for a private yard so will not pay out once an incident occurs and the ins co discovers that there are paying liveries involved... Apart from the fact that a YO could lose their house to pay damages if someone was hurt badly enough (personally liable) they then have a world of pain to come when HMRC and/or the HSE take an interest.
be positive
Well-Known Member
There is no law regarding livery yards being registered, unlike catteries or kennels, so no minimum insurance requirements in law, most will have third party and some have care and custody but many DIY yards will have nothing specific in place and expect their clients to hold appropriate insurance, if they have staff there are rules regarding insurance but they are not only for livery yards.
Welsh Dragon
Well-Known Member
As mentioned above, public liability and employers liability ( even if you don't pay people this is required for volunteers). These are your minimum requirements before considering material damage (property, stock ect).
Sugar Plum
Well-Known Member
Thanks everyone for your replies, very interesting. To test these measures, 2 scenarios: Horse gets colic with a presumption that cause was unsuitable/insufficient water in paddock (not sure how you prove this unless vet specifically states this) and livery horse injures yard employees? Any other scenarios posed by others are welcome. Just so I can understand how far public and employers insurance goes in day to day livery life
The Fuzzy Furry
Old Timer
Agreed.
If horses came under the boarding of animals act, things officially would be rather different
cbmcts
Well-Known Member
Scenario one - if you were DIY, no liability to the yard. You would be expected to take responsibility for basic welfare such as water being available as owner(s) or not turn out/remove the horse from the yard. In a full livery situation, the yard may be liable if you could prove the colic was caused by lack of water - in real life doing so to the level that you would be prepared to sue would be very difficult. That's why you have your own insurance for vet bills. In theory, your ins co could claim their costs from the yards ins co if they felt that they had a strong enough case but AFAIK that is a very rare occurrence.
Employers liability insurance would cover employee injuries normally. What a lot of small businesses forget to do is things like training, risk assessments and provide PPE for their staff. This is required by H&S legislation and complying with the law is a standard requirement on policies for your insurance to be in force. The yard should also make sure that that they are aware of any known risks ( a kicker, a horse that is known to tank off in a head collar for example) and aim to minimise these risks. You can't eliminate risk in real life, especially with horse but there are simple steps that can be taken to minimise the extent of them. Ensure all staff wear proper footware, hats and gloves while turning out. A tank of a horse is turned out in a bridle with long leadrope/lunge line or a kicker is noted in the office/tack room or even on their stable door so that staff know to stay out of the way of the back end. Owners also have a duty to inform yards of know risks if they expect staff to have to handle their horse. An organised yard would have a questionnaire that owners fill in on arrival. If an owner were to omit information or even lie about known behaviour they could, in theory be liable for staff injury. In saying that, I've not heard of that happening to date.
Apologies when I mentioned registering in my first post I meant with the HMRC as a business for tax purposes, not as a livery yard. I do agree that livery yards should have to register with and be licensed by the local council the same way that riding schools do but they don't.
Employers liability insurance would cover employee injuries normally. What a lot of small businesses forget to do is things like training, risk assessments and provide PPE for their staff. This is required by H&S legislation and complying with the law is a standard requirement on policies for your insurance to be in force. The yard should also make sure that that they are aware of any known risks ( a kicker, a horse that is known to tank off in a head collar for example) and aim to minimise these risks. You can't eliminate risk in real life, especially with horse but there are simple steps that can be taken to minimise the extent of them. Ensure all staff wear proper footware, hats and gloves while turning out. A tank of a horse is turned out in a bridle with long leadrope/lunge line or a kicker is noted in the office/tack room or even on their stable door so that staff know to stay out of the way of the back end. Owners also have a duty to inform yards of know risks if they expect staff to have to handle their horse. An organised yard would have a questionnaire that owners fill in on arrival. If an owner were to omit information or even lie about known behaviour they could, in theory be liable for staff injury. In saying that, I've not heard of that happening to date.
Apologies when I mentioned registering in my first post I meant with the HMRC as a business for tax purposes, not as a livery yard. I do agree that livery yards should have to register with and be licensed by the local council the same way that riding schools do but they don't.