small livery yard - what insurance etc is needed?

[Bowen4Horses]

hey all

i'm in the process of buying a new house (if they EVER accept my offer) which has 6 stables and plenty of land. also a 60x40 manege etc...

anyhoo, i was going to let 3 or so stables out to liveries for a number of reasons:
-bit of extra cash
-other horsey people on site
-company for my horse

etc etc.

they will most probably just be diy, have a stable and an acre each or something, and use of the school etc. oh, and lockable tack room. and space in the hay barn etc...

anyway, on this small scale, what insurances do i need? i will (of course) insist that the liveries have insurance for themselves... but do i need something too?

sorry if this question is really obvious! i'm a bit clueless...

xxx

 

[Bosworth]

Speak to NFU - they will advise you - but you will basically need small holder insurance to cover your plant and machinery, buildings insurance, public liability, insurance to cover hay/bedding stocks against fire and flood and care and control for when you are handling other people's horses. You need to insist that the liveries have their horses insured for public liability at the minimum and their insurance must cover their tack. You cannot insure their tack on your policy

 

[Rainbowrider]

Interesting post. Do you actually HAVE to have these insurances legally, or are they just strongly recommended?

Wouldn't an insurance company just sell you as much as they could? (I am with NFU, and they have always been great).

 

[L&M]

I am in the same situation as you and have 1 DIY and 2 grass liveries. At the moment we only have public liability, but insist all liveries have their own too. It is a very difficult situation as with only a few liveries, any profit is taken up with insurance costs.

 

[Rainbowrider]

I would love 1 or 2 liveries so I had company and someone to ride with, but I cannot afford to pay the insurance. Do you mind telling us how much your PL cost?

 

[Bosworth]

you are legally obliged to have public liability if you own land. So if anyone ventures onto your land - whether or not invited you are covered should they injure themselves and sue you. Care and control is also vital if you are running a yard as you could well be sued by one of your liveries if a horse injures itself while you are in charge of it e.g if it puts a foot through the fence and injures itself- or you let it go and it gets on the road. If you don't want to insure your plant and machinery - well thats your risk - as is the insurance for fire and flood. My buildings are all covered for rebuild cost as well. And also don't forget you have to notify the council and pay business rates as soon as you start taking money for livery.

It's not as simple as thinking - I have a few stables so I could let some friends use them. You have to be protected against likely possibilities.

 

[L&M]

We pay approx £380 per year for public liability- hope that helps.
Excuse my ignorance Bosworth but I thought care and control was only necessary if you were handling liveries horses, so if purely DIY, shouldn't be necessary (but feel free to correct me if I am wrong!)
Thanks

 

[MrsMozart]

Don't forget the Tax Man may want a cut as well.

You'll have to tell your property insurance people what you're doing.

You'll be running a small business, so check out the free helpf for small businesses.

 

[Bowen4Horses]

thanks for your replies peeps... hmm... tis not as simple as i'd hoped.... but i did suspect i'd need all that cover. makes sense i guess...

maybe i should go a bit more 'medium' scale instead of small scale... as was also thinking about renting manege out hourly and maybe holding little weekly clinics...

if i'm going to have to run it as a small business anyway... there's some government-run small business advice thing somewhere... will go see one of them i think.

thank you again!