[Noisebridge-discuss] Insurance notes

[Meredith L. Patterson]

Jonas S Karlsson wrote:
> All good information, but is there any indication of costs?
> 
> It'd be interesting to see some examples of typical insurance costs,
> for a space this big, with the least "add-ons".

I agree, that would be handy. David, did the agent give you any kind of 
range?

> In any case, before having a space, I don't think insurance is going to
> be needed ;-) so for now, one thing at a time may be enough.

It's good to be doing this research now, though, because negotiating for 
commercial space will almost definitely be contingent on being able to 
provide insurance for it. It would suck to get into a situation where we 
needed to get insurance in a hurry in order to close on a lease, and 
ended up with a bad policy because we didn't have time to shop around. 
So I'm glad David's taken the initiative on this.

> Personally, I'd naively think that just having insurance for the 
> property would be
> enough. To make sure there is no claims from the landlord to individual
> members if something happens. I'm not sure if other insurances makes any 
> sense.
> Legally, members have to be responsible for their own actions.

Well, sure, but legally, members can also claim damages if accidents 
happen due to unsafe conditions, and insurance protects the organization 
in this case. Also, on a less litigious note, insurance covers things 
that aren't technically anyone's fault -- for instance, if a building 
next door catches fire and the fire spreads to our space, if our space 
is not insured then we have to pay for all the repairs, replacement of 
equipment, &c. ourselves. This is why a landlord will expect us to have 
insurance; the landlord will have insurance for the building, but 
requiring tenants to have insurance is a way to encourage them to take 
good care of their portion of it, and it protects the landlord if 
something bad happens and damages his building.

> But then again, I'm just a naive european and have never gotten sued :-)

Laws in the States are weird. No worries. :)

--mlp