Civil liability insurance

The principle of ‘civil liability’ means that anyone who causes damage or loss to another, must repair it or pay compensation.

This damage or loss may be physical, that is, an injury (you drop a piece of scenery on someone’s toe) or material (you had borrowed that piece of scenery from someone else and it’s now broken).

If someone from your non-profit organisation (so-called vzw) causes damage or loss to a third party, the ‘fault’ or ‘blame’ is automatically attributed to the non-profit organisation. Your organisation is then liable for the damage and costs, etc, that goes with that.

An insurance against civil liability covers the damages your organization may have to pay if anyone acting on behalf of your association causes damage or loss to a third party.

Individuals can also take out civil liability insurance in the form of family insurance (so-called ‘familiale verzekering’).

Required or recommended?

As a non-profit organisation, you are obliged to have at least civil liability insurance for your volunteers.

But you can insure more people or activities if you want, e.g. dancers, audience, …

Check the policy

If you intend to take out Civil Liability insurance, you should pay attention to the following:

Are all the activities of your organisation covered, e.g. the annual barbecue as well as the dance lessons? And what about the events you organise?
Who is covered? The association, members, directors (often called ‘board members’), volunteers, people who are involved via the AKV, etc?
Does the insurance cover both material damage and injury?

Normally, civil liability insurance for associations only covers people in the association who are subordinate in the organisation, such as volunteers, participants and members. Self-employed people are not usually covered and must have their own Civil Liability insurance.

Have a look at what is covered by the insurance policy via Danspunt

Do you run a canteen or other infrastructure?

If your organisation runs a dance studio or canteen, then you can take out an extra Civil Liability Operation insurance (so-called ‘Burgerlijke Aansprakelijkheid Uitbater’). This covers the damage or injury that people can suffer as a consequence of faults in the fabric of your building or terrain, for example, if someone trips over a loose paving stone.

Need more information or advice?

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Discounted insurance via Danspunt

Danspunt offers a very affordable insurance for civil liability and personal accidents.