We’re often asked if BMABA instructor insurance covers the instruction of private lessons or group sessions from a place of residence. The answer, as you might expect, isn’t always straight forward.
Teaching From Home Under Instructor Public Liability
Your instructor insurance is provided with membership. This means it follows you around, and not a business or venue. With this in mind it should still be effective whilst teaching at a home studio or outdoor space however, as with any venue, you will need to make sure the space you deliver any lesson in is fully risk assessed, fit for use and properly insured in it’s own right.
So What’s The Issue?
It’s very unlikely your consumer home insurance will provide any protection for a claim arising whilst teaching at home. This is because the scope of cover is almost certainly not going to cover ‘commercial activities’. You may be teaching on a flexible basis, but if any service is offered – even without payment – it may be deemed a public venue or a commercial activity.
If you’re not sure, get in touch with your home insurer to clarify.
Doesn’t My BMABA Insurance Stretch To This Though?
We’re starting to approach the ‘nitty-gritty’ detail of insurance. Your instructor public liability cover is designed to provide the protection needed in the event of a claim that causes damage to property or injury to a third party as a direct result of non-negligent instruction. This means effectively for instruction properly delivered in a safe environment. An insurer is unlikely to provide a claim in respect of damage to your personal property however, so the ‘damage to property’ aspect should be discounted unless specifically arranged in advance.
In respect to ‘the line’ for where the public liability insurance concludes, it’s not completely black and white but it will certainly be when students pass through or interact with fixtures and/or when they are in transit through the venue.
For example, if a student injures their hand as a direct result of training this would be considered an instructor public liability matter. If they injured their hand as a result of a defective floor mat it may be a borderline instructor issue or, more likely, a venue insurance issue. If a roof tile falls off and hits a student in the car park or if they trip on the stairs of the venue, this is not an instructor liability matter as it does not relate to the supervision of martial arts, and it would instead be a claim on the venue or business running the venue.
In Conclusion
In most cases where you’ve set up a training space or venue at home, you should consider company or venue specific public liability insurance to provide adequate cover protection for claims arising from non-instruction related incidents.
If you’re not sure or if you’d like to ask BMABA for more information and a quote, please raise a ticket or get in touch via your preferred channel.
You may first want to try your current home insurance provider to see if they can extend your home insurance for this purpose too.
Please also bear in mind that, by default, an enhanced DBS check is not based on you working or teaching from home and you must tell us or your DBS check provider if you plan to use it whilst teaching at home.