woodland insurance

[michaelb8111]

I've just been looking through the terms and conditions of my woodland insurance and it appears to me that the only persons covered are trespassers. Groups of voluteers, family, friends, or anyone else who accept that walking through the woods could be risky aren't covered and if a tree falls across the road and causes damage - guess what - it's not covered. I'm not too sure what the policy does cover. I would be interested to know how many successful claims have been made against woodland owners in the past, say, ten years and then balance this against the number of visits made to small woodlands over the same time span. I suspect the ratio would be minuscule and, like me , many owners would question the value of woodland insurance. It appears to me that the catch-all "Duty of care" liability benefits only the insurance companies and "No win-no fee" claims chasers. What do other woodland owners think?

[Dennis]

Click on the "insurance" link listed under Tags near the top of this page. Then click Beech Tree to read what others have said on the subject. Beech Tree's cover is much wider. Other SWOG members have moved over to Beech Tree.

[docsquid]

Another provider of insurance for woodlands (and farmland) is NFU Mutual. If you have groups of people visiting your woods, then I would say it is essential to have insurance, a health and safety policy, a first aid qualification and a risk assessment for each type of activity. Without that you are leaving yourselves open to charges up to and including culpable homicide, should the worst happen. We have a health and safety policy and can demonstrate the frequency with which we assess the hazards posed by trees and the action we are taking e.g. if we spot a dead or hung up branch over the path. We also give health and safety leaflets to all visitors, log all volunteers onto and off site (including an emergency contact) and do a risk assessment for every activity we carry out. It sounds like a lot, but it doesn't take long, and demonstrates you have taken reasonable care. You do not have to remove risk, but you do have to assess it. You can decide to leave the risk in place and warn participants of it.

[jennysmate]

Those pesky elfs and safety goblins again, shoot them all. That's if those hazardous trees don't get you first. I despair sometimes.