concerns about site insurance

[nutz]

being a busy paintball site located in the north west, and from information received from our insurance company perkins slade, indications that insurances for paintball site operators is going and if not already gonna go thru the roof.
now normally they base the premium on turnover and as a example i will indicate these figures

swat turn over 2000 £120,000.00 insurance premium £600.00
// // 2001 £126,000.00 // // £2100.00
// // 2002 £148,000.00 estimation £6000.00

so help is needed and advise, what is the ukpsf doing about these hikes, like most sites we pride ourselves on safety for our customers with zero claims made in 12 years, and indications from the insurance company with comments such as sept 11th and a lot of claims have been made from other sites, is the comment actually true or just bull,
with a 750% increase in 2 years can small sites afford insurance and if they cant are they operatiing at the detroment for there own finacial future, as ambulance chases are now trying to get customers off the high street with the no win no fee, selling pitch.

so if any site operators read this and have found a way to keep insured without going broke , let me know

 

[Tommy Gun-Nexus]

I know what you mean! Our insurance (for Ground Control) has nearly tripled in the last year, also with zero claims!

Is this happening at all sites throughout the country?

Now It seems like there is only one insurance company in the country that deals with sites, allowing the price to rise due to a lack competition..

Have te UKPSF got the power to do anything about this??

 

[Gogger]

Is this happening at all sites throughout the country?

Yes it is

 

[Alien]

And its not just paintball sites that are getting hit by massive insurance price increases, Everything that the sods can put up, they have done, and its all being blamed on 9/11.


Why don't i belive them

Alien

 

[Piper]

Guys

My long suffering girlfriend works in the insurance world and I have to say that September 11th has coursed a lot of problems for the whole industry (insurance). This I can tell you for fact:

Yes premiums will go up as they have to make the money back on the loses from 11th September. I know one company lost in the region of $1.5 billion. So the money has to be made up from somewhere!

Don't shoot the messenger I am just saying what I know.

Piper

 

[Alien]

Don't shoot the messenger

We'd only do that on the field

I know they have to make money and get back their loses, but what the chance of them reducing the premiums once they have done. Have to wait for increased competition again

Alien

 

[nutz]

possible solution

maybe site owners should be looking for independant underwriters who will grant insurance for sites with zero claims and low risk due to good risk management, i think the ukpsf should be looking for alternatives rather than just one insurance company covering all the sites in the uk. what if they went bust, we would have to find another and damm quick, or a federation of sites get together and get their own policy (grouped)
just some idea's

 

[smelly pete]

steve bull is definitley on the ball, if he can something , he will.

 

[Bully]

Insurance

The increases in insurance are nothing to do with paintball it is a problem with insurance companies wanting to recover the losses they have incurred due to Sept 11, floods, other weather related problems, no win no fee claims etc....................

There are a couple of sites whose insurance has been raised as a result of claims, this has gone up by a very large amount. All sites will find there insurance has increased but has your turnover increased and therefore your risk and therefore your insurance.

30% + is what I am told in areas once thought to be "safe" insurance. Paintball is a risk - try to insure a quad bike track or other risk events like a bouncy castle. (I was quoted a higher figure for a inflatable boxing ring than my paintball insurance last year!!)

The UKPSF has NOT put all their eggs in one baskets, there are two companies offering insurance for paintball, try them both. I have been approched by other insurance companies looking to get into paintball and then when they go to the undewriters they come up against the same brick wall - no one wants to take on any insurance that has a risk element they all want "safe" insurance. There could be another avenue and this will be a topic for discussion when the UKPSF have a site conference later this year.

Steve

 

[Fat Bob's Paintball]

The increase in Paintball insurance has only a small amount to do with Sept 11th, the main problem these days is the no win no fee solicitors who encourage people to sue for the most rediculous things.

Paintball is not that higher rist, I had a long conversation with an insurance expert this week who was phoning his steel erecting and scaffolding clients with excellent news, their insurance had only gone up 10 times this year.

The bad news that he had to give some clients was that they could no longer get insurance and must close their businesses.

Apparently it all stems from the insurance companies regulatory body (cant remember their name). An industry can only have a certain maximum risk (for example Paintball may be 30 million). When an industry is exposed to more than this maximum then the regulatory body steps in and orders the insurance companies to reduce their risk. This means reducing the number of companies that they will insure. The fewer they can insure legally, the more market fources take over (supply and demand) the higher the premium goes.

It will only be a matter of time before new paintball sites cannot get insurance (because it's too expensive) and only the larger ones will survive.

As a rule, 15% of turnover will become the norm.

ie. the site with the £120,000 turnover can expect to pay around £18,000 in the future.

However that's nothing compared to the Sh*t thats going to hit the fan when the majority of the paintball sites find that their insurance policy with Perkins Slade is a "calims made" policy, meaning that if they change insurers or stop trading they are personally liable for the next 6 years for any claim and Perkins Slade will not pay a penny.

andy