Land Insurance

If you own land that is not included in any property deeds, then you should consider land insurance.

You have a duty of care to anyone that enters your land.  If someone on your land suffers an injury or their property is damaged, you could be legally liable. 

Even trespassers can sue you.

The scope of your duty towards people on your land depends on their status:

1. Lawful visitors (and their property) are covered by the Occupiers Liability Act 1957

2. Trespassers are covered by the Occupiers Liability Act 1984.

These Acts say that a reasonable occupier (i.e. the landowner) has to take more care for lawful visitors than for trespassers. But trespassers are still owed a duty of care.

You will have a higher duty of care to prevent injuries to children, as they are less careful than adults.

If you want to read more about this, Local Government Lawyer has written an article explaining this in more detail, called The Liability of Occupiers.

Land insurance is not a complex insurance product.  It is effectively a public liability insurance for land.

The policy provides protection to the landowner against third party claims for injury, death or damage to property suffered whilst on your land.

In the event of a claim, the insurance policy pays for your legal defence.  In the event a claimant is successful, the insurance policy pays for any damages and costs awarded by the court.

If you are a land owner, it is important to consider insuring land. In the absence of insurance, the cost of defending a claim and paying damages could be significant.

On the other hand the cost of a land insurance policy is relatively inexpensive. Plus it gives you the peace of mind that your are protected should there be a valid claim.

Our minimum premium is just £106 (plus Insurance Premium Tax, based on the cost of someone insuring up to 5 Acres of grazing land for a £1 million indemnity.

The cost is influenced by:

• The type of land you are insuring;

• How many acres of land you need to insure;

• How much cover you need; and

• If the land is used to generate some sort of revenue .

If you buy a policy from Insuristic you can insure your landowners liability for £1 million, £2 million or £5 million.

Private individuals

We’ve already mentioned that someone who owns land that isn’t included in their property deeds should consider arranging liability insurance for land.  Perhaps you own some grazing land or a development site somewhere.

You can arrange land insurance in your name or in joint names.

An Executor or Administrator of an Estate (During Probate)

If a deceased person owned land in their name that wasn't included in the property deeds for their home you should consider arranging insurance. A landowner has a duty of care to prevent injury to anyone on their land. This liability would pass to the estate during probate.

As such, the executors should insure the Estate against the risk of third party claims from people who were injured or had their property damaged on the land.

In this situation, the land can be insured in the name of the estate.  The Insured name will either be:

• The Executors of the estate of 'Name of the Deceased' (if there is a will)

• The Administrators of the estate of 'Name of the Deceased' (if there is no will)

This is easy to do when you get a quote from Insuristic.  We will remind you of the correct way to enter the insured name when you get to that point in the land liability insurance quote.

Business

As a business owner, you may own land that isn’t included in the land deeds or covered by your main business insurance policy. 

Such as where you have a private road, car park or development site.

You can insure land in the name of your business with Insuristic online in a couple of minutes.  If you have multiple sites, these can all be insured on separate policies.

Council or local authority

Councils and local authorities are responsible for lots of land.  Whether that be woodland, moorland, private roads, development sites you can insure these easily with Insuristic. 

We can insure up to 20 acres online without referral to our underwriters.  Our underwriters will consider larger areas.

Trust or Charity

If you are trustee you can arrange liability for land in your care.  The land can also be insured in the name of the trust or charity.

If you need advice:

You can arrange a call back with one of our insurance advisors at SJL Insurance. Please contact us and will we arrange a call as soon as possible.

The owners of land must regularly asses the risks it poses to visitors and trespassers. This should include a written risk assessment.

If you identify any risks to people who could be on your land (lawfully or otherwise), you should have a strategy for minimising or removing these risks. This could be making the area safe or inaccessible e.g. fencing off the area.

Evidencing a thorough and regularly reviewed risk assessment can useful in the event of a claim.

There are a couple of cases in the courts, sadly involving the death of a visitor to land, where both landowners were found not guilty. In both cases, the court felt the landowners had adequate risk management and risk assessments in place. Both incidents were deemed unforeseeable.

• Bowen v National Trust: the court found that the Trust’s risk assessment for cutting trees and prioritising remedial pruning of damaged trees was reasonable, even though a falling branch had killed one child and injured three others.

• Micklewright v Surrey County Council: The Court held that the Council was not liable for negligence when a diseased tree branch overhanging a public parking space, broke and fell causing fatal injuries.

If you want to read more on the detail of these cases, Harold Stock and Co have written a useful article called Occupier’s Liability: What Do The Courts Consider To Be Reasonable And Appropriate Maintenance?.

The cases mentioned above demonstrate the need for landowners to regularly assess the risks and dangers on their land, and have a strategy to deal with them. A documented risk management plan could be used to defend the landowner in the event of a claim.

Your risk assessment should include a list of each obvious danger. Against each danger, you should note:

• The location of each danger or hazard

• How visible it is (particularly if not visible at night)

• The frequency the area is visited, which may be high if the land has a public right of access or is located within a residential area.

  • Why people might be visiting the area, including any activities they may be undertaking

  • Who is likely to be visiting the area. Remember, you have a higher duty of care to prevent injury to children.

• The likelihood of injury or damage to property

• The consequences of something happening

• What you can do or have done to prevent injury or damage to property. Plus how effective your risk management is in this regard.

A trespasser is not owed the same duty of care as that of a visitor who is on your land with your permission.

Under the Occupiers Liability Act 1984, protecting non-visitors is limited to you taking 'such care as is reasonable to ensure the trespasser does not suffer injury on your land.'

There are three conditions that must be met for the courts to deem the landowner liable for injury to trespassers:

1. The landowner must know of the danger or believe a danger exists;

2. The landowner knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that a trespasser may come into the vicinity of danger; and

3. If it was reasonable for the landowner to offer some protection against the risk of a trespasser going into an area of danger.

Other relevant factors that will be considered by the court:

• How serious of the risk to injury is

• The type of trespasser

• The type(s) of activity that could be undertaken on the land

If your land contains watercourses such as brooks, canals, rivers or lakes you should consider installing adequate lifesaving equipment.

Where your land has water on it, your insurance policy may include a clause that makes having lifesaving equipment a condition of the policy. If you do not have this, any claim related to injury or death caused by water on your land may be excluded.

You should check your insurance policy and ensure you can comply with the conditions it contains.

A warning notice may not limit your liability to injury to others, particularly if the owner of land is also a business. A business cannot add to a notice any exclusion of liability for death or personal injury.

But warning notices can demonstrate that the landowner has considered the risks and dangers to people on the land. In certain circumstances, a notice can help in the defence of a claim. For example, if there a sufficient notices highlighting the risks on the land, it could be argued that visitors took responsibility for their own safety.