Tennis clubs and venues

Registered tennis clubs and venues are provided with a combined liability policy as an automatic member benefit

As part of your registration with the LTA, members clubs and venues are automatically provided with insurance covering various types of claims that can be made against the club (including the cost of legal fees).

The policy covers:

Public Liability insurance – £60m each and every claim

Public liability cover protects the club and its committee against a claim made against you for injury (physical and/or mental) or property damage/loss suffered by a third party, for example a visitor to your club.

The policy limit is £60m per year, with sub-limits set as caps on various types of claims. For full details, see the policy schedule.  

Public liability cover also includes:  

• Abuse - protection for damages awarded against the organisation, up to £10m (each and every claim and per policy year, including costs)

Employers' Liability insurance - £10m each and every claim

A legal requirement for any club with at least one employee, Employers’ Liability covers the club or committee if they are held liable for an injury suffered by an employee during the course of their work.  

The policy includes injuries to volunteers and the maximum limit of cover is £10million per year or per any one claim.

Director's & Officer's insurance (D&O) - £1m each and every claim and each year

Club committee members can be sued for their actions, potentially even by the club itself. All club committee members have a personal liability for any claim that is made against the club for breach of duty, maximum of £1m any one claim/per policy year.

Examples of breach of duty include:

• Mismanagement of club finances
• Breach of fire safety regulation
• Corporate manslaughter

If you feel your venue should arrange a higher limit of cover please contact us to discuss your requirements and arrange a quotation. 

See a copy of the Directors and Officers policy schedule here.

Professional indemnity - £10m each and every claim and each year

Professional Indemnity insurance protects venues and coaches for claims arising out of Errors or Omissions in respect of the professional advice, including instruction that they give whilst coaching. Coverage is up to up to £10million (per claim and per year).

This includes defamation, including Libel and Slander cover, up to £10m

In addition, National, County and Island Associations and certain other representative bodies may be covered for damage to or loss of Property, including business interruption cover. Please see your policy schedules or speak to Howden to confirm this.

Who is covered by the LTA policy?

• All National, County and Island Associations
• All venues & programmes formerly registered to the LTA as places to play through their National, County or Island Association
• Committees, members and coaches of members clubs registered to the LTA as Venue (formerly known as places to play)
• Members of LTA Coach Accreditation or Accreditation+
• LTA Advantage Compete members
• LTA approved County & District Leagues and their committees 

The LTA policy covers venues with regard to their liability towards anyone on site, including members, non-members, visitors, contractors and members of the public.

The difference with members is they are themselves covered if they cause an injury and are sued, whereas that cover isn’t provided to non-members. So the registered venue is covered in respect of P&P members if they are injured, but they are not covered personally. If a visitor such as a P&P visitor injured another person and was sued, they wouldn’t be covered, themselves for any compensation they had to pay, whereas if they were a member of the club they would be.

Who is not covered?

Insurance is subject to the LTA Venue Registration package type.  This is explained and highlighted in the package benefits when purchased within the LTA Venue Registration portal.

Local Authorities should arrange their own insurance cover. Please give Howden a call to discuss your requirements.

What activities are covered?

The insurance covers a wide range of activities related to the venue/registered venue, including:

• Organised tennis activities including training, tournaments and competitions
• Social, fundraising and administrative duties
• A registered venue which borrows, rents or leases premises for sporting or social purposes and is held liable for any damage to the facilities
• Courses, where the course is taking place at the registered venue or an alternative venue (e.g. school) and whether or not the participants are members of the registered venue, if the course is delivered by the club's employed coach

Some important exclusions

Local authority venues

Local authorities needs to arrange their own insurance please speak to Howden.

Multi-sport venues may have some sports and activities excluded

A number of registered venues are multi-sports venues. The LTA policy features multi-sport cover that applies to all Venues EXCEPT those in the Commercial, Local Authority and Education packages.  These venues should arrange their own insurance cover for all their activities. 

Cover is provided for all racquet sports (including general physical training for tennis) and other sports/ activities UNLESS specifically excluded (see below) or where specific cover for those sporting activities is available through a direct affiliation to the relevant National Governing Body. 

Activities specifically excluded are:

Football, Rugby, Hockey, Cricket ), any Martial Arts (including self-defence classes but excluding boxercise and body combat), Rowing, Sailing, Canoeing, Windsurfing, Scuba Diving, any Equestrian Sports, any Airborne Sports, Rock Climbing/Mountaineering, Abseiling, Bungee Jumping, Potholing, Zorbing, any Motor Sports. 
NB. Football, indoor quick cricket and tag/touch rugby are covered if they are organised as part of a tennis coaching session or as a fitness method for players under the guidance of an LTA Accredited+ coach.

All activity should be delivered by appropriately qualified coaches

If the club is contracting an external coach or personal trainer to deliver non-racket sports sessions the club must ensures that the coach has the appropriate insurance for the activities that they are running.

This should form part of the contract for services between the club and the coach; the club should confirm the appropriateness of the cover by obtaining a copy of the instructor’s insurance documents. 

Self-employed coaches are not covered by the Clubs and Venues policy, but should be covered by other policies provided to them by the LTA

Any self-employed coach will not be covered by the venue insurance but if they LTA Accredited they will be covered for tennis activity by the LTA Accredited coaches cover.

Property insurance

While affiliation to the LTA does provide cover for your liabilities, your club has much more to protect, we provide LTA-approved property insurance that is tailored to your club.  Click here to find out more.