GatherGuard Provides Special Event Coverage

From parks to amphitheaters to meeting rooms, many cities and towns offer venue rentals for special events. These facilities can expose the municipality to liability if someone at the event is hurt or if any property is damaged. 

For example, if a child is injured while playing at a rented space at a city park during a birthday party, could the city be sued? If a wedding party gets too raucous and the venue ends up damaged, who is responsible for paying for the damages? Liability insurance providers will often exclude this type of exposure from a city’s policy. 

For this need, the SC Municipal Insurance Trust and SC Municipal Insurance and Risk Financing Fund offer GatherGuard, which provides low-cost general liability insurance for event rentals of a venue, protecting both the event host and the municipality as an additional insured entity. Sponsored by the National League of Cities, GatherGuard replaces the Tenant User Liability Insurance Program, previously known as TULIP. 

Because of the importance of this kind of coverage, those cities and towns that are not SCMIT or SCMIRF members need to consider other programs for rental and event coverage for renters of city facilities. 

The event host pays premiums for the coverage based on the type of event, its duration, the number of attendees and the risk level of the event. It can provide up to $1 million of coverage for bodily injury and property damage, with liquor liability available. 

The process begins with municipal staff directing a potential event host to GatherGuard to answer a few questions to get a quote and purchase the coverage. GatherGuard then emails the insurance certificate to the municipality and event host.