does alease agreement indemnify the owner of a property against liability?

Question

as a social off road buggy club we use private property for our outings the owner is worried about being sued if someone has an accident,as a club we have been unable to obtain public liability insurance that we can afford, if we lease the property can he be held responsible? also does a lease agreement need to be registered?

Answer 1

A general lease or rental agreement indemnifies property owners from some liabilities. For example, if your buggy club decided to build a jump ramp without the owners knowledge or permission. And one of your members was injured while using it, the owner would most likely not be liable.

On the other hand, if the property had a large, deep hole which was not properly marked with warnings and a fence, the owner would be liable for any injuries resulting from this hazard. The other thing you need to consider is what lawyers call the 4 corners rule.

This law says anything written on a square piece of paper representing the contract (hence, the 4 corners) is binding. Since the owner of the said property is concerned about lawsuits, he may want to take advantage of this by having a lawyer add specific language to your agreement absolving him of liabilities. But be careful, my advice is limited.

I am not a lawyer and do not know the rules for your state, county, etc. So, please contact a counselor specializing in property agreements. They should be able to help.

Good Luck!!
PS As far as I know, lease agreements do not need to be rregistered.

Answer 2

Not automatically. There's no "act of nature" in liability insurance. It's not in property coverage, either, LOL, it would be wind, or windstorm, or weight of ice and snow, bringing down the tree. If the tree(s) are healthy, and a huge tornado whips through causing the trees to come down on someone elses house or car, the owner of the tree is NOT liable - they didn't cause the wind. There's no "negligence", which is what you need, in order for there to be liability. If the trees are unhealthy or dead, AND YOU CAN PROVE THAT THE OWNER KNEW THAT, and the owner didn't take any steps to remedy the situation, then it's possible that their liability insurance WOULD cover the damage. Keep in mind a few things - it's damn hard to prove knowledge (a letter from YOU doesn't count - you'd need to have an arborist out to write that letter), or there might not BE any liability insurance in place, AND, there's an exclusion under the liability policy for "expected or intended damages". Which this certainly could be. In 25 years of insurance, I've never ONCE seen a homeowners or general liability policy pay a third party for damages from falling trees. Not once. So you need to insure your property yourself, so no matter WHOSE tree falls on it, it's covered.