Autumn is upon us and that means we will be visiting our favorite haunted attractions including haunted houses, hay rides and mazes.
You may be wondering what the typical coverages for these events are and where the biggest risks lie.
According to Ken Donat of Donat Insurance Services, LLC haunted houses aren’t as dangerous as one might assume.
“Haunted houses are very, very safe. I’ve been doing them a long time, probably since about 1995 and we’ve written a lot of haunted houses,” explained Donat. “Claims are mostly nothing major but you do get the small trip and fall claims. A couple teenage girls get scared and then run a little bit and trip. We don’t get any big claims, knock on wood.”
Bill Frazier of Frazier Insurance Specialty Brokers weighed in on the technicalities of haunted event coverages.
“Usually we have a special event application that covers a multitude of sins but when you get to the haunted things there are so many specific things that we actually have a haunted attraction application. We also have a ‘haunted warranty statement,’ where the owner or whoever the purchaser is signs a statement that there are certain things we won’t cover,” said Frazier. “
He continued, “For example, you can jump out at a patron to scare them but you can’t touch them. Usually we try to write one floor events but we can do multi-floor events, we just look at them closer. Again there are certain things like do you have hand-rails in certain places, do you have lighted stairs, we don’t allow drop floors or ramps and things where people can slip and fall.”
Generally these events are covered by general liability but interestingly usually do not include property coverages. Moreover, government entities sometimes have specific guidelines for these haunted attractions so it is worth researching what the specificities for your region are.
