You are right Joan, or Keith, letting guests use anything of yours beyond the insured space is a risk. Waivers may not stand up in law. If you wish to let the guest use an article of yours in a public space you must have in writting that the insurer accepts liabilty cover for the specific article.
Let me digress and tell you a story........
Three years and four months ago my daughter purchased a 'NEW' Holden Captiva from Col Crawford Holden of Brookvale on Sydney's northern beaches.
She was talked into accepting what she thought was an extended factory warranty at the time of sale....how wrong she was!
EXTENDED FACTORY WARRANTIES DO NOT EXIST!!
What an extended warranty is, it is an agreement with an insurance company to accept liability for some aspects of the manufacture of a new (or used) vehicle after the car builders (or statutory authorities) component of the warranty has expired. And the coverage offered under these extended agreements is severely limited. It is not a warranty, it is an adjudicated decision by an insurance company to possibly cover reimbursement in some situations.
The problem is, the new car purchaser thinks they are being covered by the vehicle manufacturer, and nowhere in the sales agreement was it pointed out that an insurance company (Allianz) would be involved in covering this particular vehicle at any point over the 5 year warranty period.
Three years and two months (70,000 Kms after purchase this vehicle which had been log book serviced since new by certified Holden dealers, started to mix engine coolant with engine oil, an error code kept coming up on the dash panel and after being told by two Holden dealers nothing was wrong with the vehicle, it was returned to the place of purchase, Col Crawford Holden.
It took them two weeks and four days to diagnose that there was in fact a problem with this engine and that it had a 'faulty' (their words) head gasket. Subsequent investigation by NRMA personnel has confirmed that this is a known issue with this particular Holden vehicle model.
By now, a pattern was forming here! Holden dealers did not want to get involved because they knew the vehicle was out of factory warranty, and that extended warranties did not apply to the fault this vehicle had developed. They understood that if they got involved, a fight over payment for their services would ensure so they all fobbed the problem off and simply said it was normal for this type of vehicle to loose engine coolant.
Extended warranty insurers will only offer coverage on things that are not likely to break down!
The owner, my daughter Kate, was eventually told by Col Crawford Holden that there would be a substantial cost ($2,000) involved to replace this head gasket as ALLIANZ, the insurer, do not cover Seals or Gaskets as part of their insurance risk.
The vehicle was sitting in the premises of Col Crawford Holden for 6 weeks in an un-repaired state because nobody wants to take responsibility for a faulty product. Eventually statuary authorities were involved and a repair took place that has not fixed the problem...same error code keeps coming up!
Insurance is a minefield, we all want cheaper policies but, we can't burn the candle at both ends......the cheaper the premium, the less the coverage. Make sure you know what you are covered for!
Bicycles in a public space are a receipe for disaster!
Cheers.....Rob
