The permit puts your name on the bar. Your policy decides what that costs.
A wedding, a fundraiser, a season opener, a market with a beer garden. The person who holds the Special Event Permit carries the responsibility for what happens at that bar, and an ordinary liability policy is not automatically written to answer for it. Expect the venue to ask for proof before it hands over the keys.
Tell us about the event Read the short answer firstIts holder carries the responsibility.
Serving alcohol is its own exposure.
Ask whether the venue needs to be named on the policy.
Do I need insurance to serve alcohol at an event in BC?
The permit and the insurance are two different things, and the permit does not include insurance. The Province is clear that a Special Event Permit brings duties with it, and the venue is usually the one insisting on the cover.
The Province puts it simply: “You have specific requirements and responsibilities with your Special Event Permit.” One of them is absolute. “It is against the law to provide liquor to a minor.” Another is easy to miss: the Province requires every permit holder, every event manager and everyone serving liquor at your event to hold valid Special Event Server or Serving It Right certification. Serving alcohol is where an event stops being a gathering and starts being an operation with a duty of care attached to it.
It is easy to think about the venue burning down and forget what happens at the bar. Host liquor liability is the cover that answers a claim against you for harm caused by someone you served. British Columbia is a special case worth knowing about. For accidents on or after 1 May 2021, sections 114 and 115 of the Insurance (Vehicle) Act bar most lawsuits for injury caused by a vehicle, so the drunk driving example does not work the same way here. The bar is limited to injury caused by a vehicle. Harm at an event that does not involve one is not affected, and how the bar applies to any one claim is a question for a lawyer rather than a broker. What is left is still real. The Province is blunt about who carries that. The permit holder is “responsible for controlling the event and the behaviour of attendees” and is “legally responsible for the event at all times”. Read the Province of British Columbia on permit holder responsibilities (opens in a new tab). Volunteers pouring drinks, a bar run by the committee, a licensed caterer brought in, all three sit differently. Say which one it is before anybody buys anything. Read the Province of British Columbia on special event permits (opens in a new tab).
Four things to settle before you book the venue.
Who is actually pouring
Volunteers, staff, or a licensed caterer. A caterer carries their own cover and their own training. A committee with a keg does not, and the difference matters to an insurer.
What the venue demands in writing
Ask the venue what it needs in writing. It may want a limit named, it may want to be added to your policy, and it will usually want the certificate before the date. Get their exact wording early rather than the week of the event.
Whether anyone is being paid
Tickets, sponsorship, a bar that takes money. Once an event has revenue it looks commercial, and cover written for a private party will not stretch over it.
What you brought with you
Sound gear, a marquee, tables, a bouncy castle, borrowed equipment. Damage to hired items is easy to leave out by accident.
Three events, three ordinary evenings. All three are illustrations, not client files.
The society fundraiser
Volunteers behind the bar, tickets at the door, a permit in the treasurer’s name. Nobody asked whether the society policy covered a bar, because nobody thought of it as one.
The wedding at the hall
The hall asked to be added to the policy fourteen days out. The couple had cover for the event but not the wording the hall wanted, and the week before a wedding is a bad time to find out.
The market with a beer garden
A one-day market that grew a licensed area. The permit changed, the number of people changed, and the policy still described the quiet version of the event.
The questions organizers ask.
The venue says I need liability cover. Is that the same as the permit?
No. The permit is permission from the Province to serve alcohol. The insurance answers for harm if something goes wrong. You normally need both, and the venue will usually check the second one.
Our caterer is licensed. Are we covered by them?
Their cover answers for their service, not for you as the organizer. Ask for their certificate, and still ask about your own. The two are not a substitute for each other.
It is a private party. Does any of this apply?
If there is a permit and a bar, the responsibility follows the permit holder. A home policy is not written for an event with a licensed bar at it, so tell us what is planned.
Can I get cover for one day only?
Yes. Single event policies are normal and are priced for the day, the numbers and the activity. Give us the date early, because some venues want the certificate weeks ahead.
What if the event is cancelled?
That is event cancellation cover, a separate part from liability. If deposits are large or the date is weather dependent, ask about it at the same time.
Two that sit next to this on the same site: whether a volunteer director can be sued personally, and when the walk-in fails on its own.
Not the question you had? Tell us what the event is and a licensed person will answer it. Use the short contact form.
Sort the cover before the venue asks for it.
Event cover is quick to arrange and slow to fix in a hurry. Send us the date and the venue’s wording and we will match it.