Protect your homeowner and condo owner association volunteers from the high cost of injuries, very inexpensively.

Most homeowner associations depend on volunteers. Unfortunately, even the best-run operations sometimes have volunteer injuries. Falls, for example. Injuries from the use of tools. Back injuries from lifting and carrying. Allergic reactions to bee stings or poison ivy. As you think about what your volunteers do, you might imagine how these injuries could occur on your watch. Maybe they already have.

Yes, your HOA has a general liability policy. Your insurance agent might have pointed out that the policy includes a “medical payments” provision that typically would pay $10,000 to $20,000 for treatment, if a volunteer or anyone else is injured on your premises. That sounds good.

But it isn’t!

If you have used medical services recently, you might know how stunning the cost can be, for the most routine services. The “throw-in” medical payments limits in your HOA policy can be exceeded quickly. If they are, and the volunteer has no other available insurance, he or she will be out of pocket for the difference.  Also, your directors and officers liability policy requires that the association maintain adequate insurance for its known risk exposures. For that reason alone, you shouldn’t risk an underinsured claim.

Even if your medical payments limits are sufficient, it’s likely your HOA insurance premiums will increase at the next renewal. No, it wasn’t your fault the volunteer was injured, but you still get a cost hike that wasn’t in your budget. No one on your board wants to hear that news.

If you agree that it’s not acceptable to rely on the medical payments provision in your HOA policy, but you want to do what’s right by the volunteer, consider the alternative that hundreds of other homeowner and condo owner associations have chosen – an accident medical policy designed exclusively for volunteers. If a volunteer is injured, the Volunteers Insurance Service accident policy will pay up to $50,000 for treatment of the volunteer’s injuries. If the volunteer has other insurance, ours is in excess of that, but would reimburse copayments and deductibles. If the volunteer has no other coverage, ours is primary, from the first dollar.

The cost?

It’s just $4.40 per volunteer per year. That’s less than the price of lunch, for an insurance policy that provides your volunteers a great benefit while insulating your HOA insurance policy from costly claims.

Here is a link to our online application on the Website of The CIMA Companies, the administrator of our volunteer insurance program  — https://www.cimaworld.com/form/vis-volunteers-insurance-service. Your exact cost is computed automatically for you on the application, so you have that information without even talking with anyone here. But if you do want to talk to a real person about the program before you make a decision, Jennifer Yarnell would love to hear from you. She is at 800.222.8920.

You’ll notice on the application that we also offer volunteer liability coverage in case volunteers accidentally injure someone or damage someone’s property. If some of your volunteers drive their personal vehicles as part of their assignments, we have something for them, too – an excess auto liability policy that can protect them from an out-of-pocket loss if they cause an accident.

All the information about what we offer is at http://www.cimaworld.com/nonprofits/cima-volunteers-insurance.

Please “stop by,” and see what we can do for you and your volunteers!