Public liability insurance for market stalls

Two policies, two jobs

Your organiser policy covers the market as an event — the site, the crowd, your equipment and staff. A stallholder's policy covers their stall: their gazebo taking off, their trestle collapsing, their product doing harm. One doesn't substitute for the other, which is why most markets require both.

Cover amounts are set by whoever asks for the certificate: councils and venues commonly require organisers to hold $10–20 million public liability, and markets typically ask stallholders for $10–20 million too. Confirm the numbers with your council and venue rather than borrowing another market's.

What to actually check on a certificate

• It's a certificate of currency — evidence the policy is in force now, not a quote or a schedule
• The named insured matches the person or entity behind the stall
• The cover amount meets your requirement
• The expiry date — a certificate that lapses mid-season is the common failure
• For food stalls: their food business registration with their local council, which is separate from insurance entirely

Some stallholders hold annual policies; casual traders often buy per-market cover through market-stall insurance schemes. Both are normal — what matters is the certificate, not how they bought it.

Collect it at application, not at the gate

The workable system is boring: insurance is part of the application, an application without it is incomplete, and expiry dates are tracked so renewals get chased before market day. On StallsApp, your market's application form collects the certificate and its expiry date up front, and the documents live with the stallholder's record where you can check them at approval time.

One honest caveat, and it applies to any software: a stored certificate is a document a stallholder uploaded, not a verified fact. StallsApp shows you what was provided and when it says it expires; confirming that a policy is genuine and current remains the organiser's responsibility — for the certificates that matter, a broker can verify with the insurer.