A question you probably have not encountered before.

[Mr. Halloween]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Alabama

Like the title says, you probably haven't encountered this question before. I am a Halloween fanatic, as you can probably tell by my screen name.I have worked at a couple of different professional haunted house attractions in the past decade, gaining quite a network of professional special effects artists. One of my usual prop and special effects suppliers, who has worked with me for the past few years,offered to sponsor me to run a haunt attraction this year. The only thing stopping me at the moment is that I have to have a business license to run something like this on my property, and I believe that I have to have insurance coverage. I have consulted one attorney, and he never gave me a straight answer, so I decided to try to find the answers I need on the internet. Can anyone advise me on the type of business license I need to acquire, as well as the type of coverage I should have? We are talking about running this attraction as a not-for-profit organization, either as a food bank or as a children's charity. Any legal advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Alex23]

How did the daylight saving time change affect the Halloween business?

 

[justalayman]

lot's of insurance. lot's of it.

I live near a small haunted attraction.

www.haunted.org/

it's just a small place (44 acres) and they have had a few guests (1,100,000 since inception) and is a non-profit org.

they have lots of insurance. While I do not remember any serious injuries over the years, there are plenty of simple injuries such as when people run into a wall or trip in the dark and receive minor cuts, contusions, or abrasions.

Ultimately, you do need to consider the possibility there may be a serious injury such as a broken bone or a finger stuck in somebody's eye. There are a lot of possibilities and unless you are willing and able to pay any subsequent court award out of your pocket, insurance is your friend.

I suspect your state may have a minimum liability insurance requirement for such an activity.


So, to your situation:

you need to speak with the local government to inquire as to any licensing required for your area. You may have zoning issues up the wazoo. You also need to check with your state as to any applicable licensing. I would think, depending on the tax laws of your state, that a tax license may be required (so you can collect, report, and transfer sales tax to the state) as well as the possibility of any state required liability insurance.

In my area, the fire marshall takes great interest in such projects. If improperly implemented, they can be death traps should something happen. If you read on the site listed, you may notice our small house for youngsters was closed since the local fire marshall etc, deemed the building did not meet fire codes. Proper egress and emergency lighting is always a major point. In our situation, sprinklers were really the death of the small house though.

 

[Mr. Halloween]

Thanks for the fast responses. I knew I would have to have the insurance, but was unsure of the type. What I mean is, do I need personal injury insurance, or is there an umbrella type coverage that would be better for this type of thing? I'm sure that these are newbie questions that you guys have to answer quite often, and I apologize for the repetition. I did search, but wasn't finding the answers I needed. Also, would it be a good idea to have very prominent signage stating that someone's presence on the property is consent to certain things that are recognized liabilities, or are those signs worthless? Again, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to answer my questions.

 

[justalayman]

a person cannot waive an unknown. As such, unless you post a sign stating that a bloody lip may result from entering the premises, your signage would be of little use if they got a bloody lip.

It is never a bad idea to attempt to limit ones liability via this method though. Sometimes if prevents a person from taking an action. Sometimes it does provide enough notice to escape liability.

The warning of specific dangers may provide some limitations but be aware, there are often specific requirements of size and placement of such a notice that may have a great effect on your ability to depend on the warnings to protect you.

as to the proper insurance; you really need to speak with an insurance rep so as to purchase a policy that will cover you under most situations. A general liability policy would be what you are after but even with that, there are many inclusions, exclusions, and exceptions that need to be addressed. Many of them depend on the exact situation involved.

the problem with attempting to answer your question is that there are so many variables possible that you really need to speak to the actual agencies that will have control or input to the situation. That would be your state licensing agency (business license), the states treasury department (taxes), your local zoning agency, your local business licensing office and your insurance agent.

 

[Mr. Halloween]

You actually just answered one of my biggest questions, justalayman. I was wondering if the signage should be very specific, or if it should be purposefully vague. From your answer, I take that it should be specific. I also appreciate your advice about contacting the governing agencies as far as licensing and zoning.