Music school insurance
Lessons, rehearsals and open days bring people through your doors. Insify covers what you owe them if someone is hurt or something of theirs is damaged.
Public Liability from €7.55 per month, with a cover limit of up to €6.5 million per claim.
Business insurance, done differently.
Fully online business insurance in Ireland.
A few questions and you're covered.
No lock-in, no long contracts.
Excess from €0, up to €6.5 million of cover.
Why take out business insurance as a music school?
You teach in rooms full of people, cables, and instruments. Here is why cover matters:
Someone is hurt during a lesson. A child trips over a cable run to an amp, a music stand goes over, or a parent slips in the waiting area.
You damage a room or equipment that isn't yours. A parish hall, a hired rehearsal room, a school hall, a community centre in Sligo or Cork. That's the optional third-party objects and sites cover, up to €5,000 per claim.
Public liability covers what you owe the other party, up to your cover limit. Halls, landlords, schools and local authorities regularly want to see a certificate before they'll give you a room or a slot.
What is Public Liability insurance?
If a pupil, a parent or a member of the public holds you responsible for injuring them or damaging their property, public liability insurance covers what you owe them, up to your cover limit.
What does it cover?
Injury or property damage caused to others in the course of your teaching. You choose a cover limit of €1.25 million, €2.5 million or €6.5 million per claim, and up to twice that amount across an insurance year. Optional covers can be added: Employers' Liability (€13 million per claim) if you employ teachers, and Third-party objects and sites for damage to premises or equipment belonging to others that are in your care (up to €5,000 per claim).
Cover that fits your school
You describe your activities fully at sign-up, and your cover matches what you actually do: individual tuition, group classes, ensemble rehearsals and the rooms you teach in.
Your excess
The excess is the part of a claim you pay yourself. The options are €0, €250, €500, €1,000 and €2,500, with €0 and €250 available up to €500,000 annual revenue. Above that the minimum is €500.
Is it mandatory?
Public liability isn't required by law in Ireland. However, many halls, landlords, schools, local authorities and public tenders require proof of cover before you can teach in their space. Cover starts from €7.55 per month.
Who needs it?
Any music school teaching pupils in person, whether in your own studio, a hired hall or a room in a school.
What does our insurance cover for music schools?
Our cover for music schools is built around public liability, with optional covers you can add to match your situation.
Public liability: Protects you if a pupil, a parent or another third party suffers an injury, or their property is damaged, in the course of your teaching. It takes care of your defence costs and any compensation due. You choose a cover limit of €1.25 million, €2.5 million or €6.5 million per claim.
Employers' Liability (optional): If you employ teachers or administrative staff, this covers your liability as an employer, with a limit of €13 million per claim. It isn't compulsory in Ireland, but it is what answers a claim from an employee injured at work.
Third-party objects and sites (optional): Covers damage to equipment or premises belonging to others that are in your care, such as a hall you hire by the hour or a piano that is not yours, up to €5,000 per claim.
What's covered
Injury or damage you cause to others in the course of your work.
Teaching and coaching in the arts: music schools and teachers, theatre lessons, painting and drawing lessons, acting coaching.
Performing: acting, theatre, music, dance, opera, stand-up, spoken word and mime.
The rooms you teach in: your own or ones you hire.
Public liability cover: injury or damage caused to third parties in the course of your work
Optional: Employers' Liability if you employ people (€13 million per claim)
Optional: Third-party objects and sites, for damage to premises or equipment of others in your care (€5,000 per claim)
Organising events
Work for associations and foundations.
Customers' items left with you for work. Only if you haven't added third-party objects and sites.
Cover and exclusions shown are indicative and non-contractual. Only the terms of your policy apply.
Claim examples for music schools
During a group class, a pupil trips over a cable running to a keyboard amp and breaks a wrist. The family holds your school responsible, and public liability covers your defence costs and the compensation due.
A parent waiting in your reception area slips on a floor that has just been mopped and injures a shoulder. Public liability answers the claim for the injury and the loss of earnings.
While moving equipment in a parish hall you hire by the hour in Co. Kildare, one of your teachers knocks over and damages the hall's upright piano. The optional Third-party objects and sites cover takes care of the damage to the hall's property.
During a group class, a pupil trips over a cable running to a keyboard amp and breaks a wrist. The family holds your school responsible, and public liability covers your defence costs and the compensation due.
A parent waiting in your reception area slips on a floor that has just been mopped and injures a shoulder. Public liability answers the claim for the injury and the loss of earnings.
While moving equipment in a parish hall you hire by the hour in Co. Kildare, one of your teachers knocks over and damages the hall's upright piano. The optional Third-party objects and sites cover takes care of the damage to the hall's property.
Examples are for illustrative purposes only. Compensation depends on the exact circumstances of the claim. No rights can be derived from these examples.
Your business insurance with Insify SmartGuide
Taking out insurance can be quick. Making sure you have the right cover is another matter. With Insify SmartGuide, you don't sign a contract blindly. You ask all your questions, and get clear, immediate and personalised answers, before you take out a policy.
Are you covered if you accidentally damage a client's equipment while working?
What excess should you choose?
Are you protected in the event of a dispute with a client?
Insify SmartGuide guides you step by step to understand what's covered, what isn't, and why. In just a few clicks, you build insurance that's truly tailored to your business, with complete confidence. Try Insify SmartGuide. Understand your insurance before you need it.
How to choose the right insurance as a music school?
Choosing well means weighing up a handful of things that matter more in music teaching than they do elsewhere.
Criteria to compare:
The cover offered: Match it to how you actually teach. One-to-one tuition, group classes, ensemble rehearsals and lessons run in a hired hall are different situations, and every one of them needs to be declared. Damage cover concerns property belonging to other people, such as a hall you hire or an instrument that is not yours.
The price: Compare premiums, but read what sits behind an unusually low one. A policy that excludes part of how you teach is not good value.
The excess: Know what stays at your own expense when a claim happens, because it changes both what you pay each month and what a small claim is actually worth to you.
The exclusions: Watch for disciplines you never declared, a teaching model that has quietly changed, and any activity that is closer to running an event than to giving a lesson.
The service: Choose an insurer you can reach and that understands teaching. At Insify, our online support team knows the specifics of your work.
Mistakes to avoid: Do not settle for a generic business policy that was never written with a teaching room in mind, and do not leave a side of the school undeclared because it only started this term. To secure your business today, discover our Public Liability insurance.
More than 40,000 entrepreneurs trust us
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Very friendly, quick and thorough. It gives me real confidence in taking out the cover. The company feels genuinely transparent, exactly what I look for. You don't find that often.
When I had to make a claim, I was amazed how quickly and efficiently it was handled. Within a few days I had a resolution.
The cover itself was sorted quickly, and when I later needed support I got that fast too.
Answers to your questions about our insurance for music schools
Public liability for a music school starts at €7.55 per month with Insify. What you actually pay depends on your annual revenue, how many people you employ, the cover limit you pick and the excess you accept. A single teacher running lessons from one room sits near the bottom of the range, and a school with several employed teachers and a hired hall sits higher. Choosing a higher excess brings the premium down, because you take on more of a small claim yourself. You see your own price before you commit, and there is no long-term contract, so you can cancel any day.
Public liability isn't required by law in Ireland. In practice it is close to unavoidable for a music school, because the people who give you a room tend to insist on it. A parish or community hall will usually ask before it confirms a booking, a landlord normally makes it a condition of the lease, a primary or secondary school will ask before you teach on its premises, and a local authority will ask when you apply for a permit or a market pitch. Public tenders commonly specify a €6.5 million public liability limit. Since children and parents are in your building every week, the practical case for cover is stronger here than in many trades.
Yes, that is the core of what public liability does. If a pupil is injured in the course of your teaching and someone holds your school responsible, public liability meets the compensation and the cost of defending the claim, up to the cover limit you chose. You pay your excess and the policy covers the rest. What it does not do is answer a claim brought by one of your own staff: an injured employee is what Employers' Liability is for, and you can add that to the policy.
Employers' liability is not compulsory in Ireland, unlike in the UK. It is still the cover that answers a claim from an employee injured at work, and at Insify it is an optional addition to your public liability policy rather than a separate product, with a limit of €13 million per claim. Whether you need it depends on how your school is set up. If your teachers are genuinely self-employed and invoice you, they carry their own cover. If you employ them, including part-time and casual teaching hours, this is the first thing to add.
Teaching a class in your own room or in a hall you hire is your insured activity and is covered. Organising an event is excluded. Putting on a recital, a showcase, an end-of-term concert or a competition as the organiser sits outside this cover, even though the teaching that led up to it is inside it.
No. Associations and foundations are excluded from this cover, and a good number of Irish music schools are constituted that way, so this is worth checking before you apply rather than after. If your school is a company or you teach as a sole trader, the exclusion does not affect you. If it is a registered association, a charity or a foundation, this policy is not the right fit and we would rather tell you now.
No. Insify's cover in Ireland is liability cover: it protects you against injury and damage you cause to other people and their property. It does not cover your own pianos, amplifiers, sheet music or premises against theft, fire or damage. Third-party objects and sites, an optional cover, deals with equipment or premises belonging to others that are in your care, up to €5,000 per claim, so a hall's piano is in scope and your own is not. For your own property you would need a separate arrangement.
The excess is the part of a claim you pay yourself. For example, if a claim settles at €4,000 and your excess is €500, you pay €500 and Insify covers the remaining €3,500. The options are €0, €250, €500, €1,000 and €2,500, with €0 and €250 available up to €500,000 annual revenue. Above that the minimum is €500. A higher excess usually means a lower premium but more out of pocket when something happens, and a lower excess costs a little more each month and limits surprises. If your rooms are busy with children every week, a lower excess is often the easier one to live with.