Parking Lot Playgrounds: Avoiding Liability

You can best protect yourself and your ministry from liability by not allowing neighborhood children to play in your parking lot. If that response is not a practical option for your church, here's what you can do to minimize the risk of liability:

  • Keep asphalt or concrete parking lots free of holes and large cracks.
  • Repair depressions in the parking lot where water or ice accumulate.
  • Post signs stating that persons not associated with the church who use church facilities do so at their own risk.
  • If you use cables or chains to block access to certain areas, cover them with 4-inch diameter yellow plastic tubing to increase visibility, or replace them with gates.
  • Paint parking stops, curbs, speed bumps, and other raised surfaces with yellow safety paint.
  • If you see children behaving improperly, or if the parking lot is needed for a church activity, ask the children to leave the property.