Selling Alcohol as a social club-Legal concern

[Magnum27]

Greetings all i am part of a social golf club, basically a bunch of mates who get together once a month. For fundraising we have an esky that sells beer and other drinks to help cover costs. A fellow player raised the concern if we are selling without a license and an accident happened on the way home with one of the guys who purchased said alcohol, could the members of the committee be liable and possibly be charged or sued.

We are not a registered business or anything like that, and i have searched the internet without any luck for an answer, hopefully the good folk of Big footy can help.

 

[Taylor]

Greetings all i am part of a social golf club, basically a bunch of mates who get together once a month. For fundraising we have an esky that sells beer and other drinks to help cover costs. A fellow player raised the concern if we are selling without a license and an accident happened on the way home with one of the guys who purchased said alcohol, could the members of the committee be liable and possibly be charged or sued.

We are not a registered business or anything like that, and i have searched the internet without any luck for an answer, hopefully the good folk of Big footy can help.

You need a license to sell alcohol in Victoria unless you're a florist, a retirement village, hospital/nursing home, or the one that could actually work for you - gift basket sales. But you need to keep the volume of alcohol below 1.5L per basket, they have to look like a gift and you have to have bought the alcohol from a retailer.

The way you're describing it would require a license to sell alcohol for consumption if I read the act correctly.

A group of friends gathering, chipping in $20 each for the night and then happening to have $300 left over once the alcohol and pizza was paid might be a better structure for you.

 

[Magnum27]

You need a license to sell alcohol in Victoria unless you're a florist, a retirement village, hospital/nursing home, or the one that could actually work for you - gift basket sales. But you need to keep the volume of alcohol below 1.5L per basket, they have to look like a gift and you have to have bought the alcohol from a retailer.

The way you're describing it would require a license to sell alcohol for consumption if I read the act correctly.

A group of friends gathering, chipping in $20 each for the night and then happening to have $300 left over once the alcohol and pizza was paid might be a better structure for you.

Thank you for the reply, will need to have discussions with the boys at the club.

 

[Hawk Dork]

We sold drinks at our club but somehow used some pubs licence ?
It was above board just not certain of how it worked
Everyone had to have a Cert 3 in Responsible serving of alcohol even as a volunteer

Remember when you could only sell books on a Sunday in Melbourne, there was a guy selling books in the early 80s and you got a piece of furniture for free with every book its just the books were really expensive.

I remember a friend telling me in the days of early openers (1960s) you would go to certain pubs and buy a raffle ticket and win a free beer every time but the ticket cost as much as a beer

 

[Silent Alarm]

We sold drinks at our club but somehow used some pubs licence ?
It was above board just not certain of how it worked
Everyone had to have a Cert 3 in Responsible serving of alcohol even as a volunteer

Remember when you could only sell books on a Sunday in Melbourne, there was a guy selling books in the early 80s and you got a piece of furniture for free with every book its just the books were really expensive.

I remember a friend telling me in the days of early openers (1960s) you would go to certain pubs and buy a raffle ticket and win a free beer every time but the ticket cost as much as a beer

You couldn't do that with alcohol though.

'Buy a bag of $15 chips and get a free pint' is ripe for some litigation. Some bloke smashes his car up and you're getting stung for giving away alcohol. You can't do buy-one-get-one-free deals for example. I remember a pub giving away free pots of Footscray Ale when they won the flag. ******* stupid.

 

[Hawk Dork]

Im sure its all a bit of a legal minefield,those stories are decades ago, just have to work out how to make money without the sale of alcohol maybe sell food or raffles instead....still dont know if it would be legal to even allow BYO ???
We had events hungis , car rallies, markets etc to raise money,but the booze was a good money spinner.
We really were just trying to cover our running costs,insurance, lease, power, repairs and equipment,any extra created up grades in equipment and facilities.

Talk to council they might be able to put you onto someone who knows

 

[Silent Alarm]

Im sure its all a bit of a legal minefield,those stories are decades ago, just have to work out how to make money without the sale of alcohol maybe sell food or raffles instead....still dont know if it would be legal to even allow BYO ???
We had events hungis , car rallies, markets etc to raise money,but the booze was a good money spinner.
We really were just trying to cover our running costs,insurance, lease, power, repairs and equipment,any extra created up grades in equipment and facilities.

Talk to council they might be able to put you onto someone who knows

All of those examples I've used are things I've seen in the last five years. My local gives away a pint to everyone who's getting flogged in the pub trivia. They ask 'are you driving home?' as some sort of loophole or something but I know it'd be pretty out of line with the RSA guidelines.

You probably can't do BYO alcohol either because you need a licence for that as well. The dodgy Chinese down the road might get away with it somehow but they're also buying $25 cartons of Crownies and Tsingtaos out the back of vans too.