Camera Gear Insurance
Quite often we all want the newest and greatest gear, but like most people...we are not made of money.
So the gear we save up to buy, we sometimes think...because its so expensive, I may as well try and make money from it, by hiring it out as well as make money on the shoots you get booked for.
But panic kicks in, what happens if someone steals it, breaks it, or its gets stolen from them on a shoot.
So, As I hire out my RED Scarlet with a few other things...I get asked quite often about how I hire my gear out, do I take deposits, what happens if it breaks while on hire.
Hopefully this will help out anyone looking to do something similar ...whether its a camera, lens, steadicam etc
First of all, get insurance before hiring anything out...even if its your best buddy or someone you kinda know on Facebook. If they break it and you have no insurance...well you now have no camera anymore.
I am with Towergate...they pretty much cover everything which is awesome.
http://www.towergatecamerasure.co.uk/
Email Daniel Smith for some info, just say I sent you ..email is here: Daniel.smith@towergate.co.uk
Daniel is very helpful and should get the ball rollin for you
Towergate also cover other situations which is great too ...
what do I mean by that...ok
Say you have a shoot or wedding coming up, but you are sick, really sick. Towergate will cover you so the wedding couple can't sue you for no product
As weddings, well you dont really have any leeway as they can't just re-schedule their wedding haha
Just make sure they have a copy of your insurance
.....
Back to making the right choices with camera/gear insurance...make sure you do the following
Get a copy of a driving license, ID, passport and home address for the person hire the gear
If they steal it or break it and towergate go to cover you but you have no info what so ever...claiming anything back will just make things too tricky for you.
Make sure the person hiring the gear also gets insurance to cover the gear if it gets broken (they can get a 1 day insurance claim)
not sure if towergate gate do this
But Towergate do cover 3rd Party, which means they will cover the damage, stolen camera from someone hiring the gear
but because they cover the person hiring, still try your best to make sure they still get their own insurance
Towergate also cover your gear while abroad...just give them a heads up when you are shooting away, makes things easier if any damage, stolen etc
Payment...get at least half up front for a deposit, half of what your hiring for. But then the full amount after the shoot without adding it to the deposit.
This is due to cover you for any small issues, broken lens caps, broken bag etc etc. If nothing is broken then transfer the deposit back to them
Try and get everything paid by bank transfer, helps for insurance reasons. If not just make sure you invoice them for the funds for your records
· The Camerasure scheme can cover photographers who hire out their equipment with a limit of £10,000 equipment hired out at one time.
· A specialist hirers policy is available to equipment hirers.
· The Professional Indemnity will certainly cover photographers who are struck down with a serious illness/ hospitalised shortly before a wedding (with no opportunity to arrange a replacement photographer); however, non-appearance needs to be due to a very good reason (appendicitis, broken limbs etc).
· UPDATE - Good news! Towergate also now support short term hired-in equipment insurance that you mention. (For frequent hire, an annual policy is also available).
Now..How do you get your gear to people hiring it?
I try my best to drop it off and pick it up...this is good for 2 things.
You get to meet the person using your gear and it saves you hassle on getting it to them and back to you for shoots on time.
When you can't, obviously try the usual, UPS, FedEx, Citylink, Yodel etc etc
Unfortunately...you can never tell how the delivery people will treat your gear but...lucky enough at this point you have insurance haha.
Hope this helped :)
Also, would appreciate it a lot of you can click on the link below and save the image
Please use me as a Referral if you plan on using Towergate, thanks :)