Insurance for renting items

daveyp1471

Hi, I was looking at renting certain gadgets through my small business and wondered if there was a specific type of insurance that would insure the items I rented out?
Many thanks
Dave

lincroft1710

You should definitely have insurance which covers you should the renter suffer injury or damage to their property because of the failure of the gadget. This is a form of product liability insurance.

Insuring the gadgets against damage or theft is advisable if they are worth more than any deposit you could reasonably take. Several major insurance companies offer this service or speak to a broker.

paddyrg

It's quite common in my industry to push the insurance burden onto the hiring party as your policy cannot insure your nice camera against a random renter from trying to hammer nails in with it. The alternative is to take a deposit to cover the entire repurchase amount.

One thing that's important is that if you do lose a piece of kit and have any other hires coming up, you will need to cross-hire from another supplier or lose the hire - this should also be protected in the insurance/deposit. Less important for a short lead item like a DSLR, essential for a custom inflatable where the replacement is a 6-week custom build.

daveyp1471

Thanks for your advice!