Equipment insurance

[txshutterbug]

I think this has been covered before, so forgive me ... but, each time I add more equipment, the more I wonder about whether or not it is covered by existing insurance that I have...

What do ya'll do about insuring your cameras, lenses, etc. against loss, theft, and especially accident?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Big Mike]

Currently, I have most of my gear covered by my homeowners insurance...well actually, it's all covered but I have a rider for most of it, so that it has a smaller deductible than my house etc. If & when I want to add more gear to the rider, I just have to update the policy (which increases the price).

For business insurance, I'm not sure how it works. Maybe you have to inform the company every time you add gear...or maybe you just need to keep a record of equipment (receipts etc) for when you make a claim.

A call to your insurance company should get you some answers.

 

[Christie Photo]

For business insurance, I'm not sure how it works.

It's pretty much the same. My gear is covered while in the studio. I have to provide a detailed list with serial numbers for coverage when the gear is out of the studio.

Pete

 

[droyz2000]

I had my parents take out extra homeowner's insurance while I am still in college. It is like $5 a month or something cheap like that. It covers my equipment for what I paid for it not what it is worth at that time.

 

[guitarkid]

You have to be careful with the homeowners thing since they may not cover it if it's out of the home on a shoot in the field. I have the business insurance through my State Farm agent who i also have homeowners and cars through. it's full coverage against accidents like if someone trips over cords or whatever (although i don't bring any) and all my gear outside of the home. i just took out the policy for how much gear I THINK will be out in the field at any given time outside of the office. i just had to email a list of what i own and it's up to me to update the list if i get more stuff.

good luck,
steve

 

[Kingpatzer]

Unless it is specifically spelled out in your contract, homeowner insurance does not cover equipment used for a home based business.

If you make $1 off of your gear from home, your gear is not covered by home owner's.

 

[guitarkid]

good point.....that is something to look into as well. i have all bases covered with mine so it's separate from homeowners. i don't remember but i think i pay something like $40 a month extra for the coverage.

steve

 

[darich]

i had a policy where unless anyone item was worth more than £1500 (or some other large amount) then it would be covered. i found that out when i asked about my cd collection of around 400 CDs. Individually none of them is worth more than about £20 but collectively it's more than the policy single item limit.
Insurer's told me that as long as none of the discs were particularly valuabler then the whole lot was covered as a matter of course.

I assume (and that may be dangerous) that it would be same for camera equipment. But every insurer and every policy is different so best thing to do is ask specific questions.

As a final point - before i left to go to NYC a few months ago i bought a broadsheet newspaper and photographed all my equipment sitting on the front cover with the date and headline clearly visible. The reason is because if my gear went missing or was stolen and i tried to claim several thousand pounds of equipment they might be reluctant to pay out.
Once i had a few shots of all my gear on the newspaper i emailed the images to my works email so that if the house was burgled and the pc stolen, the images were stored remotely.
I did the same with my CD cabinet - shot the shole cabinet in the living room.

A bit extreme but no great hardship or expense and it meant i would have a much stronger case in the even of a claim.