Equipment & Production Insurance

A service of United Agencies, Inc

Production Insurance Claims: True Story – Hired Auto Liability Claim

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One of the biggest complaints I receive comes when a location or a rental house ask my client to add Hired/Non-Owned Auto Liability (HNOAL) coverage to their policy. The client doesn’t feel it’s fair that they’re being asked to provide coverage for vehicles when there are no cars or rentals involved in their production. They always tell me that since there isn’t any exposure, then there’s no point in them wasting their money. What is the point of having HNOAL if you won’t ever need to make an auto liability claim?

auto liability claimWhy You Need Hired/Non-Owner Auto Liability Insurance

I’ve seen several HNOAL claims in my career, and most of those were from clients who didn’t want to buy the Hired Auto Liability Insurance.  Granted, most of those auto liability claims were small. For instance, a PA or intern gets in a car to go get some pizza or pick up a piece of gear, and they hit somebody on the way.

The intern argues that they were working for the production while on this trip. This means the auto liability claim falls under the HNOAL policy that’s in place. Sometimes the claim goes through their personal policy first and then your policy HNOAL as a secondary. However, the state minimum coverage in California for auto liability does not cover expensive damage or injuries. The law only requires $15k for injuries to others, with a $30k maximum per incident, and a $5k limit on damage to property. 

Those amounts don’t stretch very far if there is a big injury or if they totaled a nice vehicle. That’s when your HNOAL coverage comes in and covers the remainder of the auto liability claim.

True Story – Auto Liability Claim

I had a claim a few years back, which illustrates the need for HNOAL. Somebody was asked by the police to back a parked truck out of a spot and move it around the corner. They sent an inexperienced PA to move the truck. After all, what could go wrong if you’re just moving it around the corner?

Of course, the PA didn’t know how to drive a bigger vehicle and he backed right into the police cruiser! It turns out that LAPD was really easy to work with on this auto liability claim. We only ended up paying around $7k in damage to fix their vehicle. However, the driver’s personal insurance didn’t extend to a vehicle of this size, so his personal insurance never paid a dime.

There are lots of times when people think that auto liability coverage is only meant to cover vehicles that will be on camera, or that will be officially rented, but that’s not the case. Often these auto liability claims happen behind the scenes, and they occur because people are being careless.

Make sure you call me about adding HNOAL coverage so this stuff doesn’t happen to you!

Luke Gelineau United Agencies Welcomes you to the Equipment & Production Insurance website.

Myth & Fact: Insurance Certificates and Rental Contracts

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Myth: If I’m renting my equipment to someone, it’s OK to just get a certificate. I don’t need to get signed rental contracts.movie cameras

Fact: If you rent your equipment, you must require the renter to give you a certificate AND to sign your rental contract.

The type of document that an insurance agency issues more than anything else is a certificate. Our agency outputs tens of thousands of them per month, and the reason for that is simple: Certificates prove to other people that you have insurance. Let’s face it: Nobody would buy insurance from us just because they want to. The main reason that many people purchase insurance is that somebody requires it of them. If you need production insurance, the likely reason is that you are renting equipment, pulling a film permit, or securing a location. The most common reason that clients ask me for certificates is for equipment rental, but that’s where things get complicated. You also need rental contracts.

The Problem with Insurance Certificates

You see, a certificate doesn’t DO anything for the person to whom you give it. At the top of every standard ACORD certificate issued in this country, it states in big, bold letters:

“This certificate is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights upon the certificate holder.”

The document goes on to state that it does not extend or alter coverage in any way and that it does not constitute a contract between the holder and the insured. Many rental houses do not understand this. They think that if they get a certificate that names them additional insured and loss payee, then they are completely covered. However, if this is all they have, then the insurance company can easily refer to the words at the top of the certificate and point out to them that there is no contract between them and the renter. It’s just a piece of paper that tells somebody that they have insurance coverage, and that’s it.

The Solution is a Certificate AND Rental Contracts

So what do you do? You require that your renter also signs a rental contract. Most rental houses already have rental contracts, but they don’t always require the person renting to sign them. If you are renting out to anybody, you must demand that they sign the contract and give them the certificate. That then references the contract, and the contract refers to the cert, so once you have them together, then you have a properly executed legal agreement. If something happens, you can go straight to the insurance company listed on the certificate and start the claims process.

If you are a renter with questions of how to get proper certificates, or if you are a rental house with questions of what else you might need to request from your renter, feel free to contact us at Equipment and Production Insurance and we can help you out!

 

Production Insurance Claims: True Stories – General Liability Insurance

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short term general liability insuranceOver the years, I’ve written quite a few articles on the different production insurance options that our customers have with Equipment & Production Insurance. So far we’ve covered General Liability Insurance, Equipment Insurance, Hired Auto Insurance, Workers’ Comp, plus several more. I hope that many of you have gained some valuable insight through those articles. However, I understand it all gets a little confusing at times.

To help make production insurance easier to understand, we are going to put together a series of ‘real world’ examples. I will detail ACTUAL insurance claims that I’ve seen during my career. It’s one thing to read about insurance coverages, but it’s another to hear of what an actual customer had to go through. Hopefully, their experience can give you valuable insight into your production insurance needs. 

Production Insurance Claims: True Stories – General Liability Insurance

If you read my blog post on General Liability, you are aware this type of coverage does NOT cover damage done to the location where you are filming. It only covers damage or injuries to third parties. So let’s talk about the claim, and keep in mind that I’m prevented legally from mentioning names or saying how much was paid. Regardless, I think you’ll get the point anyway.

This scenario happened about five or six years ago. One of my customers bought a short-term General Liability policy to film in an apartment complex. They were filming in one of the apartments, and somebody knocked over a cup of coffee without noticing that they had done it. By the time they found the stain, the coffee had seeped down through the carpet, and it had started to drip into the apartment below. It dripped onto some very costly gator skin boots that the eccentric man downstairs was keeping in his closet. The insured submitted the claim, but the insurance company did not cover the damage to the carpet. The reason they denied the payout was because the carpet was under the insured’s care and control. They covered the damage that was done to the neighbor’s ceiling and his boots and then the claim was closed.

I frequently use this claim as an example when discussing with clients the difference between Third Party Property Damage (the coverage that insures damage done to your location), and General Liability. I hope this helps illustrate this important insurance coverage. If you have any other questions, then please feel free to call me to discuss things further. (818) 295-2266

Luke Gelineau United Agencies Welcomes you to the Equipment & Production Insurance website.

Producer Errors and Omissions Insurance

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We get a lot of calls these days about Producer Errors and Omissions Insurance, so I decided it was a good idea to revisit the topic in greater detail.

producer errors and omissions insurance Luke GelineauWhat is Producer Errors and Omissions Insurance?

I wrote a blog a while back explaining what Errors and Omissions Insurance covers and why it’s needed. 

Errors and omissions insurance covers losses other than property damage caused by your production company or its employees. 

  • Infringement of Copyright
  • Invasion of Privacy
  • Plagiarism
  • Libel or Slander

Your General liability insurance covers damages to a third-party or their property. 

Why Do You Need Producer Omissions and Errors Insurance?

If you are a filmmaker, you need E&O before establishing your production’s distribution network.  Errors & Omissions insurance is not limited to movie producers. In fact, radio and television producers are also eligible for liability coverage.

Errors and Omissions Insurance protects film producers from lawsuits that can and do arise over the content of their production. Take, for example, a couple of the many legal cases surrounding the Harry Potter series.

In 1999, Nancy Kathleen Stouffer alleged copyright infringement by J.K. Rowling, based on Rowling’s use of the word “Muggles.”Another case involved a scene where Rowling named a band called the Weird Sisters. Apparently, there was a group that owned the rights to the name in Canada. Both cases resulted in a drawn-out legal battle and high legal fees.

Copyright infringement can occur without you even realizing it. In the case of the band name, how could you possibly research every group in every country? Most writers don’t think that far ahead. They just hope to produce a script that people like.

That is why you need Producer Errors and Omissions Insurance.

The Fine Print

Movie producers are not the only ones who should consider Errors and Omissions Insurance. Any type of production that involves a written script should definitely consider E & O as a supplement to their general liability policy.

  • Movies
  • Short Films
  • YouTube Videos
  • Radio
  • Theater
  • Television

However, you must get Producer Errors and Omissions Insurance BEFORE distribution. Productions facing litigation due to content errors are not eligible for coverage.

Luke Gelineau United Agencies Welcomes you to the Equipment & Production Insurance website.For more information on production insurance in California, contact Equipment & Production Insurance. The team at Equipment and Production Insurance are film, photographic & entertainment industry insurance specialists. Whether you need short-term, annual, post, documentary, commercial, equipment, rental house, E&O, or rent your own insurance, you can rely on their quick and knowledgeable assistance to meet all of your production insurance needs.