What insurance should an equipment rental agreement require from the renter?
The renter’s general liability should name you as additional insured as the lessor of the equipment, its property coverage should insure your gear at replacement value with you as loss payee, and the agreement should carry a hold harmless and a waiver of subrogation in your favor. Check the certificate before the gear leaves, because a clause the renter never bought is a promise with no money behind it.
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The detail
ISO endorsement CG 20 28 makes the lessor an additional insured only for injury or damage caused, in whole or in part, by the renter’s maintenance, operation or use of the leased equipment, does not apply to any occurrence after the lease expires, and gives the lessor no broader coverage than the lease requires.
An entertainment program’s rental house application asks whether you require evidence of liability and property insurance from each renter before the rental and ask to be added as additional insured and loss payee on it. It also asks whether you verify that the evidence is valid and sufficient before the rental.
Alive Risk, Rental House Supplemental Application (rev. 11/22)
The same application asks whether renters are subject to background and credit checks before equipment is rented to them, and requires a copy of the rental agreement or contract with the submission.
Alive Risk, Rental House Supplemental Application (rev. 11/22)
For independent contractors used in installation, staging, rigging or fabrication, it asks whether they provide proof of coverage, hold the applicant harmless and provide additional insured status in the applicant’s favor.
Alive Risk, Rental House Supplemental Application (rev. 11/22)
The program’s inland marine supplemental asks whether equipment is loaned or rented to others with or without operators, requires a copy of the rental agreement if it is, and asks whether certificates of insurance are required from the lessee.
Alive Risk, Inland Marine Supplemental Application (rev. 11/22)
What this means for you
- Additional insured and loss payee are different jobs. Additional insured puts you on the renter’s liability policy for injuries their use of your gear causes. Loss payee puts your name on the check when your gear is damaged or stolen under their property coverage. A renter who gives you one and not the other has covered half the agreement.
- The standard endorsement covers their use, not your defects. The ISO form for this, CG 20 28 (or CG 20 34, which adds the lessor automatically whenever a written lease requires it), covers the lessor only for injury or damage caused, in whole or in part, by the renter’s maintenance, operation or use of the equipment, never for an occurrence after the lease expires, and no more broadly than the lease requires. A worn clamp or a faulty motor that was yours alone stays on your own policy.
- Ask for a limit that matches what is going out. A renter with a $10,000 equipment limit taking a $60,000 package leaves you insuring the difference yourself. Name a minimum per rental in the agreement, scaled to the order, and check the certificate shows it.
- Verify before release, not after the damage. The application asks whether you check that the renter’s evidence is valid and sufficient, because a certificate nobody read is the most common way this clause fails. Check the named insured matches the renter, the dates cover the rental, and you appear as additional insured and loss payee.
- An indemnity needs insurance behind it. A hold harmless shifts the cost of a claim to the renter, and most general liability policies cover liability the insured assumes under a written contract. An individual or a tiny production with no policy can sign the clause and still have nothing to pay you with.
- Your own floater still comes first. Every clause here makes your loss recoverable from somebody else. None of it replaces your own inland marine and general liability, which pay while you chase the renter.
Related questions
- Is a damage waiver the same as the renter having insurance?
No. A damage waiver is a fee the renter pays you in exchange for your agreement not to charge them for certain damage, so the loss stays with you and your own floater has to be built to absorb it. Many rental houses offer one to renters who have no business policy. Price it against your actual damage history, and write down what it excludes, usually theft from an unattended vehicle and negligence.
- What if the renter is an individual with no business insurance?
Their homeowners or renters policy usually will not cover gear they rented for paid work, so the certificate you need does not exist. The options are a short-term equipment policy the renter buys for the rental, a damage waiver you sell them, a deposit sized to the package, or declining. Whichever you choose, write it into the agreement before the gear is on the cart.
- Does waiver of subrogation matter on a rental?
It matters to the venue and to you. Venues routinely ask vendors to waive subrogation, and a renter’s carrier that pays a claim and then sues you for your share undoes the point of the hold harmless. Ask the renter for a waiver in your favor, and expect your own policy to need a blanket waiver because venues will ask the same of you.
- Who is liable if rented truss collapses?
Whoever caused it, and then whoever agreed to pay. The manufacturer answers for design, the rental company for maintenance and inspection, the installer for assembly and loads, and the producer or venue for weather calls. The rental agreement then shifts cost, usually onto the renter. If your crew installed it, you are the installer as well as the lessor, and the endorsement on the renter’s policy will not reach your crew’s work.
- How staging and rigging companies are insured
- What does an underwriter look for in my rental agreement?
Whether it requires the renter’s liability and property insurance, names you as additional insured and loss payee, carries a hold harmless and a waiver of subrogation, and says who installs and operates the gear. The application asks for a copy of the agreement, so a clear one is part of the price, not just part of the paperwork.
Need this handled?
Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.
Written by the licensed brokers at Boring Insurance. Last updated 2026-10-03. See all guides.