Liability insurance for a videographer
As a videographer you usually stand alone in someone else's space, with equipment that is often not yours. Two provisions therefore steer your policy: the care, custody and control exclusion and the exclusion for aircraft.
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In brief
Public and employers' liability insurance (AVB) pays for injury and property damage at others. In filming on your own that means, in concrete terms: a tripod falling against a monitor, a cable across an office corridor, an LED panel scorching a suspended ceiling, a wedding guest tripping over your bag. The basis is Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. Such damage is usually small in size, but where a guest or a client's employee is injured it quickly mounts up.
Two exclusions are decisive in this profession. What you hire from a rental company or borrow from a colleague, such as a lens, a gimbal or a sound kit, is in your keeping without your owning it: that is the care, custody and control exclusion. And damage caused with or by an aircraft is excluded as standard, including with an unmanned device. If you fly yourself, you need separate liability cover for the drone alongside registration and proof of competence. The AVB does not do that.
What does not belong on the AVB: footage that turns out to be unusable, a card that becomes corrupted or an edit delivered late. The client then loses only money, and that is pure financial loss. For that, look at professional indemnity insurance for self-employed professionals. You insure your own cameras and lights on a business basis on business contents insurance; the general product explanation is on the hub page on the AVB.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare public and employers' liability insurance (AVB).
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What to look out for
Four subjects that make the difference for a self-employed videographer between cover and no cover.
Drone footage is a separate risk
The exclusion for aircraft draws no distinction between a helicopter and a one-kilo drone. If you hit a facade, a car or a bystander, you are empty-handed with an ordinary AVB. Arrange separate liability cover for the aircraft, or have the client contract a drone pilot directly so that the risk stays with that party.
Hired lenses, sound and lighting
Almost every production runs partly on hired equipment. If a hired lens is dropped or a borrowed recorder suffers water damage, the care, custody and control exclusion blocks the cover, while the rental company charges the full replacement value. Check whether your policy has care, custody and control cover and up to what amount, and compare that with what you hire on average.
Filming in an operating environment
In a factory hall, a kitchen or a care institution you walk through someone else's process. If you damage a machine or an installation, that is property damage and covered in principle. The downtime that follows, with lost production or a cancelled operation, is consequential loss of a purely financial nature and the exclusion of financial loss applies to it.
Second camera and assistants
If you hire a second camera operator or an assistant for a job, that person works under your supervision and the duty of care under Article 7:658(4) of the Dutch Civil Code extends to them. Report that when you apply. If you fail to disclose regular hiring in, an insurer can rely on the Articles 7:928 and 7:930 of the Dutch Civil Code and adjust the payout.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: the standard basis for self-employed professionals
- Type of productions: corporate film, weddings or industrial footage differ in risk
- Drone use: determines whether additional cover is needed
- Share of hired equipment: a factor in choosing care, custody and control cover
- Hiring in crew: counts towards employers' liability
- Area of cover: filming abroad calls for a wider territory
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| A tripod leg damages the parquet floor in the client's office | Yes | No |
| A wedding guest trips over your cable reel and breaks an ankle | Yes | No |
| The second camera operator you hired falls down a staircase during your assignment | Yes | No |
| The hired gimbal is dropped in the street while being moved | Provided that | No |
| The client claims the production lost after you struck a sensor in the factory and the line stopped | No | No |
| The edit is delivered late and the client misses the start of his campaign | No | Yes |
Repairing what you physically damage is something different from the standstill that follows it.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I dropped a hired lens. Does the AVB pay?
Not as standard. Hired equipment is in your keeping without your owning it, and that situation falls under the care, custody and control exclusion. Only with care, custody and control cover included is there a payment, usually with an excess and a maximum amount. Also check the hire terms: many rental companies require you to insure the equipment yourself.
My drone hit a facade. What now?
Public and employers' liability insurance gives no cover here, because damage caused with an aircraft is excluded and an unmanned device falls under that too. You are, of course, liable under Article 6:162 of the Dutch Civil Code. For flying you need separate liability insurance, alongside the registration and proof of competence the rules require.
The footage from a wedding is unusable. Am I insured?
Not on the AVB. Nobody was injured and nothing was damaged. The loss consists of money and missing footage, and therefore of pure financial loss. That belongs with professional indemnity insurance. Limit your risk contractually as well, by recording to two cards at once and including a limitation of liability in your terms.
A client requires particular cover in the contract. Is that allowed?
He may ask for it, and it happens often with large companies and care institutions. Note that a contractual indemnity can go further than your liability in law; liability you accept only on the basis of a contract is generally excluded on the AVB. Have such a provision reviewed before you sign.
Every situation is different. For these situations we have a separate page.
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