rental agreement?

[Stephanie Wilson]

Hi folks,

I have the opportunity to rent my camera, lights and audio gear to a UCLA film student for 4 days.

I'm hoping someone out there might possibly be able to provide me with a rental agreement form that would hold him responsible for any loss and/or damage. He's more than willing to sign something but I have nothing for him to sign.....

Many thanks for any help you can provide.

Stephanie

[James Emory]

Hello Stephanie. Most rental houses that I deal with have a built in charge of 10% of the total to cover any theft or damages. Others require that you, the renter, carry your own insurance or provide a credit card that can cover any rentals over $10,000. The following doesn't necessarily apply to this student, but more than likely, this student you are considering doesn't have the total needed to cover any major loss or damage to your equipment unless they have wealthy parents. Even that is not a guarantee that you will get your gear repaired or replaced. So, any contract is basically useless unless you have the means, time and effort, to persue potential endless attempts to recover. I have alot of gear that I rent too but only if I am the operator or if I can be present while someone else operates. This is because I just can't risk any major loss or damage due to unknown use that I wouldn't know about if I wasn't there. I will only let people that I work with and know very well use my gear without my presence because I can threaten them and take their big screens, etc., ha ha ha. If you don't know the person, I would at least get references and have an inspection and inventory of the gear before and after, in their presence, as well as a signed statement that says what the inventory is. What all of this amounts to is if you are willing to take the risk. As I stated above, a contract doesn't mean anything if there's nothing to recover or you don't have the means to collect.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Good advice. The other thing you should do is require payment of the full rental fee in advance. Once the renter has the equipment you no longer have any leverage to get payment.

[Stephanie Wilson]

Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to write!

Stephanie

[Dylan Couper]

Hey Stephanie, don't forget to hit a search on this section of the forum. There is some good reading in old threads for you.

[Stephanie Wilson]

Dylan,

Did a search of this site before I posted my question and only came up 2 replies which didn't really answer my question. Maybe I did an inferior search. Please help if you can?

Thanks muchly.

Stephanie

[Dylan Couper]

Some of them are tricky to find. I find the safest way is to do an advanced search in the business forum for "rental" and then sift through the 50 odd hits by relevant titles. There are a lot of good threads about renting beyond your original question that you might enjoy as well.