Equipment Hire

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Equipment Hire

Postby LachyC » Fri Jun 27, 2014 1:30 pm

What are the necessary steps needed to hire out equipment apart from a well written contract?
Is the hirer required to have insurance?
Is the client required to have insurance?

Thanks,
Lachlan
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby Sammas » Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:44 pm

There isn't any requirements. It is entirely at the discretion of the owner or "hirer" of the gear (as opposed to the "hiree") as to what they require at the point of hire.

You can cover yourself pretty well with a well written contract and security of some kind, like a credit card imprint or even better, a temporary hold on a certain amount of funds. If you do this, any insurance you take out will only cover losses or damages that you cannot recoup directly from the hiree.

A contract in itself isn't enough. If you hire out a $4000 piece of gear overnight for $100 and it never comes back, or it comes back damaged what will you do? Dragging the matter through the legal process is an expensive task in itself. Certainly a lot more expensive than the $100 you earned from the hire.

If you are heading down this alley, I would suggest speaking to a lawyer or two as well as consulting some entertainment industry insurance companies and financial institutions (credit card holds, etc).
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby Alistair » Fri Jun 27, 2014 8:05 pm

I think in formal hire situations there are also some pretty stringent and different regulations around testing and tagging. Only applies to mains powered gear obviously.
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby tony » Fri Jun 27, 2014 8:14 pm

In Queensland at least I think they also have or about to roll out new rules about hiring that requires logs to be kept and a few other thing. I can't remember the details but a colege of mine, who runs a hire business was very busily trying to become compliant before he went overseas next week.
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby tunetown » Sat Jun 28, 2014 9:28 am

In NSW you must also be registered for stamp duty. Every hire contract must pay 1.5% stamp duty to the state government and that comes out of your charged rate.

I owned and ran a general equipment hire company for years. Theft by hirer is a huge problem. There are incredible forged identifications that make it very difficult to discern real from fake. Over the years I lost over $180,000 worth of equipment. Most of which was insured but "Theft by Hirer" insurance is no longer available or horrendously expensive.

You must never take cash deposits unless the value is more than the item. All financial takings should be traceable. Not just a credit card imprint but also take as large a deposit from it. Only take cheques if you have a telecheque reader which searches a database of bad cheques in the market. Photocopy all identification and if unsure just don't hire it.

OR, only hire to people you know and trust. Probably wont make as much money but it will be safer. Even then the equipment will come back damaged and needing repair sometimes. Its the nature of the game.

I may sound a little paranoid but I wouldn't go back into the hire game for anything.

Good luck and be vigilant. The world is full of scammers.

Cheers
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby LachyC » Sun Jun 29, 2014 2:47 pm

Thanks for the all the great info. I was looking into it simply as a way to make a little money back from the small, portable project studio setup I have sitting at my house while I work my day job. It's certainly not to make a living from and sadly I don't know too many people in Sydney who I'd trust to borrow my gear without insurance/deposits .etc. Might be something to look into in the future when I've a bit more time and money to put into.

Cheers guys!
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby gigpiglet » Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:41 pm

yeah its a tricky one
and something that if you are going to "do" you sort of need to do properly
if you want to drop me a line i can offer some advice.. but most of the concerns are already mentioned above.
unless you are "set up" to hire (and that costs money) its not "worth" hiring.
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Re: Equipment Hire

Postby Manning » Wed Jul 02, 2014 12:38 pm

One more problem - CC fraud.

I recently found I had paid a $5000 security deposit on a bobcat (small earth mover) which was never returned.

The guy hiring out the bobcat then discovered that he had taken the deposit on a fake credit card (the CC number was mine but the name was different).

Because the card was easily proved fake the bank reversed the transaction... and thus the poor guy was out of a bobcat.
Manning Bartlett, Studio Laughing Duck, Glenorie NSW
http://www.studiolaughingduck.com
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