Trouble at a Photo Shoot: Self-Employed Photographer Damages Sculpture
Art and people - they don’t always go together. For example, the story of the cleaning lady who mistook a work of art for rubbish and disposed of it without a second thought is unforgettable. This clash of worlds may seem like a curious anecdote, but such occurrences not only happen surprisingly often, they can become very expensive very quickly. That’s what happened to a self-employed person insured through exali in this real damage event.
Damage to Property During Photo Shoot
Working with art means a lot of responsibility. So it’s all the more annoying (and expensive) when an object gets damaged. This is what happened to a self-employed person insured through exali. He proved to be a real multi-talent. In addition to operating various web shops and websites, he also works as a programmer and product photographer. The last type of work is important for this damage event.
An artist hired the freelancer as a photographer. He was supposed to photograph various paintings in her studio for her website. For the perfect snapshot, he took the pictures off the wall, placed them first on the floor and then on an easel. The damage happened during one of these steps: One of the paintings collided with a sculpture consisting of four vases, and one of the handles on a vase broke off. After getting over the initial shock of the collision, the question arose: How high is the damage to the valuable sculpture and who should pay for it?
6.000 Euros in Compensation for Damages
Luckily, the photographer didn’t have to pay for the entire artwork, valued at 23.000 euros. Since only one of the four vases was damaged, the artist agreed to recreate the broken part. However, the damage was done and there was still a sum of around 6.000 euros that the self-employed person had to pay to the artist as compensation for the property damage.
Property damage within the meaning of Professional Indemnity Insurance is the damage or destruction of things such as objects or premises. Property damage also includes the loss of items, in particular money and tokens of monetary value, or damage to rented premises ( e.g. server rooms ). The latter is also referred to as rental property damage.
On the other hand, property damage is not defined as financial damage, which is to be distinguished from it and represents a pure financial loss for the injured third party, such as an infringement of license rights.
Professional Indemnity Insurance Steps In
Luckily, the self-employed person didn’t have to cover the damages on his own. He contacted the exali customer service team and reported the incident. After careful examination, the claim was forwarded to the insurer, who ultimately paid for the damage. What did the freelancer do right? He had taken out Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali. General Liability Insurance, which covers personal injury and property damage, is already integrated into the basic coverage of Indemnity Insurance.
General Liability Insurance protects against personal injury, property damage and the resulting financial losses. At exali, General Liability Insurance (in addition to Financial Loss Insurance) is an important part of Professional Indemnity Insurance.
All-Round Protection Thanks to the All-Risk-Coverage of overlapping Areas of Activity
But why does Professional Indemnity Insurance cover damage caused during a photo shoot? All insurance at exali is structured according to the principle of “All-Risk-Coverage for your profession” This means that all occupational risks from an area are insured without having to be explicitly listed in a catalogue. Despite this open wording, however, the specific activity as a photographer would originally not have fallen under this blanket coverage for IT activities.
However, since we at exali, based on our many years of experience in insuring the self-employed and freelancers, know that in practice people often work in overlapping areas of activity, we expanded the blanket coverage for professions to cover the creative and media sector, consulting as well as the eCommerce area as a precaution. Thanks to this expansion of the exali insurance conditions, property damage to the work of art was also covered by the Professional Indemnity Insurance. Finally, our policyholder, as part of his professional work, created websites for his clients and took photographs in connection with this, which falls under the overlapping creative and media activities covered by the policy.
In this article, we tell you how the blanket coverage for your profession included in Professional Indemnity Insurance works and what services are covered: How exali’s Professional Indemnity Adapts to Your Business.
The Best Insurance - Far Beyond the Standard
This damage event shows quite impressively that comprehensive insurance has to cover more than just standard cases. That’s why we attach great importance to insuring a very wide range of professional activities and the resulting risks.
And no matter which of these activities you make a professional mishap in - the insurance professionals from exali are at your side. The insurer will examine the claims made against you, defend against unfounded claims on your behalf and settle legitimate claims for damages. So you can fully devote yourself to new projects.
Formerly Chief Editor
Who am I?
After a traineeship and a few years in corporate communications, I now work at exali as editor-in-chief of the online editorial department and am responsible for all content.
What do I enjoy?
Summer, travel, good food and football.
What do I dislike?
Travel by train, Brussels sprouts and slime.
