Drone Insurance

twhite87

twhite87

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Tim
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For those of you that fly drones just for recreational use, do you have dedicated insurance for this. I've spoken to my camera insurance company (Hiscox) and they tell me that drones are not covered. Does anybody else insure them, and if so can anyone recommend a good company? If not, what do people do in the event of an accident?

Thanks in advance.

Tim
 
Brace yourself and try to hit something cheap! :exit:

Joking aside, I imagine adequate public liability insurance is going to be essential.
 
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I can only speak about here in the US... but if you are operating a drone recreationally according to the guidelines/laws (and common sense), then an accident should only involve a loss of the drone at worst. Getting liability insurance for drone operation is really only advisable (or even an option) for a licensed operator in commercial drone usage.... it's not cheap, and it's not generally included with the standard photographer insurance packages.
 
There you are, one sunny summer evening; you've just finished washing and polishing your £100,000 E Type Jag/Aston Martin/Ferrari (delete as applicable) that you've worked so hard to buy and painstakingly restore over the last 10 years. You set off to carefully drive your favourite local route along some country lanes, and then back home (just long enough to dry out the condensation in the exhaust system to stop it rusting and rotting off).

Half way round 'the block' something suddenly hits your windscreen, shattering it and obscuring your vision. You instinctively hit the brakes, but as a result of not being able to see where you are going you veer off the road and into the back garden of a house where the householders are having a barbecue. As a result of the collision one of the people in the garden receives 'life changing injuries' and can subsequently no longer work to support their family and will need permanent care for the rest of their life, and two people are badly burned and permanently scarred by hot coals from the barbecue, and your car is written off too.

Understandably, you are very distressed by this and need time off work to come to terms with what's happened, so someone else has to take over your workload as a Queens Council Barrister for a number of weeks.

The cause of this incident? It transpires someone (a recreational user) lost control of a drone, which hit your windscreen, thus causing the incident. The person responsible is uninsured... but they do have financial assets, such as their house, their car, their savings, their private pension fund, etc.

So what do you think might happen next?

A far fetched scenario? If so, fully comprehensive insurance for flying a drone for recreational use shouldn't cost very much then?
 
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Mr Badger said:
There you are, one sunny summer evening; you've just finished washing and polishing your £100,000 E Type Jag/Aston Martin/Ferrari (delete as applicable) that you've worked so hard to buy and painstakingly restore over the last 10 years. You set off to carefully drive your favourite local route along some country lanes, and then back home (just long enough to dry out the condensation in the exhaust system to stop it rusting and rotting off).

Half way round 'the block' something suddenly hits your windscreen, shattering it and obscuring your vision. You instinctively hit the brakes, but as a result of not being able to see where you are going you veer off the road and into the back garden of a house where the householders are having a barbecue. As a result of the collision one of the people in the garden receives 'life changing injuries' and can subsequently no longer work to support their family and will need permanent care for the rest of their life, and two people are badly burned and permanently scarred by hot coals from the barbecue, and your car is written off too.

Understandably, you are very distressed by this and need time off work to come to terms with what's happened, so someone else has to take over your workload as a Queens Council Barrister for a number of weeks.

The cause of this incident? It transpires someone (a recreational user) lost control of a drone, which hit your windscreen, thus causing the incident. The person responsible is uninsured... but they do have financial assets, such as their house, their car, their savings, their private pension fund, etc.

So what do you think might happen next?

A far fetched scenario? If so, fully comprehensive insurance for flying a drone for recreational use shouldn't cost very much then?
Click to expand...

Yea, I would much prefer to pay for insurance than be sued, so care to recommend a couple?
 
Last time I checked a company called Photoguard offered drone insurance but I'm not sure of the details.
They were relatively cheap but I had to phone up to discuss it with them.
 
twhite87 said:
Yea, I would much prefer to pay for insurance than be sued, so care to recommend a couple?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I'm as much in the dark as you are about where to go for advice on the subject, but hopefully keeping this thread active might increase the chance of some good suggestions coming in? Best of luck finding something suitable. (y)
 
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boyfalldown said:
Why not join a RC modellers club? They normally include insurance with membership
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You dont need to join a model club to get insurance. they all use the bmfa (bmfa is the uks modellers association) and you can get their insurance direct for £33 a year at the link i posted above. (ive used it for years as i fly large models)

This is third party liability insurance. If you want insurance in case you crash and break your drone and you want to cover the cost of replacing it thats a different thing which i have no idea about. If you sit on it and break it that may be covered by your house insurance :)
 
For those that are interested. I phoned Photoguard and got standard theft and accidental damage for the drone for £28 a year with £50 excess. Obviously no public liability with that.
 
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