vendor insurance requirements (ex- photographer??)

flower1316

Have any of your venues required every single vendor to have General Liability insurance AND worker's comp in order to step foot on their site? I am facing an issue in which my Venue is requiring my photographer to get a General Liability policy... okay totally understandable and she immediately agreed and did so. Then when we contacted the venue we were told that it was not good enough (four days before the wedding), she must have a Worker's Compensation policy as well or they will not let her photograph our wedding. She is a photographer who owns her own business, works for herself, and does not have any employees.... needless to say no insurance company will even offer a policy because they have all said it is unnecessary or it will cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. 

I'm so sick over this... so I just want to see if anyone else has ever dealt with this or heard of this, because we have not and we were not told about it until yesterday. 

Smitten2012

Hi - wow i am sorry to hear you are going through all this insurance craziness! I dont know if this helps at all - but my fiance and i took a "wedding insurance policy" - it was approx $300 but insured out wedding day in case something goes wrong - i also believe it covers guests / vendors if someone falls or any other accidents god forbid. Perhaps its worth to look into that? I am sorry i am not very familiar with insurances that vendors "must" have as our venue never requested any sort of proof of such documentation. I hope this gets all resolved soon for you

 

 

Gordo2014

Wedding insurance for bad weather will not protect a venue or a vendor from being sued over a trip and fall.  I'd be shocked to find that ANY venue does not have an absolute requrement around liability insurance for all of your vendors from photographer to DJ.  Some may be more or less stringent about it, but they will all want it.

And if you're venor (in this case a photographer) doesn't already have it, IMO, you're not working with a professional.  Any true professional will already have this insurance for their own protection if not simply because other venues will have already demanded it of them for prior work.  If your photographer is not insured, you're not working with a professional , you're working with someone who got a nice camera last Christmas and now thinks they can be a professional photographer (or DJ or videographer or whatever).

Worker's Comp for someone who owns their own business as a sole proprieter and works alon doesn't make sense.  I'd like to think that your photographer and the venue can work this out by speaking with each other directly.  Good luck and let us know how you make out. 

esp-studio

Any business that is registered with the stat has to have Workman's Comp regardless if you work alone or not. Stat law. Every venue requires that any vendor working at their location MUST have Liability and Workers Comp. Your photographer should already have this as part of her business.