READ ON TO SEE WHICH MONKEY LIKELY GOT BITTEN!

Ever wondered what you just promised the owner of your boat storage unit?  More than likely, you agreed to hold the owner, managers, employees, cousins, pets, and possibly their emotional support monkey harmless. 🐒📄

That innocent little contract for your boat storage unit or apartment or rental car or vacation condo, or equipment rental probably included a Hold Harmless and Indemnification clause. Translation: if things go sideways and you’re at fault they may expect you to help make it right.

Let’s paint a picture…

You rent a storage unit for your boat. Winter hits. You buy a $9.99 bargain-bin space heater online and stick it in the bilge because “how hard can heating be?”

A few days later… the entire building burns down. 🔥

Investigators determine the fire started in your unit. The tiny heater that was definitely not marine-rated and definitely not designed for fuel vapor areas was the culprit.

Now instead of enjoying the upcoming boating season, you’re meeting a parade of lawyers.

First up: the building owner’s insurance company.
Then: the owners of the other boats that burned.
Then: the insurance company of the other boats that burned.

That escalated quickly.

So how do you avoid becoming the star of your own legal drama?  In this case make sure you have purchased an insurance policy for your boat and for liability limits buy as high of a limit your can.  $1,000,000 limit is likely a good start.  Why so high of limits?  WELL….How much does the entire row of storage buildings you burnt down cost to replace?  Add to that the replacement cost of all the boats that burned up too. 

Next, make sure you buy physical damage coverage for your boat too.  And if you have put a lot of expensive additions in/on your boat such as: Live Scope, Multiple Depth finders, 30 fishing poles, five tackle boxes, extra battery banks, or a $20K stereo system make sure you add personal property coverage to your boat policy too!  Because if it was not factory equipment on the boat…chances are it will not be covered unless you buy the right coverage.  Afterall, maybe the person in the unit next to you started the fire in this scenario and they had no insurance at all on their boat so you’re holding the bag for replacement of your boat and all that stuff you added to it.

✅ Don’t do reckless stuff. Use equipment designed for boats, not dorm rooms.
✅ Properly winterize your boat.
✅ Carry insurance on the boat, trailer, and personal property.
✅ Buy high liability limits. Cheap limits feel expensive later.
✅ Consider an umbrella policy if you have lots of assets to protect.

Because when disaster hits, having your own “free lawyers” (included with your insurance defense coverage) feels a lot better than facing everyone else’s lawyers alone.

Bottom line: You can avoid the risk by never renting or leasing anything, or you can self-insure the risk by having no insurance policies that might respond to the contract you might have entered into, or you can transfer THE RISK to an insurance company.

So, find an insurance company or agent that is NOT interested in saving you money.  Find one that is interested in saving your ASSETS.  Afterall, we know which Monkey in this picture likely got bitten and it was not the one holding the rattlesnake.

And maybe… don’t trust a $9.99 heater with a six-figure problem. 🚤🔥💸