Thread: Are you insured? Protecting your bellydance livelihood

This blog post was inspired by all the recent threads on costume theft posted on Bhuz, as well as the recent theft of an NYC dance photographer's camera equipment.

Are you insured? Protect your bellydance livelihood (and support the Ken Stein burglary fundraiser) | RAQS and the City: Najla's Belly Dance Blog

If any of you have stories of insuring your belly dance gear, successful claims, etc, I'd love to hear in the blog comments. It's tough to think about the worst happening to your costumes and props, but we've got to be prepared.

I'm not an expert, but my understanding from running home businesses for years is that IF YOU ARE A PRO you need to inform your insurance carrier that you're running a business from your home. If you make a claim and they discover this after the fact, they can and will refuse to pay it.

if you're a hobbyist, your stuff should be covered by your regular homeowner's or renter's insurance (you need a rider if it's over a certain $$ amount I think, or if your total property value is over a certain amount)

Either way, calling your insurance carrier to discuss coverage is a GREAT idea! So is photographing/documenting your most valuable stuff.

(hmm... I should do this. LOL)

Costumes and props stolen from/with your car are not generally covered under renters or home owners insurance. Check your policies. I learned a very expensive lesson when my care was stolen a while back. (but the power of bhuz saved me, for immediate gig necessities :)

Originally Posted by sabrinabellydancer

Costumes and props stolen from/with your car are not generally covered under renters or home owners insurance. Check your policies. I learned a very expensive lesson when my care was stolen a while back. (but the power of bhuz saved me, for immediate gig necessities :)

Ouch! I would have thought it would be covered! thanks for the reminder, I will check my policy. As soon as I locate it. LOL

According to what I've read your car is *usually* covered (up to 10% of your full home contents coverage) but most people have too high a deductible to make a claim worthwhile anyway. And policies can vary... I hate that yours didn't include it, Sabrina!

And again, if you are clearly dancing for profit (have website, business cards, etc) and haven't informed your carrier that you are running a business, you will have a problem.

Sabrina and Lauren, may I add your sage advice (with your names/website links of course) to an update at the bottom of this entry?

Originally Posted by najla86

Sabrina and Lauren, may I add your sage advice (with your names/website links of course) to an update at the bottom of this entry?

of course.

After a break in last year I found out that even though my insurance company knew I ran a business from home they specifically excluded all business items from my policy. I should have read the fine print! But believe me, the print was very fine.

Nothing really important was taken on that occasion but I realised I should get my costume collection and electronic stuff insured separately. It turned out to be difficult to find a company prepared to do that, but eventually I found one so now I'm covered wherever I am in the UK.

You can add a rider to your home/car insurance policy to cover extra items. You just have to have photos and records. With all of the thefts of costumes that I have seen, I added one to mine. You never know! You just have to tell your agent a dollar amount and the rate is based off of that.
I also adjusted my policy after the entire group of townhomes right next to mine, were flooded with 5 feet of water- all 6 of them!
The added peace of mind was worth it for me.

So we should all probably call our agents and specifically ask whether this stuff is covered under our policies. I'd rather e-mail so I have a written record of my agents response, but mine doesn't really encourage e-mail.

I've had my car broken into twice and both times all items in the car were indeed covered under my homeowners insurance. I had a bag full of 2 weeks worth of clothes in there one of the times, I had to list out all the times, aprox what I paid for them, and then they gave a percentage (I think it was 70% or something) of the value. The other time I had gone shopping a few days before and the bag was still in the car - I showed them my credit card statement and they gave me full value for the new items that were taken.

Thanks for sharing all of your experiences, ladies! If you have a moment, could you add them into the blog comments? I'd love to have your wisdom and first-hand accounts shared with non-bhuzzers as well