Towing Someone Else’s Trailer: Insurance Considerations for Borrowing and Lending

Everyone wants to be the guy or gal that bails out a buddy or helps a friend. Lending your trailer is a helpful and friendly thing to do—and in most cases it’s perfectly safe. But that doesn’t mean you’re not responsible on the off-chance that something does go wrong—and that responsibility can take a heavy toll.

Whose Insurance Pays?

Since your friend isn’t the owner of the trailer – they can’t cover it on their insurance policy!  Any claim for damage to the trailer would have to be made against your insurance policy – meaning you’d pay the deductible and it would be added to your claims history file. This could affect your future premiums.

So can you lend your trailer safely?

Before handing over your trailer you need to consider how much its damage or loss would impact you and your friendship with the person using it. Lending such a large and expensive item can cause strain on a relationship. It’s a lesson Jen Auborn a former nurse now living in B.C.’s interior learned the hard way.

“Seems like every time I would lend a friend my trailer that friendship suffered either because the trailer wasn’t returned at the time we agreed or because they just didn’t treat my stuff the way they would treat their stuff.”

Make sure you’re not receiving compensation for lending your trailer out either. If you are getting paid that is considered a “business exposure” by the insurance companies and they will not cover the trailer in case of an accident.