Do you let others use your equipment? Liability?

[Belzelbub]

Depends on the person and the gear. Some I'll loan out, but others I'll only loan if I'm at the dive site.

I've loaned out tanks and spearguns on numerous occasions. These are items that I'll let a friend pick up. I've also loaned a regulator, but this is one that I'll only loan if I'm at the dive site. A friend on my boat was having an issue breathing off his recently serviced reg. I swapped his for my daughter's so he could continue the day of diving. That one breathed much better for him.

If my daughter isn't diving, I'll likely have a spare mask, regulator, speargun, along with straps, o-rings, port plugs, etc.

 

[Scubadeep1]

Well I guess I have 3 Atomic Cobalts, 3 AL Legends and 3 AL bc's and 4 hp100's for sale. Hell I thought I was being nice to all my friends by buying extra sets so they could use them. Nope, on second thought I have all my stuff serviced regularly and if it fails it fails, won't be on my neglect, so I'll risk it. You ever need anything when I'm out, just return it like I gave it to you. Thanks.

 

[Fogest]

If your insurance has liability limits less than damages incurred, you, as the owner, can personally be sued and found liable. The insurance company's liability maxes out, and after a lawsuit, the state can take your real property and garnish wages until the other party is made whole.

I have been in the insurance business for some time, and have started my own insurance company. There may be laws in some states that prevent such things, but I have seen it happen.

I don't want to sidetrack the discussion too much, I'd recommend calling your insurance agent and asking them, you know, before you lend your car to someone else.

I am not in the states so what I am saying may differ from that of American laws

 

[NYCNaiad]

In a similar vein, I would like to ask: Is "your save a dive kit" also "my save a dive kit"? (is this question interesting enough to have its own thread?).
.......
SO: how often do you give trinkets away?

I will offer anything in my save a dive kit that is not life saving dependent (in my eyes). I offered my extra mask, defog, fin straps, etc. I have not offered my extra computer. As I think about it more, I guess I'm more worried about how someone (even a close buddy) would treat my equipment. I also worry about the being sued part, but I guess less than the messing-up-my-stuff part.

 

[Tug]

For me it depends on the situation and who I'm lending items to.

If I'm driving a dive boat I'll usually have a number of spares onboard from the shop that will get lent out as needed. I try to lend out shop equipment first but it's not uncommon to give a diver my reel if we end up hitting a wreck that day.

For personal diving/my friends, I'll usually lend out pretty much anything. We have a fairly active rEvo rebreather population up by me and it's pretty common to share spares or lend each other rebreather bottles for extended trips. I'm actually pretty jealous of my rebreather bottles as they have been to the Doria and NC while I've been stuck working

 

[Mustard Dave]

I was asked if someone could use some of my tanks the other day. My first thought was "Of course" That's the kind of person I am.

Then a wave of panic overcame me. What if they get hurt while using my tanks. Could they blame me?

So my question is what do you do if/when you let others use any of you equipment (tanks in this case). Would you make them sign a liability waiver? Would it even hold up? I know they could still come after me, just chance of success might be lower.

Has today's society just made me too paranoid. (I don't like the person I have become).

ps. The tanks have 32% EAN right now so I would require them show me their cert card.

It depends on the legal system in the part of the world you are in. Generally however, they could not hold you responsible, unless they could show that you knowingly loaned them a faulty tank, that directly caused a loss or injury.

What can go wrong with a tank? The obvious answers are: it can rupture, it can fail to deliver gas, the gas in the cylinder may be harmful.

We know compressed gas is potentially dangerous, so we ensure the cylinders are manufactured and tested to a recognised standard. Are your cylinders certified for this type of use and are they in test? If so, no problems here.

How is a cylinder going to fail to deliver gas? This is exceedingly rare; the only person I know this to happen to is when some people from my club went to Cuba. One of the divers went head down and a piece of rust lodged itself in the valve. This was shown to be a direct consequence of appalling maintenance. When it happened, he swam to his buddy and made an air-sharing ascent, exactly like how we are taught on the Open Water, or other novice course. There is no reason why anybody should drown in the event of a gas failure; we know it is a likely occurrence, so we are trained how to deal with it. If somebody is injured or killed as a result, it is the diver's fault (or possibly their buddy's). Again, if your cylinder is in test, you have done all you could reasonably can to prevent this from happening.

On the final point, you have already addressed this; you know it has nitrox in it and you have said you will check his cert. Remember, it is the diver's responsibility to verify the contents of the cylinder. If you have told him the cylinder has nitrox in it, and it is labelled, there are no issues.

The other gas issue is contamination; presumably you always take the cylinder to a reputable fill station, so there are no issues there.

Tort law varies across the globe (and in the US, state to state). Generally in the civilised world, to be liable, three elements must be proven:

1. Do you owe somebody a duty of care?
2. Did you fail in that duty of care?
3. Did that failure result in a loss or an injury?

Unless you can answer yes to all three, there is nothing to worry about.

 

[WarrenZ]

Yes I loan out gear but I normally loan gear to close friends. That said most of the things in my dive locker are for sale for the right price.

I must ask if your spare computer is in your dive bag how does it have an idea of what your nitrogen loading is if your primary computer fails? My spare dive computer goes on every dive my primary computer goes on.

 

[Neilwood]

I would loan my gear out to most people that I trust. Heck I have loaned photography gear worth $3-4K to friends in the past. I will only do it for people that I know will care for it like their own (and that I know how well they care for their own stuff).

Would I loan to a stranger? Maybe not.

Have to say, I am glad I am not in the US - having to worry about lawsuits for almost everything must really be a bind. Here we pretty much just get on and do it.

 

[maj2]

As long as I know the person asking, know they will use and care for it properly, are trained to use it, and will return it when finished, I have no problem loaning gear.

A couple of relatively recent examples:
a) My daughter was recently doing her Jr Rescue course, and an open water instructor (i.e. not my daughter's instructor) that I know and highly respect had a gear problem with her reg set (don't recall the specific problem). I was not planning on getting in the water again before she would be out. Since other available sets did not have a drysuit inflator attached, the fastest obvious solution at the time was for her to borrow my regs. Worked fine for everyone and kept her class moving along.
b) While renting tanks of air for my daughter, I was asked why she did not just use my tanks. Mine were all filled with Nitrox at the time, and since my daughter was not yet trained for enriched air, I would not let her use them. (She has since finished her EAN course, so she can now borrow my tanks should she need them, with my supervision)

If the neighbor kids showed up asking to try my gear in their pool, I would politely decline. They are nice kids and all, but not divers and not trained to use the gear.

 

[rjack321]

There is a huge amount of lending going on in the Seattle area. People often want to try before they buy their own and aren't sure what works for them. Wings, backplates, tanks, and lights would be the top items. Probably thousands of loans made in our community in the decades I've been a diver and I have never heard of anyone being sued ever.