Short answer: if the sound system, LED wall or stage you rented comes back damaged, the renter pays as a rule, and that rule has two written limits. Article 334 of the Turkish Code of Obligations (Law No. 6098) requires the renter to return the item in the condition in which it was received, while releasing the renter from wear and deterioration caused by use in line with the contract. Article 335 is the other side of the scale: the rental company must inspect the item on return and notify the renter in writing, immediately, of the missing parts and defects for which the renter is responsible. If that notice is not given, the renter is released from all liability. Most disputes are settled by a two-page handover report written at three in the morning during load-out, not by a courtroom. Below: who the damage is billed to, where fair wear ends, which contract clauses are void from the start, how deposits work, the subrogation trap inside insurance policies, and the timeline if you end up in a fight.
Who pays when rented event equipment is damaged?
The renter does, by default. Article 334 of the Turkish Code of Obligations says the renter must return the rented item at the end of the contract in the condition in which it was received. The second sentence of the same paragraph draws the line: the renter is not liable for wear and deterioration that result from use in line with the contract. A moving light burning through lamp hours across a three-day event is not your bill. The same fixture falling off the truss and cracking its lens is. The burden of proof runs the opposite way from what most corporate clients expect. Article 112 states that where an obligation is not performed, or not performed properly, the debtor must compensate the creditor unless the debtor proves that no fault can be attributed to them. If the gear comes back broken, the renter is the one who has to show there was no fault, not the rental company proving there was. In practice this reduces to one sentence: if you cannot document what happened that night, the invoice lands on your desk. A short incident note answering when, who and how often matters more than the damage itself.
What happens if nobody writes a handover report?
Article 335 describes the rental company's strongest card and the way to lose it in the same breath. The rental company must inspect the condition of the item on return and notify the renter in writing, immediately, of the missing parts and defects for which the renter is responsible. If that notice is not given, the renter is released from all liability. The exception covers shortcomings and defects that ordinary inspection at handover could not have revealed; liability continues for those, and the rental company must still give written notice as soon as it identifies them. The practical translation is two reports, one on dispatch and one on return, both in the same format. Record brand, model and serial number, a count of accessories (cables, flight cases, clamps, spare lenses), a short test confirming the unit was handed over in working order, the date and time, and two signatures. Attach photos and video. Nobody wants to read labels behind LED cabinets at three in the morning. Read them anyway; those fifteen minutes replace three weeks of email. Adding a clause that written notice may be served by email also helps, because the usual reason notice arrives late is someone waiting for a wet signature.
Where does fair wear end and damage begin?
The test is whether the use matched the contract. Loosened cable connectors, scuffed flight case corners, fine scratches on LED cabinet faces and spent lamp hours all belong to ordinary use. A mixer that took on water, a deformed speaker bracket, a cracked LED module, a forklift mark across a stage deck: those are damage. The other side deserves equal attention. Article 301 obliges the rental company to hand over the item on the agreed date in a condition fit for the use intended by the contract, and to keep it in that condition for the term; in rentals outside housing and roofed workplaces, this rule cannot be bent against the renter through standard business terms. A line buried in boilerplate saying every fault after handover belongs to the renter has no effect to the extent it is a standard term. If the unit fails on site, Article 305 gives the renter the right to demand that the defect be remedied, to ask for a proportionate reduction in the rent or to claim compensation. Article 306 adds that if the defect is not fixed within a reasonable period, the renter may have it fixed at the rental company's expense, deduct the cost from the rent, or demand a defect-free equivalent. At an event, a reasonable period is measured in minutes, so write backup units and response times into the contract to make these articles usable.
Which contract clauses are void from the start?
Four clauses show up in almost every rental contract, and three of them are legally limited. First, an advance promise to pay a fixed sum on return whatever happens. Article 334, second paragraph, is blunt: agreements in which the renter undertakes in advance to pay compensation beyond the damages arising from use contrary to the contract are void. Second, the clause clearing the rental company of everything. Under Article 115, an advance agreement excluding liability for gross fault is absolutely void, and where a service requires expertise and may only be carried out with a licence, excluding liability even for slight fault is void as well. Third, penalty clauses. Article 180 lets the creditor claim the agreed penalty even without suffering loss, while Article 182, third paragraph, has the judge reduce an excessive penalty on their own motion. The fourth clause is valid, and most renters miss it: under Article 316, where the duty of careful use is breached in a rental outside housing and roofed workplaces, the rental company may terminate immediately by written notice, with no prior warning. A crew misusing equipment can, in theory, be left without it halfway through the show.
How large can the deposit be?
There is no statutory ceiling here. The three-month cap on deposits sits in Article 342, inside the section reserved for housing and roofed workplace leases, and under Article 339 that section applies to those leases and to goods handed over for use together with them. Sound, lighting, LED screen and stage rentals fall under the general provisions, so the amount is freely agreed and is usually tied to the value of the equipment or the size of the project. Keep one distinction visible in the contract: a deposit is security, not compensation. If there is no damage it comes back, and if there is, the method of set-off has to be defined in advance. Write down which account it goes into, in which currency, how many days until return, and what documents (handover report, repair invoice) are required before anything is deducted. One more detail works in the renter's favour. The statutory lien in Article 336 belongs to leases of immovable property, so an equipment rental company has no lien by law over goods you bring. That is precisely why advance payment and deposits are so common in this trade.
Whose insurance pays, and why is subrogation a trap?
The rental company having a policy does not protect you; a policy protects its own insured. Article 1472 of the Turkish Commercial Code provides that once the insurer pays the indemnity it legally steps into the insured's shoes, and any right of action the insured has against those responsible passes to the insurer up to the amount paid. In practice: the rental company collects from its insurer, and the insurer comes after you. The fix belongs in the policy and the contract. Naming the renter as an additional insured, or having a waiver of subrogation endorsed on the policy, closes that route. Check the scope too. Article 1429 says that unless otherwise agreed, the insurer covers losses caused by the negligence of the policyholder, the insured and those for whose acts they are legally responsible, while the insurer is released if the loss was caused intentionally. Articles 1459 and 1461 limit the insurer to indemnifying the loss suffered, capped by the sum insured; getting the price of a brand-new unit is only possible under replacement-value cover. The clock starts at the moment of loss: Article 1446 requires the policyholder to notify the insurer without delay once it learns the risk has materialised, and if missing or late notice increases the indemnity, the payout is reduced according to the degree of fault. Decide in writing who carries the deductible, because on small claims the deductible often sits close to the repair cost itself.
How is the damage figure calculated, and is VAT charged?
Three items get argued over: the repair cost, the replacement cost where repair is impossible, and loss of use for the days the gear sat in a workshop instead of going out on another job. The first two run on documents. The third needs proof, so if a rental company claims loss of use, ask for the actual bookings for those dates. Where the amount of loss cannot be proven precisely, Article 50, second paragraph, lets the judge determine it equitably by considering the ordinary course of events and the measures taken by the injured party, and Article 51 has the judge weigh the degree of fault when setting the scope of compensation. Demanding the price of a new unit to replace a two-year-old one is not automatically accepted. There is an accounting line to watch as well. VAT Circular KDVK-60/2011-1, published by the Turkish Revenue Administration on 8 August 2011, states that compensation payments which do not arise as consideration for a supply of goods or services fall outside the scope of VAT, while VAT is charged where an insured party has a repair done and passes the invoiced costs on to the insurer. Ask your accountant what kind of document should be issued, because the same amount can be papered as compensation or as a service fee, and the VAT outcome differs.
What if you cannot agree, and what belongs in the contract?
Between companies, court is not the first stop. Article 5/A of the Turkish Commercial Code makes an application to a mediator a procedural precondition for commercial claims for a sum of money, including compensation claims; the mediator must conclude the file within six weeks of appointment, extendable by a maximum of two weeks where necessary. If no settlement comes out of it, the wait gets long. According to Justice Statistics 2025, published in March 2026 by the General Directorate of Judicial Record and Statistics, the average duration of a file at commercial courts of first instance was 383 days in 2025, against 243 days across civil courts as a whole. More than a year of litigation over one LED cabinet serves nobody, which is why the real protection sits in the contract. Finish seven items before the trucks leave. One, attach the dispatch and return report template. Two, allow written notice by email. Three, define fair wear with examples. Four, fix the deposit amount, the return period and the set-off method. Five, settle who buys the insurance, who carries the deductible and whether subrogation is waived. Six, write in backup units and response times for faulty handover. Seven, agree the calculation method for loss of use before it is ever claimed. Tales Event is based in Istanbul and runs sound, lighting, LED screen, stage and decor production with a single team for dealer meetings, launches, openings, concept gala nights and graduation ceremonies across Türkiye. Send us your equipment list and event date, and we will map the liabilities, from the handover report to the insurance scope, alongside the quote.
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