What Does Indemnitee Mean?
An “indemnitee” is the person or business that receives indemnity from another party, called the indemnifier, in a written agreement called an indemnity contract. An insurance contract is a type of indemnity contract.When you sign an insurance contract, you—as the indemnitee—agree to pay a certain price (the insurance premium) in exchange for the promise that the insurance company will protect and provide financial security to you. The insurance company— as the indemnifier—says that in the event of insured peril (fire, flood, physical damage, etc.) they will provide you the protection and security by getting you back to the same financial position you were in before the loss—they will indemnify you.
For example, if your house burns in a fire, you would have suffered a financial loss—you no longer have your home and your belongings and will have to replace/repair them as well as continue to pay the mortgage.
In your insurance contract, as the indemnitee, the insurance company (the indemnifier) will provide protection and security (indemnity) for you by providing you a monetary payout for the loss to repair/rebuild your home, amongst other coverages.
In the insurance contract, it will specify exactly who the indemnitee is—they are usually the owner of the property or vehicle. For example, if you finance a car with your spouse, both you and your spouse would be the indemnitees on the contract.
Commonly in insurance contracts and declaration pages, they will refer to you as the “insured” rather than the “indemnitee” throughout the documents, as it is already specified at the start of the contract who the indemnitee is in the insuring agreement.
An indemnitee can either be an individual or a business entity.