For those who require a tradesman to carry out any sort of work with your home it is essential that you make certain they've got the appropriate liability insurance cover set up.
Failing to confirm if a tradesman is bona-fide and insured against all his trades liability pitfalls, has in a number of extreme scenarios, cost the homeowners using tradesman, their houses!
There are various dangers that a tradesman will expose a homeowner to over the course of their job, and as a result of their work. Every one of these hazards include injury to persons in the homeowners family, or the public or the tradesman's workforce. The type of accident and personal injury that can happen could result in a tradesman being sued for damages.
For instance, you as a owner of a house are accountable for the overall condition and safe practices of your home's roofing. Perhaps you recently used a local roofing contractor to carry out some repairs to the house roof and exchange some roof tiles. You were content with the work and compensated him.
A little while later these same tiles dislodged in a mild wind and fell, severely hurting a passer-by who later sues you for his personal injuries which are serious.
Perhaps you get hold of your insurance carrier to tell them of the claim against you. The property insurance company after sending around an assessor, refuse to pay out reasoning that it was the proximate cause of the job of the tradesman you employed and you will have to chase your claim against him.
You determine that the roofing contractor was lacking insurance protection and he says that you were satisfied with his job at the time and signed it off by compensating him. Your lawyers tell you that as the roofing contractor does not own any property and consequently it is not prudent to chase the lawsuit against him. You will need to bear the costs.
At the same time the expenses of the claim are rising as the litigants legal teams add thousands to the claim against you. There isn't enough cash to work out the claim out of court and are forced to sell your property.
This nightmare situation has happened to too many people, just because they failed to look at the state of the tradesman's insurance well before they utilized them.
All good tradesman will present at the least $1 million in public liability insurance cover which shields them against claims from the consumer and general public. If they employ any staff members they are required by legal requirements to have employers liability insurance cover for which a certificate is always supplied.
Prior to signing or verbally agreeing to engage any type of tradesman you need to request to see the copy of either the policy schedule detailing the public liability indemnity cover or the employers liability certificate if the tradesman has any helpers. Create a copy when you can, or at least check the policyholders name is the same, note the insurance company details and policy id and check that the date is valid.
In the event the tradesman is hesitant to offer this info, then it is highly advisable to pick up the yellow pages and look for other tradesmen.
I am a blog writer who writes content on a number of Insurance subjects including Pet Insurance questions and general insurance questions. I operate a Insurance weblog and Insurance discussion forum with the hope that it helps give helpful details with other people need insurance advice. The latest article on the website: Why Tradesmen Need Liability Insurance
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