Ask the expert: Homeowner’s Insurance & Hiring Contractors

Dominic: Hey, Hey Darcy. Well, I really appreciate you making like 15, 20 minutes for us to chat about contractors and hiring contractors for your house and what, maybe, homeowners should be aware of when they do that.

Darcey: Yeah, great. Caught me on a good day.

What happens if my home is damaged while a contractor is working on my property?

Dominic: First question I had here is, when I hire a contractor, does their insurance cover me if my house gets damaged? So for example, they’re mowing the lawn, and a rock goes shooting out from underneath the lawn mower and goes through my window. Does their insurance cover that, or is that on my homeowner’s insurance?

Darcey: The answer is both. So you can claim it under your insurance and it’s subject to the deductible that you have on your home policy. Or, the best practice would be, the contractor who did the damage can claim it under his insurance policy, and pay for it out of his policy. But, just because you have a business, and a business license, and even if you have to file with L&I it doesn’t necessarily mean you have insurance. The fortunate thing about L&I is that they do list the contractor’s insurance and bond information. So, if you are having a contractor, or needing to have a contractor come out, you can quickly look online to see if they’re licensed, insured, and bonded. And if they are, then you know that you’re dealing with, at least, a reputable business in that standpoint.

Dominic: Good point. And so that means that if you look them up on L&I, that’s probably a conversation you should have with that contractor before you hire them, like, “Hey, I wanna make sure that you have insurance, can you provide me some proof that you have it?”

Darcey: Let’s use a ladder. Let’s say they, we’ll put it at the house first, so if they are trying to put the ladder up against the wall and they end up hitting the window. Then either your homeowners can pay for it, but it’s gonna be subject to the deductible. Or, the contractor’s insurance can come in and pay for it, or they can pay for it out of pocket too. But, they have the ability to go through their insurance. Next one would be, if they’re trying to put the ladder onto their vehicle or take it off of their vehicle, and it drops and it hits your windshield. If you have comprehensive, it’ll pay for that. Or the contractor’s life insurance will pay for it. If you have comprehensive on your vehicle, or other than collision, you will have a deductible. But, it is covered if something like that happens. But, you can also go and use the contractor’s insurance, since it was his fault. You hear a lot of that with painters. They were spraying the house, and they sprayed too far and hit the vehicle. Or, they were pouring concrete, and it splattered and it hit the vehicle. Things like that. You know, I hear a lot of people driving down the road and they were repairing. “Now there’s a bunch of tar all over my vehicle.” So, that is really where that whole comprehensive thing comes in on the auto policy. But ultimately, if the contractor was responsible then he and his insurance will be available for you.

Does my insurance cover if the contractor installs something incorrectly?

Dominic: My next question is, what about if they do something incorrect? So, they’re supposed to replace your toilet and they don’t do it the right way. And they now need to come back and fix it, or like you end up finding out that they did it wrong. Does insurance help protect you in that scenario? Or is that your insurance that helps protect you?

Darcey: So that does get into kind of a gray zone. Because you can turn in the claim to the carrier, and the carrier, may on your behalf take care of the damages and fix it for you, probably using a different contractor, or may tell you you need to go back to the contractor and have him fix it. And, and it’s kind of time. I don’t wanna say that it’s time sensitive because it’s not, but I’m gonna use that term. It is kind of time sensitive. You know, if the problem is caught, you know within a month after they just fixed it, we need to go back to the contractor and say, “this still isn’t right.” And if it’s, you know, three years from now, it may still be an issue that the contractor did. Maybe he installed it incorrectly. And it’s just now breaking down and causing problems in your home. Or it may be something completely new, and you won’t really know until things are pulled up, and it may be that it might be too far out to go back to the contractor. Et cetera. So it’s kind of like, I know contractors, don’t necessarily always have agreements, written agreements and contracts that you have a such and such timeframe to that I will fix things, a kind of warranty, but you can always ask that question and see if there’s, if they guarantee or warranty their work for certain timeframe.

Dominic: Like you were saying, it really depends. If you catch it right away, then you can work with the contractor to tell them “This is wrong. You need to fix this.” And then if that contractor refuses to fix it, then you can go down the different avenues to figure out what to do next and maybe hire a different contractor, et cetera. But as time goes on, the warranty from the contractor are proving that they installed it the wrong way or if it wasn’t some other reason why that part failed, starts to get tricky. And so then it might just be a regular insurance claim on your homeowner’s insurance. What about, while I have these other people on my property, if that contractor gets injured while they’re working at my house, and it might be something that’s maybe more on, on me. The example that I gave was they’re painting, and there’s a big, heavy mirror on the wall, and while they were doing it the mirror fell off and injured one of their employees. Does the contractor’s insurance still cover them on that? Or is that something I should be aware of for my homeowner’s insurance?

Darcey: Well, if the employee was injured while working, that’s an L&I claim. I don’t know if that scenario would be the best one. Here’s one, okay. I hire an electrician to install a heater in my bedroom and in doing so, while he came in to start the work before he hauled everything in my front porch gave way, and he broke his leg, he fell through my front porch. Well, now that’s on me cause he wasn’t actually working. He was just walking in. But if he was in there transferring, and this kind of technical, but if he was in there bringing in his supplies into the room and in doing so he turned and it hit one of his toolboxes, hit the wall and punctured the wall, and then the wall came down. Well, that’s on him. That might be a little extreme scenario, but that’s on him. Don’t think a will fall down. If that wall falls down, then that’s definitely back on the homeowners. But you know what I mean? Or another one be if their dog bit, your dog bit them, you know, your dog got out of the house, and he was outside doing some work, and the dog bit the contractor. Well that’s on the homeowner.

What if the contractor is injured while working at my home?

Dominic: As you mentioned before, you talk about the contractor’s insurance and L&I, and their workers’ compensation, all the other stuff that they need to have as a business. If they were to injure themselves like they’re roofers and one of them falls off the roof and gets injured. Well, that’s at the course of them doing their job and they have their own policies and protections to help cover those things. So the last one I have is what about if it’s someone else? So I’m a homeowner and I have someone doing sprinkler work, and there’s these trenches all over the yard that the contractor leaves for the night. And then someone delivering a package is coming up, and they step in one of those trenches, and they really hurt their leg. In that scenario, how am I protected in case of those types of accidents?

Darcey: I would put it back on the contractor first and foremost, because they are the ones that are supposed to put up the cones, and the signs, and the plywood, and the, you know the metal to cover that trench so that nobody falls through. Especially if it’s close to a public area. You know, to cover it up and make sure that it’s well highlighted, so people are aware of it. The caution cones and all of that. If none of that is there, and somebody falls through I’m gonna lean more towards the contractor’s fault. Doesn’t mean that the homeowner won’t get drug into a lawsuit. Because they allowed that contractor to do the work. However, that’s kind of real stretch of it because if the contractor did their job and made sure that caution and protection was there, nobody would’ve fallen and gotten hurt. But in my opinion, and in my head, when you allow somebody to do something on your property and something happens because of their actions, it doesn’t mean that you will not be involved in a lawsuit if it comes to that.

Dominic: Sure. So, it sounds like the best thing to do would be to make sure that the contractor is putting up safety equipment to make sure that no one gets hurt. That’s not just best practice for the contractor, but just to make sure that the public around your home are safe while they’re doing work at your house.

Darcey: Here’s one. This, and I will totally totally do this one cause it was all me. I was actually walking into the grocery store. I wasn’t paying attention. There was a contractor parked in the parking lot, with a bunch of two by fours sticking out of his truck. There was no signs, no flags, orange signs, nothing. And I walked straight into those two by fours right between my eyes.

Dominic: Oh.

Darcey: If I was seriously damaged, you know, I could have, well maybe I am, but I could have gone back to that contractor and been like, “Hey, if you had these signs up you know, well even a flag or it painted the end, you know, a bright orange, I may not have walked through into it.” I probably still would’ve but that’s, you know I’m just trying to give you an example. That would be a good example of that because they have that, they had that sticking out that gives that ability for somebody to get injured.

Dominic: Well, thank you Darcey. I’ll let you go. We’ve been going for a while now. I really appreciate you answering these questions. Thank you Darcey. I will talk to you again soon.

Darcey: Sure. No problem. All right. Have a good one and have a great weekend. All right. Buh-bye.