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Contractor's Insurance Policy |
Insurance to keep your mind at ease.
Your new roof collapsed and the water destroyed your expensive
furniture? Your new floor fell from under you and you were injured?
There is something you can do: Call your contractor’s insurance
company.
When you interview contractors ask them to show you their Contractor
General Liability (CGL) insurance policy. This is how it works:
Ask to see a valid CGL insurance policy and make a copy of it for
your files. Read it thoroughly and be familiar with what coverage
you have. You need comprehensive coverage. If the constructor’s
work has caused any damage through poor workmanship, either to
your property or as a personal injury, call the insurance company
for compensation and you will be dealt with. Insurance policies
rarely pay for the actual errors your constructor made, but they
do cover the damages those errors caused.
The insurance policy has to be valid at the time you hired the
contractor, and also when you make your claim. Coverage limits
can be as high as $1,000,000 per occurrence, depending on how much
insurance your contractor purchased. Some policies are extended
even when your contractor has retired. So make sure you look up
these details when you interview your contractor.
If you want to make a claim to the insurance company, you may want
to hire an attorney for a short consultation, because the insurance
company might require that you sign away the rights to any future
claims when they compensate you. You need an attorney to advise
you about anything you have to sign.
Contractor General Liability is an issue you need to be aware of
when you hire a contractor, with the hope that you will never actually
need to deal with it. |
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