subject: Garage Door Contractors And Your Garage Door [print this page] Garage door repair services should really keep three sorts of insurance. They are worker's compensation insurance, auto insurance and liability insurance.
A large number of garage door repair companies carry both auto and liability insurance, so in case you ask them if they are insured, they will nearly all likely say yes.
Of course what they will fail to tell you is that they have insurance on their trucks. Since liability insurance is usually fairly inexpensive, they probable have that type of insurance as well.
Having said that, you need to be more specific when you ask a garage door company if they carry insurance. The type of insurance they all should carry, but maybe only 50 % of them do, is worker's compensation insurance.
The concern is that the work that is done by garage door service technicians is dangerous. They are usually on top of a step ladder and garage doors are remarkably heavy. If one thing goes wrong, it can at times go very wrong.
Which makes worker's compensation insurance very pricey.
If a less trustworthy business experiences a worker's compensation claim and doesn't have insurance, they simply shut down the company, then open as a new company.
Some types of workers compensation insurance can cost as much to the business as the worker's hourly wage. No wonder that some businesses attempt to get around the worker's compensation requirements. Another method some businesses use to avoid worker's compensation is to declare that their employees are actually independent contractors.
That leads to another set of rules and laws that define when a business can declare a worker an independent contractor. If you read the rules, you will realize that most garage door companies can not declare their technicians independent contractors, but they do it anyway.
Regretfully the specialist, working with a less dependable business, who is hurt is going to be cheated out of his worker's compensation benefits. His only recourse is to bring suit. Unfortunately, he will not sue his company, who has already stripped any assets he may have had in his company and opened another one. He's going to take legal action against you.
The lesson here is to check your garage door company for all three varieties of insurance, yet be most concerned about a lack of worker's compensation insurance. This is true of any company sending technicians or employees to your property.
Obviously you have home owners insurance coverage, right? There is one possible complication with homeowner's insurance. Depending on the way your particular insurance company may operate, they may refuse to defend you or pay a claim because you didn't use due diligence in employing the contractor.
Now here's the essential part. Be sure to ask any contractor who comes to your home for all his insurance documents. That includes auto, liability and worker's compensation. If he cannot produce the papers, seek another contractor.
You might wonder how many contractors skip worker's compensation insurance. Of course no one really knows for sure, since garage door contractors and contractors of all types keep that information private. But it is best to be on your guard.
