Do Companies Require Contractor Insurance?

Did you know that you, as a customer, may be liable for a contractor’s injury? If a contractor gets injured while performing work on your property and they don’t have insurance, you could be accountable.

Small, independently owned and operated home renovation contractors are not required to pay for insurance coverage through Ontario’s Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB).

The WSIB program allows employers to contribute to a province-wide insurance fund. “The main focus of the WSIB system is to get the injured worker back to [their] work as soon as practicable. The worker and the employer must cooperate towards this goal.” (source) 

The WSIB program helps people in Ontario to make it one of the healthiest and safest places to work.

What Does This Mean To You, The Homeowner?

If your workers do not have contractor insurance, this leaves YOU susceptible to legal liability.

This is especially the case for the person you hire to work for cash on the side. They likely don’t operate a proper contracting business with all the necessary contractor insurance coverage.

Believe it or not, you the homeowner will be responsible for the safety of the person you hired to perform work on or in your home.

It’s also possible your home insurance may not cover you should the worker get injured and decide to sue you.

What Could Be Worse?

How about if you hire a contractor that actually has “employees” but still doesn’t maintain his or her WSIB coverage?

This happens a lot more than you think!

Now you have to worry about people who potentially may want to fake an injury, just for an opportunity to sue and make lots of money.

The money you’ve worked hard to earn and save!

Don’t Put Yourself At Risk

Why put yourself at risk of a lawsuit just to save a little bit of money? The cheaper guy that doesn’t carry contractor insurance may not be as good a deal as you think.

At Quattro, we maintain and pay for not just our WSIB coverage, but we also have liability and equipment insurance.

This places you, our client, in a much safer position when hiring us.