No matter how careful we are, there’s always going to be some inherent risk involved with being a contractor. It’s a rewarding job, certainly, but it’s also a bit dangerous. Accidents happen all the time in construction, and although most of them are not fatal, if you’re put out of commission for a time it can hurt your livelihood and your bottom line.
That’s why it’s important that we protect ourselves by any means necessary and available. In some states, there are specific requirements for each contractor in terms of the insurance that you need to practice the craft at all. You can get some guidance on that from sites like this one, https://www.wikihow.life/Select-a-Construction-Subcontractor, but it can often get complicated.
In those circumstances, it may be a good idea to speak to a local insurance company and to have a consultation about it with them.Today, we’ll be covering what Insurance for Contractors in Ontario is and some of how it works as well.
What is it?
Thankfully, this is a pretty easy concept to explain. It’s a type of insurance for any contractors, typically considered “liability” insurance. Essentially, if you were to get hurt on the job, your insurance could help to cover any hospital or treatment bills for you. Additionally, depending on the circumstance, it could help to keep you afloat while you’re recovering.
After all, the prospect of being injured and unable to work for a few months is daunting to any contractor. That’s a lot of jobs that will go to competitors and won’t be helping pay your bills. Having some sort of protection in place truly can be invaluable in circumstances like that.
How Does it Work?
Now that we’ve established what this sort of insurance is, it’s a good time to consider how it works. Your first step will likely involve finding a broker or organization in your area that’s selling it to contractors. Luckily, contractors general liability insurance shouldn’t be too difficult to find if that’s what you search for.
Any of the resources here today could also help you if you’re not sure where to start. Although there are certainly big names in the insurance industry, it doesn’t hurt to look for more localized solutions. For example, here in California, there are specialized organizations who offer contractor’s insurance and know how to navigate California’s laws surrounding it.
When you’ve settled on a company to work with, you can start to consider what all you want to have insured. What protections do you want, and are there any that you’d rather skip out on? That’s part of what will influence your monthly billing, so it’s something to think about carefully before you make a decision.
Why Does it Matter?
Perhaps you’re still not sold on why you should get contractor’s insurance – that’s understandable. It’s not something that many of us think about on a daily basis, that’s for sure. However, as you start to learn more about it, it should steadily make more sense.
Having insurance can sometimes be the only thing standing between you (and/or your business) and financial ruin. If something goes wrong on a job or you are injured somehow, it could easily end up losing you thousands of dollars. How are you going to recuperate that sort of loss?
Well, this is one of the answers to that, although there are probably a few other solutions as well. However, it is one of the most effective ways of keeping yourself safe, especially considering that we can’t always predict when a job will be dangerous or when we’ll end up making a mistake and hurting ourselves.
Thus, having something to fall back on can be quite critical in most of those sorts of situations. There’s another component at play here, though, if you weren’t aware. Before most companies or organizations hire you, they’ll probably want some proof that you’re insured.
This is to keep both you and them safe – especially in terms of other contractors hiring out their subcontractors. Being insured helps to maintain an atmosphere of safety and stability and provides a safety net in the case that something does end up going awry during a project for a client.
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