If you are putting an addition on to your home, making repairs, or having any type of work at all done on your home by outside, hired contractors, one thing that’s missing from your standard homeowners policy is workers compensation. Most larger contractors carry workers compensation insurance for their employees but if you hire a smaller company or even individual handyman to do some work on your home and they do not carry it, you could be held liable if someone gets injured while working on your home.
There is a additional coverage you can purchase if the workers you hire are uninsured. It is called contingent workers compensation. If you carry this homeowners coverage option, you will not be held liable if some uninsured worker gets hurt while working on your property. Instead, the insurance company will cover the medical expenses and lost wages that the worker faces. If you don’t have the coverage, you would be legally responsible to pay everything that a workers compensation insurance provider would cover.
So, who should buy this additional policy? Anyone who has a decent amount of money and/or value in the home, and is hiring uninsured workers to work on their property. If you are in a poor financial situation, this coverage may not be necessary because you can only be sued for what you are able to pay. This is, of course, open to all kinds of interpretation so if you are in doubt, purchase the coverage. It’s not that expensive and it can save you tons if something were to happen.
