There is not any such thing to be over protective when it comes to your home and your finances. There are plenty of roofing contractors out there which are willing to bend the rules to simplify things for themselves, resulting in problems for you and your roof. Even honest contractors make mistakes every occasionally. That’s why it is critical to know these 4 simple ways to protect yourself whenever choosing a roofing contractor.
Workers Compensation
Problem: You hire a roofing contractor to repair a leak on your own roof. One of their employees decides never to use proper safety procedures and falls, breaking his leg. The employee holds you responsible to pay his medical expenses, because he was hurt on your own property.
Solution: Roofers Compensation is a kind of insurance covering roofing injuries. If a roofing contractor has workers compensation, any injured employees have entitlement to recover expenses for hospital bills and being out of work. Be Illinois weather challenges that your roofing contractor has workers compensation so you are saved the difficulty and expenses of paying those bills yourself.
Liability Insurance
Problem: Your roofing contractor leaves your roof uncovered after removing your shingles. That night there is an unexpected storm. Water seeps into your house and damages your sheet rock, carpet plus some nice furniture. Your roofing contractor has liability insurance, but you can find exclusions preventing coverage of the interior of your building. You end up paying to repair the damages yourself.
Solution: If damage occurs to your house or building this is the fault of a roofing contractor, you want to be sure they have good liability insurance. This can cover anything from broken windows to damaged interiors as stated in the problem above. Some contractors have liability insurance, but their insurance provider offers so many exclusions that it is almost like there is no coverage at all. Search for coverage that doesn’t exclude water damage resulting from leaving a roof open.
Business License
Problem: You hire a fresh roofing company to focus on your roof. A few months later you notice a leak. You make an effort to contact the company, but can’t find their information. You make an effort to look them up by their business license and you find that there was never a small business license issued for that company. You are forced to cover the repairs yourself.
Solution: Check in advance that your roofing contractor has a business license. If they don’t possess a license, it could be a sign that they don’t know what they are doing. The company could easily disappear or go out of business.
In hawaii of Utah, your roofing company should have a shingle license and an over-all roofing license to set up a pitched roof. A set roof installation only requires a general roofing license.
A general contractor is legally in a position to install a roof with out a roofing license if they have an over-all contractor license. However, there have been a lot of cases of contractors branching out and installing roofs themselves when they lack the proper training. This causes problems for building owners in addition to home owners. It is ideal for a general contractor to have a roofing license as well as their general contractors license.
In Utah, the number for a general roofing licence is S280. The general contractors license is B100.
If your roofing contractor is in the center of working on your roof and you find that they have given fraudulent business license information, (in Utah) you have the option to terminate their service immediately. You are not required to pay anything to the contractor since they were operating illegally. You can then find a qualified contractor to fix your roof and finish the job.
Lien Waiver
Problem: Your roof has been completed and you also pay the contractor. However, a couple weeks later, the contractor’s supplier contacts you requesting a payment for the materials installed on your own roof. You discover that your contractor didn’t pay his supplier and that you are now responsible for that payment. This has happened and can happen to you.
Solution: Be sure to request a lien waiver once the job is completed and before you pay. A lien waiver simply states that when the contractor fails to make his payments to a supplier or employees, you aren’t responsible to cover them. It really is ultimately in place to protect the house or building owner from paying twice. In the event that you receive the lien waiver before you pay, it really is conditional upon your payment. However, once your payment has cleared, the lien waver becomes unconditional without any additional paperwork.