Oklahoma cities, towns required to ensure contractors are covered
Insurance: Burden of proof
BY RICHARD MIZE
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3
Published: November 5, 2009
Your brother and his sons are helping you add a room to your house. If one of the boys whacks off one of his fingers with a circular saw, your homeowners policy will probably cover him, if your brother’s insurance doesn’t.
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Requiring proof of insurance
The law, which went into effect this week, requires cities, towns and counties that issue residential building permits to get proof that commercial contractors taking out the permits are insured or exempt.
The law also requires local officials to get proof that contractors have general liability insurance, which covers property damage, as well.
"It assures you that if you’ve got a contractor on your property doing some work and he causes damage to some other part of your property — let’s say he drops a hammer through the windshield of your Mercedes, or he’s working on a new roof and it leaks and ruins your wood floor and dining table — he’s covered,” said Oklahoma City homebuilder Mark Dale.
Construction contractors who carry insurance "are more professional,” said Dale, owner of Carriage Homes in Oklahoma City and chairman of the Oklahoma State Home Builders Association’s legislative committee.
"It’s a strong indicator of trying to do the right thing,” said Dale, who also will be president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association for the second time, after 20 years, in 2010.
Contractors in areas where no local government issues building permits — and that’s a lot of Oklahoma — are not affected by the law.
Dale said that "more than 50 percent” of homebuilding in and around Lawton, Enid and Stillwater, for example, is left untouched by the law because the construction is not taking place within the cities’ limits.
All construction in the state could be covered if state lawmakers required licensing of builders, Dale said, but "the climate right now, politically, is not strong for licensing.”
What some are doing
The law leaves it to local governments to decide how to gather information from contractors. Most have procedures in place. The Oklahoma County Planning Department is still working on its process, a spokeswoman said.
The Oklahoma Municipal League points to the city of Edmond’s approach, and its use of an insurance verification form, as an example for municipalities, said Missy Dean, intergovernmental relations director.
In Edmond, contractors must bring proof of workers comp and liability insurance, and complete the verification form each time they apply for a permit, said John Keefe, who works in government affairs for the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association.
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Politics, Business, Real Estate, Personal Finance, Local Politics, Insurance, Homeowner's Insurance
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So, it is now the LIABILITY of local governments to "police" contractors, instead of the homeowners responsibility to check out their contractors and simply ask them for that information before hiring a "contractor" to do work on their propert? What else are we going to pay city employees to be responsible for, that JOHN Q. PUBLIC should be doing on their own?
Can property owners simply not say to their contractor "Could you include copies of your insurance information with your estimate?" SIMPLE AS THAT! And we hear so much about "bad contractors", which, I know there are many, but we never hear about the "BAD" property owners who don't pay the contractor when they are finished,the homeowners who get their large projects completed and file bankruptcy, who tie-up a contractors funds, time and operations when they have to drag your theiving butts into court for a year-long ordeal, and never have a chance in hell of recovering costs of court fees, lawyers fees, not to mention interest.
What office do contractors call at City Hall so they can fill out the form to have the city check out the property owners before a permit is issued for their property? Will property owners now be required to file a current credit report with the city when the contractor submits the insurance info EVERY TIME a permit is applied for?
Who is being paid (and for that matter, how much?) to call all of the certificate information in EACH time and verify that the insurance coverage hasn't lapsed? Since the city is responsible for collecting the information, I guess they are liable if the coverage lapses and the policy does not cover the project or property.
How many people does my insurance company have to hire to answer the phones all day, just to verify the coverages in effect, if any?
HOW MUCH WILL OUR INSURANCE RATES RISE? (Oh, Did you think it would only affect the commercial lines insurance? No...that is called the trickle-down effect.) There are no insurance companies that have JUST commercial lines. So the added labor will flow to ALL insurance rates. Auto, life, health, your children's coverages, yours,.. mine and so on. Some have the misconception that rates should be lower since the insurance companies will have soooo much more money rolling in now. Haha, or as the kids text these days, lol! Supply and demand...Now that there is such a demand for coverage, why would they make it cheaper? Kinda works like the price of gasoline, again, LOL! A friend once told my husband, "You know, 15 years ago, when gasoline was just 99 CENTS a gallon, it cost my company 6 dollars a barrel to get that oil out of the ground. I made pretty good money back then. Now that gasoline is almost 4 DOLLARS a gallon, you know how much that oil costs me to get it out of the ground today?
$6.00 a barrel!"
Do you still think they will lower insurance costs?
This HB 306 was not very well thought out, or planned.
Read more: http://www.newsok.com/lettertotheeditor?redirect=/article/3414731?searched=Burden%20of%20Proof&custom_click=search#ixzz0X3IeAtKq
What else are we going to pay city employees to be responsible for that JOHN Q. PUBLIC should be doing?
And by the way...we hear so much about "bad contractors", which, I know there are many, but we never hear about the "BAD" property owners who don;t pay their contractor. Who get their large projects completyed and file bankruptcy, who tie-up a contractors funds, time and operations when they have to drag your theiving butts into court for a year, and never have a chance in hel,l of recovering costs of court fees, lawyers fees and interest.
What office do I call at City Hall so I can fill out the form to make the city check out the property owner before a permit is issued for their property? Will property owners now be required to file a current credit report with the city, when the contractors submits the insurance info EVERYTIME a permit is applied for?
Who is being paid (and for that mnatter, how much?) to call all of the certioficate information in EACH time and verify that the insurance coverage hasn;t lapsed?
How many people does my insurance company have to hire to answer the phones all day, just to verify the coverage? How much will that make the insurance rates rise? Oh...Did you think it would only affect the commercial lines insurance? No...that is called the trickle-down effect. There are no insurance companies that have JUST commercial lines. So the added labor will flow to ALL insurance rates. Your and mine.
This HB 306 was not very well thought out, or planned.
Most of the crappy ones around Yukon/Mustang are running without, and it shows....