Hi everybody! This is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and we are closing
in on finishing up counting down the top 10 roofing mistakes that homeowners make
and how you can avoid them. And today we're talking about mistake number two
choosing a roofer that's not fully insured. If you see a roofing contractor
driving around in this truck and on the truck it says fully insured or you see
his website and his website says fully insured or any of his mailers say fully
insured that doesn't mean that the roofing contractor really is fully
insured. So what is fully insured really mean well you want to make sure that the
roofing contractor that you hire has enough insurance and the right kind of
insurance to protect you in case anything happens on your property. Let's
say something on your property gets damaged big plate glass window gets
smashed because a ladder fell through it or something like that. General liability
insurance is what a contractor has to protect you against loss of property
damage. So if something on your property gets damaged general liability insurance
on the part of the contractor is there to pay for those damages and to restore
you back to pre-damaged condition. But let's say somebody gets injured on your
property well then what do you do? Well workers comp insurance workers
compensation insurance is the insurance that a contractor has to be able to pay
employees or subcontractors who get injured on the job or on your property.
So if you've hired a contractor who either himself or his subcontractors
don't have workers comp insurance there is a possibility that the personal
injury lawyers that get involved could come after you. So what should you do?
Well first of all you want to make sure that the roofing contractor that you're
looking at hiring has both general liability insurance to protect you
against property damage and workers compensation insurance to protect you in
case somebody gets injured on your property. Now here's a bonus tip on how
you can absolutely make sure that your contractor has this insurance. So
sometimes if a homeowner is astute enough to ask the
contractor if he has this insurance he might you know open up this folder and
pull out some insurance certificates that show that he has that coverage. But
you don't know if those certificates have been counterfeited or not. They may
not be real. So here's what you can do to make sure that you get validation that
your contractor actually has the insurance. Have the contractor have his
agent mail or email you a copy of his insurance certificate and the
certificate has to show that the policy is in force meaning it can't be past its
expiration date. Once you get that either a hard copy or an email copy you can
call the agent and just make sure that it's a valid certificate. The reason that
I say that is because we had a subcontractor that wanted to work for us
one time we got an email copy of the insurance certificate something just didn't
feel right about it so I called the insurance agent that was listed on the
certificate and asked about that roofer and he said oh no I haven't insured that
person for years so you got to do your homework you have to be careful out
there because there's lots of people out there that want to take your money away
from you. You want to make sure that you're protecting yourself and your
property. I hope this video has been helpful for you but if you've got any
questions please give us a call right up here at our phone number 719.433.6991
you can also visit our website and that's
right down here at HomesteadRoofingColorado.com where we've got a ton of
information out there if you like this video and it's been helpful please give
us a thumbs up and leave us a comment in the comment section down below let us
know what you thought about this video we'd also love it if you'd subscribe to
our channel and click the bell icon up there so that way you get notified when
we've got new videos. Now there's only one more video in this series and it's
the top biggest roofing mistake that people make so you're not going to want
to miss that so until the next video I'm Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing.