By Katie J. Rice.

Remodeling your home?  Expanding your patio? Working on your roof?  Prior to renovating your home, take a moment and think: do the workers have insurance? This is especially important depending on the worker, the type of job, and the likelihood or potential for injuries.  

While you might not be directly responsible for injuries to workers that occur on your owner-occupied residential property, you are always better off hiring a reputable company with both workers’ compensation and commercial general liability coverage.  

If you hire a contractor to perform any construction on your home, confirm the contractor has workers’ compensation insurance.  Under Indiana law, if the contractor has employees or subcontractors, the contractor must have workers’ compensation coverage for his employees.  If an employee is injured on the job and the contractor does not have workers’ compensation insurance, the Workers’ Compensation Board will take action against the contractor.  

However, if a contractor does not have workers’ compensation coverage and a worker is injured on the job, the worker may try to file suit against you and allege a defect on the property of your home.  As such, it is in your best interest to confirm the entire crew has insurance before they get started on your home.  

Katie Rice concentrates her practice in the areas of insurance defense and workers’ compensation.