Hey guys,
A couple of questions regarding Liability and Workman’s Comp Insurance here. First things first…I am in California… Bay Area.
I’ve been working for another another GC for quite sometime now. Last year, I received my General B license. I’m still working for my current employer who is paying me as an employee.
I need/want to start moving over to my own business beginning with doing some smaller side jobs (legally and on the books) under my own license while still working for my employer. My employer is aware of this and has no problems with it.
I will begin my “insurance search” this week, and wonder if any of you have any good starting points:
– Any websites that provide rough and/or actual quotes directly, versus you having to give them all your info so they can in return “contact you”?
– Any preferred “local” agents in the Bay Area?
– Any recommeded coverage limits? Does moving up one step greatly increase coverage while only minimally increasing premium, etc? Same for the total dollar amount of work being done.
– Anyone have any rough “going rates” for a newbie starting out? I look at it like this…during the course of the year, the sum total of all side jobs I do, may be anywhere from $10K to $100K. I know it’s a large range, but just look at a range of what a kitchen and/or bath remodel runs.
– When I first received my bond, the agent gave me a couple quotes on both Liability and then on Workman’s comp. I’ll see if I can dig up that info and find it, but it’s over a year old, so things have probably changed.
– I don’t plan on having any employees while starting out, however, I would like to know what to expect in case I do find a job where I need one or two guys. Is there a minimum “starting point”, etc?
Ok….maybe I asked more than a couple questions…but any help would be appreciated.
James
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Replies
Call your local Home Builders Association. In many parts of the country their primary (and sometimes only) function is providing lower cost insurance to home builders. Here in NC we have a HBA Self-insurance group for both General Liability and Workers Comp, the savings more than pay for the membership dues. We also have amazingly good continuing education programs such as Builder 20 and Certified Graduate Builder and Certified Aging in Place Specialist training available to members only. Builder 20 alone has easily tripled my profitability and the quality of the buildings I build. It's also gotten my workweek down to less than 38 hrs per week for the last two years. Good program...
I am aware that they are also a right wing group guilty of much greed based anti-environmental lobbying and legislation. They are also responsible for the NAHB-ICC model green building guidelines which is a great program, far more likely to be a positive influence on global warming and the energy crises than LEED-H and they do a lot of other god work for affordable housing and logical and affordable building codes plus they support the NAHB Research Center which does a lot of good building science research and education. Gotta take the good with the bad.
M
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"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
I got insurance thru Mark Leininger of NEK Insurance in El Cerrito. Definitely check with him. Also, seek out the "Splinter Group", an informal contractor's association that meets around the East Bay--great networking opportunity.
Thanks for the heads up... I will check with NEK this week. David...one question though. Are you up in Washington?Shelter, thanks for the info on the associations....I'll look into that also. I was also checking into the local Chamber of Commerce yesterday.. $375...hmmm..we'll see about that. Can anyone give me any ballpark figures on what to expect, so I know if who I speak to is giving me a decent price at least for:General Liability?
Workman's Comp (with a minimum charge since I don't plan on any employees right now.)?
Self employed "disability" insurance or whatever it's called? (I already carry my own health insurance, but I'm more interested in something that pays me some benefits if I get disabled on the job).Thanks again.
I'm in WA now but lived in the Bay Area for 16 years and still have a CA license.
I'm in MI, and the Commercial liability insurance I have runs me about $1700 per year. I'm listed as doing primariliy interior remodeling work. I also have a disability policy that runs me about $225 a month that's cover me upto about $40,000.00 per year if I get disabled.I set up the disability policy while I was still sitting on my butt working at the computer - if I was a contractor when I set up the policy it probably would have either been denied or been a heckuva lot more expensive - don't know for sure.Regards,JT