Greg discusses what to look for when working on your home in this episode of Ask The Expert. 800 CHAB radio presents Ask the Expert with Greg Marcyniuk of Heritage Insurance located in Moose Jaw.
Here's a full transcript of the episode.
Rob Carnie: Featuring Greg Marcyniuk from Heritage Insurance today. Greg, during this COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are taking time and spending money on home renovations. And that's a topic that's been coming up at Heritage Insurance recently. Tell me more.
Greg Marcyniuk: Yeah. Whether your addition is going to be large or small, Rob, you want to make sure that you are properly covered under your home insurance policy, so that you insure that the project goes on smoothly, and that you do have proper coverage in place.
So, whether you're working with a contractor or doing it by yourself, first of all, if you are hiring a contractor, it's very important that you hire a reputable general contractor. One of the things that you want to ask is whether or not they have general liability, and ask that you are added on as an additional insured. Also, I prefer that you get a copy of that from your contractor that you do hire.
The other thing is you want to establish whether or not you need a builder's risk, and whether the contractor will purchase that builder's risk, or whether you will actually purchase it yourself. So, again, another very important factor to contact us and go through and talk about these things.
Now, as far as a do-it-yourselfer, you know, you are adding on additional risk on your home insurance policy. So you want to make sure that you do have the proper coverages in place. And, if you are hiring any subcontractors, you want to make sure you get a certificate of insurance or a copy of their policies when they do come in and do that work.
Now, if you've got your brother-in-law, or friends coming over and they are actually helping you, if something does happen to them and they are injured, your home insurance liability, typically, will provide coverage there for it. And this is a great time to add on umbrella liability coverage. The umbrella coverage is separate from your home and will provide extra coverage there as well.
They say that one in four remodeling projects increase the value of your home up to 25% of the value of your home. It's a great idea to sit down and add this on prior to your building, because it will provide coverages then for you.
The other thing that you should be very cautious about is contractor fraud. There's a lot of people out there looking for work right now, Rob. So, when contractors contact you looking for work, you should be a little bit wary. As well, be wary of unsolicited free home inspections - where they turn up problems that weren't there before and you weren't aware of, and they're offering discounted rates for that day only.
As well, beware of these contractors that want to do the repairs immediately. And also, contractors that are asking for money in advance - you never want to do that because you're just opening up a can of worms.
As well, another dangerous type is fraud of using home insurance, where they can say, "Oh, we can put this through your home insurance." You've got to be very careful there. Claims have to be put in first. And if they do that, you could be liable for insurance fraud.
So, these are just some tips for those of you that are looking at doing some remodeling on your home.
Rob: And some great tips they are. We've all heard stories about nightmares. People getting work done on their home, and that then, like you said, paying up front and not getting the money back and not seeing the contractor again. So, great tips. And there's insurance. You can get insurance in place to protect yourself, and we can find these tips online.
Greg: Yes. You can go to our website, or just come on down to the corner of 1st and Fairford, and we'd be more than happy to help you out here.
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