Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: liability insurance

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Mike Malone  minnmal [at] qwest.net formerly MINNMAL [at] USWEST.NET
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it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] cohousing.org

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We take the worker-liability concern pretty seriously here, as we're 
aware of food coops that didn't, and have had big problems. Minnesota 
requires that self-employed people either have workers' compensation 
themselves or have signed a waiver stating they have opted out of it. We 
have a workmen's comp policy anyway (strongly encouraged by our other 
insurer that holds our umbrella policy), but if we can show that we've 
requested and received copies of the insurance policies of all the 
contractors that work for us, we get a rebate on the premium at the end 
of the year. So -- any time we hire workers (cleaning people, snow 
plowing, various fix-it folks like plumbers, electricians, etc.) we 
require that they give us a copy of their liability coverage and their 
workers' comp coverage.  Even if you think the individual "would never" 
sue you, you have no guarantee that their health insurer won't.