If you are a contractor in the Greater Toronto area you have a lot of responsibilities, including business risk management. No matter if you are a small contractor working for other companies or a major contractor with large projects, risk factors are an important part of your business. In fact, the right kind of contactors insurance can mean the difference between failure and success. Here is an example.
Henry L worked as a plumber and for years he enjoyed the work. However, Henry always wanted to be his own boss and dreamed of starting up his own home improvement company. For years, this was just a fantasy, and then one day he unexpectedly received a financial windfall. This was his big opportunity. Henry hired a crew and Henry’s Home Improvement
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Henry’s agent found him affordable contractor insurance. Whenever Henry needed advice on risk management, he now had a professional to turn to.
Henry’s first project went well and before long he was working full-time with a lot of satisfied customers. However, this changed about a year later. His home improvement company was sued by a former customer. The customer paid for a room addition and Henry’s electrician made a mistake with the wiring. A 15 amp circuit was installed with a 30 amp breaker instead of 15 amp breaker. Over time, this caused the wiring to overheat and eventually a fire developed. In fact, the fire spread and burned down the entire house.
Henry called his insurance professional and received good news. Because he had a full contractor’s insurance package he was fully covered for the incident, and was able to stay in business.
What is a Contractors Insurance?
This coverage is designed to meet the needs of the modern day contractor. It includes your crew, equipment, and legal liabilities. This way, you do not have to come up with a large amount of cash when financial problems
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Business property insurance for your structures and buildings
Contractors Insurance Options
Your insurance agent may recommend these insurance options for your business:
Builders risk or course of construction coverage. What would you do if one of your projects were suddenly destroyed by an act of nature, while it as partially completed? Builder’s risk insurance is there to pay for the damages.
Installation floater – specialized builder’s risk policy to cover specific items or property.
Surety bonds – you may want to bid on certain jobs (like government and large corporation projects). A bond guarantees the customer that your company can complete the project.
By-law insurance – covers additional repairs or expenses related to violation of building codes.
Tool and equipment insurance
Contractor’s liability – errors and omissions coverage for contractors. Just one simple mistake could end up in a financial nightmare, and this liability insurance covers these issues.
Wrap-up liability coverage – insurance package deal. A typical wrap up policy can take care of most of your risk factors. It may include vehicle insurance, property insurance, and liability coverage, and this can include insurance for your
This is a complex case, involving multiple parties and several variables that need to be examined thoroughly. The parties mentioned include Knarles operator of the facility maintenance company, his son Barkley, their employee, a licensed plumber, and Mr. Chetum. Although in the end Chetum is suing the facilities maintenance firm for a breach of contract, all factors must be examined to determine proper fault.
Engineers, contractors, and other businesses must be mindful of and knowledgeable of their legal obligations when performing their occupation or supplying a product. Negligence in the design or construction of a product that results in damage or bodily harm, or could result in damage or bodily harm, can result in liability for economic loss under Canadian Tort law. Engineers, architects, and contractors need to be respectful of their duty of care to ensure their product is precisely produced with no danger of negligence.
In 1982 the company began offering homeowner's insurance and this venture also proved to be financially successful for the company. The vast majority of the homes insured by 20th Century are located in the Valley cites and at one time the homeowner's insurance made up about 10% of the company's business, however, to date it onl...
“To make your company competitive and attractive to job candidates you have to offer an exceptional total benefits package” (Obringer, 2003, para.1). This is especially true in the current economic environment. The employee’s needs are changing so businesses are having to rethink their compensation and benefits packages. The home improvement industry is no exception to this phenomenon. Companies like Ace Hardware, Lowes Home Improvement, and The Home Depot have had to adapt their benefits packages to stay competitive in an industry with an ever-changing employee demographic. The following pages will include a comparison of all the benefits offered by Ace Hardware, Lowes Home Improvement, and The Home Depot, as well as, a glimpse into whether or not their strategies seem to have been successful. The majority of the benefits are available to all employees, but some of them are only available to corporate team members. To make sure that all of the available benefits are covered and for comparisons sake, the focus of this report will be on the corporate level of benefits. Also due to the wide salary ranges between low level employees and corporate employees, this report will not focus on salaries.
Henry had raised the pay that he gave his workers. Also, he treated them with respect and helped them with what they needed help with like health insurance. Henry thought for sure that if he raised the pay of the workers, it would make them and the family happier. In return of that, he assumed that since t...
Henry spent most of his time with his only friend, Edsel Ruddiman, when he wasn’t taking solitary walks. Henry began his first job in 1880 – after turning 17 – working for the Michigan Car Company. Although it was a high paying job of $1.10 a day, he soon got fired for quickly solving a problem that embarrassed several employees. Henry’s next job was with the Flower Brothers, getting paid $2.50 a week. Since that wasn’t enough, he took on a job at night for 50 cents a night.
Insurance is as ancient as Babylon. The first policy dates back to 2100 B.C.; specifically, it is the Code of Hammurabi. A loan from a trader made certain his valuable cargo traveled safe from the harm of thieves or storms (Marples). The term changed drastically through the ages, and insurance is now a mess of premiums, tiers, and co-payments. It may most commonly be known as a negative number on a check stub that ensures health and safety. There exists not one company that covers everything on just one plan, but a step forward may change that.
The engineer breached the duty of care through failing his/her duty to warn by providing insufficient warning on the limitation of the application. His/her software application caused the structural firm to designed a defective bridge and was the direct cause of many deaths. The junior engineer should be held liable for his/her product due to the principle known as product liability. This is evident in the case study because deaths and injuries due to defective product as a result of the software were foreseeable. Looking at the 1971 case of Lambert v. Lastoplex Chemicals Co. Limited et al., the manufacturers must not only instruct the user how to properly use the products but also warn the user the consequences of misuse []. This precedent case proves that the engineer failed to warn the structural firm of the limitation of the application as well as failed to warn the consequences of using the application beyond its capabilities. However, the information technology firm may be held vicariously liable for the mistake of the junior engineer as he/she developed the software application during his/her employment. The reason being the employer generally has deeper pocket than the employee [] and the collapse was a result of the junior engineer developing the application under the authority of the employer. Thus, the junior engineer is one of the tortfeasor to which the information firm maybe vicariously liable for his/her
...he firm foresaw the significant probability of harm to firefighters using the training facility and acted to communicate the discovered risks to the government organization awarding them the contract. Communication was essential in persuading the government to address the safety issues because the site met the requirements set forth by law, reducing the perception of risk, and the design choice of replacing jet fuel with liquid propane created the unintended consequence of an increased risk that otherwise may have gone unnoticed if not for the actions of Giffels’ consulting firm. Giffels’ strategy to remain persistent in refusing to complete the contract and highlighting the significant risk his firm discovered proved successful when dealing with a client that at first appeared to have taken a minimalist approach by staying with the minimum requirements of the law.
Risk management is a major success key of project management in business world. With major budget overruns in parallel with significant delays, Sydney Opera House is a real example of poor risk management. Risk management requires effective planning, budgeting, and scheduling. First of all, the highest risks should be identified and evaluated in order to find methods to reduce their impact and exposure. Then, factors that cause risk should be addressed while factors that only correlate with the negative impact but do not affect it may be omitted. At this stage, interrelation between various risks should be accounted for to spot the core factors that should be treated in order to ensure effectively and stability of the project's functioning.
Some include risks at the enterprise level, managing risks in complex projects and dealing with turnarounds and large capital projects. Liu, Zou, & Gong (2013) explore how enterprise risk management (ERM) may influence the ability and performance of project management risk (PRM) by considering the features of the construction industry, its businesses and projects. Managing risks within projects such as these has become an important process to achieve project objectives in terms of the scope, time and cost. The results show that enterprise risk management can positively influence the implementation of project risk management. This can be achieved through implementing a risk focused culture, setting up risk management departments and setting up risk procedures. This will help control the project risk and improve the performance of project risk management. Communicating the concerns with other team members can help identify the risks earlier on rather than later in the development of the project. If the Stakeholders and managers involved are satisfied then the project outline becomes a
Risk management has been one of the major concerns of executives and professionals involved with projects today, especially after the financial crisis that shook the world in 2008.The results of ex-post assessments of project or even verification of lost business opportunities for companies are clear signals that this evidence has become more intense (Junior, 2013).
...e steps that are required to be addressed while coming to deal with vendors. The Proposed idea, looks satisfactory in meeting the outcomes. One thing that should be ensured is that they should incorporate the clauses pertaining to risk in the plan.
Scott Jardine, 2007, “Managing risk in construction projects – how to achieve a successful outcome – an article”, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
In this competitive world, companies have to deal with various types of risk all the time with there projects. Generally, it affects the budget and schedule of the project. So it is important to keep in mind the risk management strategies while creating an initial project plan.