Be Careful Hiring Just Anyone to Work on Your Home

When hiring someone to work on your home for big projects like a new air conditioner or roof you always look for a reliable company. You wouldn’t think of picking someone off the street to fix your electricity and you shouldn’t. Many homeowners, however, don’t think twice about hiring someone they don’t know much about to clean their gutters, wash their windows, or pressure wash their driveway.

You’re probably thinking that it isn’t a big deal either and wonder why this author has even taken time to write an article like this. The reason is because letting someone on your property that isn’t qualified can cost you a lot more in the long run, not only in financial cost but in costs to your homes structure and even legal costs.

Unless your municipality has an ordinance against roadside signs you’ve probably noticed dozens of signs dotting the streets and light poles offering services like pressure washing and other home services. Many of these are from independent handymen or folks wanting to make some extra money or start their own business. If you hire them you probably will get the service completed for a good price and all will be well and you’ll forget about it until you need them again. Of course you may end up like the thousands of consumers each year that get taken when the service isn’t completed even though they paid for it, or damage is done and they have no recourse to recover for damages.

There are so many things that can go wrong when hiring an independent contractor. By not knowing who you are letting onto your property you don’t know who is staking out your house for alarms, open windows and doors, your daily patterns, and learning about other things that will allow them to return to rob your home or hurt your family. Even if they don’t return there is little stopping them from "pocketing" your personal belongings leaving you unable to prove who’s to blame.

Another danger of hiring an independent contractor is that you may be responsible for any injuries they obtain on your property. If a gutter cleaner falls from your roof and breaks his arm, or even worse dies, you may be responsible for his medical bills and you may even be sued. In fact the person cleaning your gutters, or doing other work on your home, may be nothing more than a con artist looking for an opportunity to sue someone like you.

So, how do I protect myself from independent contractors you may ask? The first thing is to make sure that the contractor or entity is bonded, licensed, and insured. You can check on each of these. Just because someone claims to be bonded or insured doesn’t mean they really are. Call the bonding agent or insurance company to confirm. If the contractor isn’t bonded or insured and is claiming to be the bond company or insurer will be happy to get your call. If they are insured and bonded you will have one less thing to worry about.

Check online for information about the contractor if it’s available. One source that compares costs and features of local services is Localprice.com where you can compare Atlanta gutter cleaners as well as many other commons services. Sites like Local Price are a good starting point to find reliable contractors and handymen.

Once you’ve confirmed that the contractor is bonded, insured, and licensed you should check for references. After you get a list of references it’s a good idea, just like above, to call or email a couple of the references. Just because someone list a references doesn’t automatically mean the reference is biased to only say good things. Ask the reference various questions to get a complete picture.

Sure these things seem picky. All you want to do is pay some guy $75 bucks to come out and clean your gutters or do a little maintenance. It shouldn’t be so difficult. The truth is that in today’s world of scam artist, lawsuits, and so many without medical insurance you have to check these things. A few minutes of research can save you thousands of dollars and hours of pain later.