NAP Consumer Tip: Is Your Painter’s Insurance Up To Date?

This is the first in a series NAP provides to protect the consumer when contracting to hire a painter. 

When you’re shopping around for a painter or paint company to do work on your house or business, there’s more to the process than just picking colors and accepting the bid for the job.

Is their insurance up to date?

Every reputable paint company will have a current general liability and worker’s compensation policy, so that if an unforeseen accident should occur or someone gets hurt, you aren’t stuck with paying for the damages yourself.

However, buyer beware, certain paint companies and individual painters who “cut corners” will pay the first premium, then let the policy lapse to save money. It also allows them to offer a lower bid price. Their assumption is that you, the consumer, won’t know the difference, when they show you the certificate.

“As soon as you accept a painter’s bid, you should first get a copy of their insurance certificate, then take the extra step to call that insurance carrier to see if the policy is still current,” said Peter Berke, owner of NAP. “If something should happen, say a ladder falls on your car or one of the painters injures himself on the job, the insurance company covers the liability, not the customer.”

Terms:

General liability: A standard insurance policy issued to business organizations to protect them against liability claims for bodily injury (BI) and property damage (PD) arising out of premises, operations, products, and completed operations; and advertising and personal injury (PI) liability.

Workers’ Compensation: Workers’ compensation is a publicly-sponsored system that pays monetary benefits to workers who become injured or disabled in the course of their employment.

North Atlantic Painting is always up-to-date on our insurance and we invite you to call us to show proof. We will be happy to send you a copy of our certificate and provide you with the phone number to follow up with our insurance carrier. Please call us at 207-236-0703 (ask for Peter) or email us at napainting@gmail.com (Maine).