Liability insurance

Vernon P. James

Any other contractors in New York state having hard time getting liablity insurance? Our company in business for 27 years never had one claim. Last year company that had been with 10 plus years wouldn't renew due to mold concerns. Lots of looking and shopping finally got a company to take on but premium up 20%. They want to raise another 15 % this year but still keep me. Shopping around again and getting turn downs for mold, that I replace oil tanks, and that I install boilers. Who else is supposed to install this stuff if us legitimate contractors can't get insurance?

John Ruhnke1

We Need a cap on what lawyers earn per court case

Vernan,

There is a very simple solution to all of this. This country needs to put a cap on the amount a law firm can earn per court case. Stop the high earnings off of percentage of court winnings. These lawyers are raising the court claims by huge amounts to fill there own pockets. They go to the best schools and learn how to convince a jury to pay out these huge somes. The lawyer will earn millions as a percentage off of a multi million dollar settlement. This of course raises insurrence prices by huge amounts. Did you know that there are a few major litigation magazines dedicated just to mold? One is called the Mold Review. These lawyers read these magazines to learn how to find potential law suits that will earn them millions and how to win in court. They are getting rich and we are going broke. The cap would put these magazines out of business. What lawyer would read the Mold review for a possibility of only winning $25,000?

JR

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Gary Fereday

Now that is \"business regulation\" I can

Understand. All lawyers could be under that cap. That would do us a great service in medicine, accident, business. HUMMMmmmm what a sweet thought. Downside, many "would be lawyers" would find work in our trade, could we then be in jeproday of imcompetant workman? Are the Lawyers now doing "F/R ? % wise" ? whatever! bigugh

Heatermon

Not just N.Y.

We are here in Calif. and are experiencing the same thing. We have been with the same company for over 10 years, with no claims and have just been told they will not renew us at any price. Mold, litigation costs, 911, and even the low returns from the stock market have all been cited as reasons. We are going to have to raise prices and hope for the best over this, but are hearing some people dropping coverage all together and hopeing for the best. If all goes bad, I guess they can always declare bankruptcy and start over. Don't laugh, I've seen it happen too many times. A good friend of mine is closing down his garage door business (on paper only) and re-opening under a new name and corporation to get his insurance costs down (from 200K to 120K on 8 mil. revenue). They are willing to insure new businesses cheaper because of less exposure to lawsuits from previously done work. If you remember, an aircraft company went out of business a few years ago because of lawsuits from planes it made over 20 years previously. From a business standpoint it makes sense to start over every few years to eliminate potential problems that could come up from years past. It's a shame, but it's where we're currently at. I hope we can get past this so we can get back to what we do best - worrying who's gonna win the Super Bowl :-).

Looking for an insurance miracle,

I om the Heatermon

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Tony Conner

The Other Way..

...it works is that lawyers can't take a cut of any award. They still charge whatever their hourly fees add up to. It's like that here (Canada), and there are not many lunatic lawsuits because of that. The other side of the coin, though, is that sometimes there are people who have legitimate cause to sue, but don't, because they can't afford it.

John Ruhnke1

Sometimes better off with no insurrence

The lawyers need the deep pocket of the insurence industry to collect on these huge claims. They earn their million dollar check from them. If a plumbing company is only worth, lets say $100,000, then the lawyer says to him self that it is not worth the agrivation to sue for a 25% or $25,000 earning. So he pass's up the job and tells the client he is not interested in the case. The client can't find a good lawyer so he just gives up trying. Or maybe they both settle out of court for a quick $10,000. $10,000 is less money than I pay for insurence in a year. What if I banked all my money and quit all my insurence. After a cuople of years I could have quite a sum. Enough to litigate any court cases brought against me. Of course all this banked money would be my personal money, not corperate money so the lawyers couldn't touch it, right? Hmmmmmmmmm Sometimes I wounder. Now I have insurence. I'm not really serious about quiting it. Just brainstorming here.

JR

JR

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Starch

Shakespeare had the right idea (no message)

Jackchips

Just a thought.

If everyone's insurance costs are going up, shouldn't everyones costs rise the same and therefore all will be equal?

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

Our insurance company

tells us what jobs we can work on. No condos and nothing over 4 units. And that's not a bad thing becuase those are the jobs with the greatest number of headaches.

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Paul_11

Liability Insurance

How right you all are. My insurance was $27,000 last year. The company that I had last year won't insure contractors anymore. The first quote I got this year was $130,000. The second one was $120,000. The third one I got was $75,000. I finally got one for $69,000 and may sign shortly. I'm waiting for one more quote. This is for $250,000 in "field" payroll. I had no claims last year. Two very small one in 2001, but I had about $20,000 grand in 2000. It was a bad year for claims for us.
We definitely raised our rates.
It does give you something to talk about when customers have a price complaint.
Start getting quotes 3 or 4 months in advance of renewal. Don't leave it up to your agent. Get additional quotes.
Good Luck to All in 2003
Paul
A Real Good Plumber, Inc.

One thing to remember is that Insurance companies only require three years of loss records. Don't give them more. And if you don't have and monitor your loss record, you better start. I just got a bogus one removed that should never have even been there.

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