Backyard landscape

[phau]

What is the name of your state? CA

We contracted someone to do our backyard lanscaping. Are we liable if one of the workers he brings in gets injure on the job? How do we protect ourselves? The contractor has a C27 Lanscaping license with an exemption from having workers compensation insurance certifying that they have no employee at this time.

 

[ENASNI]

um

How can he have a worker and yet no employee?
You just confused me with this post...
Someone else will probably come along with an answer..

 

[tryingtoplease]

What is the name of your state? CA

We contracted someone to do our backyard lanscaping. Are we liable if one of the workers he brings in gets injure on the job? How do we protect ourselves? The contractor has a C27 Lanscaping license with an exemption from having workers compensation insurance certifying that they have no employee at this time.

This really pisses me off. These bozo's can go out and contract a job cheaper than those who are legally in business. Unless these "workers" are indpendent contractors he subcontracts with (i.e., in business for themselves), they are his employees. Sure, it's cheaper to operate this way but what happens when the "worker" gets hurt? My workers comp rate almost drove me out of business (over $30 per $100 of payroll) but there is no way around it. Not to mention other associated payroll costs. But to stay in business you need to offer quality service at a competetive rate. Hiring "contractors" who try to skirt the issue will backfire.

 

[ENASNI]

Um

Something tells me this "worker" was not "legal".

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? CA

We contracted someone to do our backyard lanscaping. Are we liable if one of the workers he brings in gets injure on the job? How do we protect ourselves? The contractor has a C27 Lanscaping license with an exemption from having workers compensation insurance certifying that they have no employee at this time.

If the workers are not employees of the landscaper (and it sounds like they can't be), and if they are not independent contractors (like tryingtoplease mentions, and whether they are or not depends on CA law, not on what the landscaper says), then they are YOUR employees, and yes, you'll be responsible if one of them gets hurt -- or if one of them hurts someone else, or damages someone else's property, while working on your landscaping. You could also be potentialy liable if one of them drives off to Home Depot for more supplies and gets into an accident.

I hope you have a good homeowner's insurance policy!

You need to find out for sure what is going on. The other workers almost certainly will not be independent contractors under CA law (just saying they are in order to avoid paying payroll taxes is insufficient to make them independent contractors), so you could potentially have a lot of liability on your hands if anything were to go wrong. You just may have to switch landscapers.