Am I responsible if a contractor gets harmed by wildlife on my property?

[ntx511]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I Live in an area which is unincorporated, virtually in farm country. My house sits on 6+ acres of land and I can not keep up with the cutting of vegetation due to late rains in my region. Weeds grow overnight.
The area I am living in is the border of TX and OK on the south side of Texas panhandle, affectionately known as "rattler" country. One of my contractors killed a baby rattle snake last summer about 20 feet from my house's side entrance. So, I know they are everywhere and high vegetation growth isn't helping my case.
I have contractors coming and going for renovations, inside and outside of my house. They crawl under the house and work on the walls outside, exposed to the elements.

I'm afraid that one of them will get bit by a rattle snake or a spider etc. In case such a thing happens, am I responsible for their medical expenses and open to lawsuits for pain and suffering, etc.?

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I Live in an area which is unincorporated, virtually in farm country. My house sits on 6+ acres of land and I can not keep up with the cutting of vegetation due to late rains in my region. Weeds grow overnight.
The area I am living in is the border of TX and OK on the south side of Texas panhandle, affectionately known as "rattler" country. One of my contractors killed a baby rattle snake last summer about 290 feet from my house's side entrance. So, I know they are everywhere and high vegetation growth isn't helping my case.
I have contractors coming and going for renovations, inside and outside of my house. They crawl under the house and work on the walls outside, exposed to the elements.

I'm afraid that one of them will get bit by a rattle snake or a spider etc. In case such a thing happens, am I responsible for their medical expenses and open to lawsuits for pain and suffering, etc.?

Are these licensed contractors or handyman?

 

[quincy]

They should be insured.

 

[ntx511]

These are usually one-man-show contractors. Probably taking them as "handyman" is not a big stretch. I'm sure they are licensed where they generally work but they do side jobs like they do on my property. They come to my place with referrals from my wife's church congregation. And one brings another for some specialty things. Like the guy doing the drywall, bring the electrician to run the wires and connect switches, outlets and lights etc. At some point, all of them need to crawl under the house to run wires or plumbing and this is where I am afraid they are gonna get bitten by a rattle snake as I have no way of knowing if one crawled under my house or not. Therefore I have no idea if they are individually insured or not but my guess is on the NOT side as most of them are Latino origin. From my days in so cali, I know they are not big on insurance of any kind.

 

[quincy]

These are usually one-man-show contractors. Probably taking them as "handyman" is not a big stretch. I'm sure they are licensed where they generally work but they do side jobs like they do on my property. They come to my place with referrals from my wife's church congregation. And one brings another for some specialty things. Like the guy doing the drywall, bring the electrician to run the wires and connect switches, outlets and lights etc. At some point, all of them need to crawl under the house to run wires or plumbing and this is where I am afraid they are gonna get bitten by a rattle snake as I have no way of knowing if one crawled under my house or not. Therefore I have no idea if they are individually insured or not but my guess is on the NOT side as most of them are Latino origin. From my days in so cali, I know they are not big on insurance of any kind.

Ask them for proof of liability insurance. Or increase your own insurance to cover a lawsuit filed against you by one of your contractors, should the contractor be bitten or otherwise injured on your property.

I personally would not hire anyone who was not licensed and insured. It increases the risk to you if they aren’t.

You might also want to have poison control on speed dial.

 

[zddoodah]

In part, it depends on the terms of the contract you have with these folks. You should do two things: (1) advise them of the presence of known hazards - both verbally and in writing - and obtain written, signed acknowledgment that you have advised them (ideally, you should do this for each individual who works on the property); and (2) make sure your homeowner's insurance is adequate and in force.

 

[adjusterjack]

These are usually one-man-show contractors. Probably taking them as "handyman" is not a big stretch.

Then if you want to avoid being sued, treat them as your own subcontractors. Buy a workers compensation insurance policy under your name covering them for work related injuries. Then, their only recourse would be the workers compensation coverage and they would not be permitted to sue. If they did sue, it would be dismissed quickly.

 

[quincy]

Here is a link to a CDC blog on snakes, with information on what employers and employees can do to prevent snake bites, and on what employers and employees should do and should not do if someone is bitten.

https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2019/07/09/snakes/

 

[commentator]

In that part of the world, yes, in my subjective experience there are definitely snakes, everywhere, always. The thing that old cowboy movies never showed. The folks that would come out to your house as a brush cutter, handyman, not a formal contractor is probably not going to be a professional, they'd be doing it cause they need a little quick hand money. Make sure you protect yourself from suits by being properly insured, all the steps listed above. Snake tongs are a useful tool. Be careful of old farm equipment sitting around on the property, for some reason that's a favorite location, know some examples of this.

 

[Taxing Matters]

What is the name of your state? Texas

I'm afraid that one of them will get bit by a rattle snake or a spider etc. In case such a thing happens, am I responsible for their medical expenses and open to lawsuits for pain and suffering, etc.?

Whether you'd be liable for the injuries depends very much on the facts, including whether the person is your employee and whether you have worker's comp insurance that covers the employee. There are some key issues that would determine how that shakes out. The first are whether the person is your employee and whether you have worker's comp coverage for the worker.

Just because the job is a temp job for a few hours or a few days does not automatically mean the person is not your employee. This point is critical to get right because if the person is your employee that impacts a lot more than just the issue of liability for injuries sustained on the job. It also affects your tax responsibilities and affects whether you are subject to things like minimum wage and hour laws, etc.

Note that even if the person is an employee, that person is considered exempt under the worker's comp law if the person is a domestic or casual employee engaged in employment incidental to a personal residence or is a farm or ranch employee. You may elect to get worker's comp for a casual worker, but if you do, you are subject to all the worker's comp rules. If you run a business out of your home, then that raises the risk that person you hire might end up being considered an employee of the business rather than a casual employee doing work incidental to a residence, which in turn changes the rules you need to know.

There is also the issue of whether your homeowner's policy would cover any claims, and if not, whether your homeowner's company will provide that coverage for an extra premium. If you can get sufficient coverage that way for less than what worker's comp insurance would cost you that might be the better option.

I suggest you start by asking your homeowner's insurance if your policy covers this and if not, what it would cost you to add that as extra coverage. Aslo contact a worker's comp insurer and ask if you are eligible to get worker's comp coverage in this situation and what that will cost you. Either way, having insurance is the best financial protection you can have should one of these workers gets injured and wants you to pay compensation for the injury. If worker's comp coverage applies, then a worker's comp claim is the worker's sole remedy. If there is no worker's comp coverage but your homeowner's policy covers it, the insurer will pay for the attorney needed to represent you if the worker sues you. If the person you hire is not your employee and you don't have any kind of insurance to cover this then you are generally only liable for the worker's damages from a snake bite if you were in some way negligent, e.g. not taking reasonable steps to keep snakes away from the work area, etc. Even if you have a good defense that you were not negligent, defending against the lawsuit can still cost you a lot of money. That's the benefit of insurance. You don't have pay for the legal costs if there's insurance coverage and insurer pays the worker if you lose, up to the policy limit.

 

[quincy]

Here is a link to the Texas Department of Insurance workers’ compensation insurance guide:

https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/consumer/cb030.html#:~:text=Texas doesn’t require most,employees working on the project.