[OSGeo-Discuss] Insurance for contractors?

[Landon Blake]

Michael,

I've been toying with the idea of doing some side work in the GIS arena
as a sole-proprietor or an S-Corp. In either case, if I move forward
with this, I would carry some basic business insurance.

Having said that, I can tell you I found it difficult to find a
professional liability insurer that understood the GIS world and was
willing to insure that type of work. I think "typical" business
insurance would be easier to come by.

I can also tell you that insurance requirements are certainly an extra
burden for the sub-consultant. I have been in situations where I
negotiated with a sub on the insurance coverage for a particular
project. (In this case I accepted lower coverage limits.) I have also
been in a situation where my company turned down work as a sub because
of heavy insurance requirements. As Bobb mentioned, the sub has to pass
the cost of that coverage along to the client. You can get a sub with
insurance coverage, but you will pay for it. The more coverage you ask
for, the more you will pay.

Good question.

Landon

Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268

Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658

 

 

________________________________

From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Bob Basques
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 10:33 AM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Insurance for contractors?

 

Michael, 

 

I've run into this problem for years, and the simple answer is, if you
can afford the bother and cost of getting insurance to cover your works
and the resulting products, just get it, it really helps with everything
across the whole project spectrum. 

 

Now, having said that, I've only recently gotten Insurance and this was
from the bidders end, as in bidding on a project, the project dictated
some fairly heavyhanded (IMO) insurance requirements that we needed to
provide, and in the end, the cost was just charged back as a reduction
in hours available for working.  There was really no way around it in
the end. 

 

While I'm basically against adding in any unneeded extras, there are
times when it's just easier to have the insurance available.   I won't
lie to you though, it was a rather rigorous task to get the insurnce
into place, but it's typically only a one time deal and it's all setup
for the next time too. 

 

Anote here, there are also options for getting insurance on a project by
project basis, but the bidder will need to have an insurance agent in
their pocket to be able to execute something in short order when needed.


 

bobb 

 



>>> "Michael P. Gerlek" <mpg at lizardtech.com> wrote:

In the past I've hired some people for contract or consultant work (both
open source projects and more general stuff) -- generally these people
have been independent, one-man shops found by word of mouth and
reputation, as opposed to hiring someone from an agency.

I'm getting pushback now from the administrative side of my company
saying that any contractor I hire needs to have proof of insurance.  I
understand the legal reasons for this, but I'm wondering how many of you
out there actually have business/contractors insurance?  Do companies
you work for insist on it, or not?  And how many of you are formally set
up as LLCs or sole proprietorships or such?

[while this is likely a US-centric issue from the hiring side, I'm
interested in international responses too since I've hired some
foreigners as well over the years]

-mpg

_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss



Warning:
Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20090831/900a7395/attachment-0002.html>