What Is Workers Compensation Insurance?
While it is the legal responsibility of the employers to ensure safe workplaces, accidents are inevitable. Here the Workers Compensation insurance can help by providing coverage for work-related illnesses or injuries to the employers of an organization. These benefits are given to the workers, irrespective of who was at fault for the mishap.
The Workers Compensation insurance not only provides medical expenses for the injury and income compensation for the time the employee would not be able to work, but it also protects the organization from lawsuits filed by the worker who goes injured at the workplace.
Workers Compensation Insurance for Homeowner Associations
You might be wondering, why a homeowner’s association would need this insurance since it generally does not have any employees and it is required by the service providers to provide an insurance certificate.
The answer to your question is:
- A lot of CC&R documents state the requirement of workers compensation coverage for associations.
- An insurance certification can give a false sense of protection, as it is possible that the service provider gave it you several months ago and now their coverage has lapsed due to not making any payments for the premium. This can especially occur during financial hardships for service providers, such as painters and roofers who face premiums that are already relatively higher.
The Workers Compensation coverage not only provides security in case you use a service provider who is not insured, without being aware of it; it can also provide coverage to volunteers and board members of the association.
There are instances where board members end up getting injured while carrying out tasks appointed to them by the association. However, the majority of the times these injuries are minor and do not get reported, very rarely do they turn into a “federal” case.
While workers insurance compensation is optional and not a standard element of the master insurance policy of the HOA, it would be sensible for board members to have this optional coverage, ranging from $550 to $1000 for a year.
