Hiring service people from places like Craigslist?
Question:Is it a bad idea to hire a worker from Craigslist? I have some odd jobs that I need done and it seems like the way to go. But of course I don't want to get scammed. Many of them are listed as uninsured - does that mean they can come into your house and pretend to fall down and sue you? Does someone like a painter or a TV installer need to be insured?
Answers:
if they are uninsured, that means if anything goes wrong, there is nothing in place to protect you.
Say if they did some work roofing your house and did not do a good job. It leaks 6 months from now, since they were uninsured, you would be stuck with the full amount of repairs.
If they were insured, there would be 6 months, or some sort of back up plan in case if the work did not meet expectations or the workmanship did not meet what was agreed upon between the homeowner and the contractor in that 6 month period.
If it not a critical or a possible saftey issue then it shouldnt matter much, but if it is, then it would be better to get someone who is liscensed to do the kind of work you need to get done.
not necessarily. i dont know what state youre in but a licensed contractor is required to be bonded which serves as an insurance policy somewhat for issues. I would hire someone off craigslist as long as they are upfront about their license status and what not. but dont be fooled by someone who gives you a City business tax license number and leads to you believe it's a contractors license number because its not ! And whether or not a contractor has insurance is really beside the point if ANYONE were to fall in your house - yes you might be resposnsible for it.
Hey, I'm a painter/carpenter with 10 yrs residential experience. For the last 3 years I've moved to TV and film work as a freelancer, so I've occasionally taken jobs from craigslist to fill in the gaps.
The important thing to remember is you get what you pay for. Would you come to someone's house for $75? If you don't want to pay a decent amount, you run the risk of getting into trouble. I would run an ad and ask them to send you their rate, and a resume or description of their experience. If they can't get that together, I wouldn't want them working on my house. You also don't want to offer a decent rate blindly.
Hope that helped.
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