Countertop installer insurance and workers' comp in Ontario

A clearance is a number the WSIB issues to registered businesses. In the WSIB's words, it shows that a business, contractor or subcontractor is registered and up to date, including on premium payments and reporting. Under the WSIB's construction clearance policy, a principal who directly hires a contractor for construction work must obtain one before the work begins. The policy defines a principal as a person or business that lets a contract.

Homeowners hiring for their own home are an exception. The construction policy says it does not apply to householders who occupy, or will occupy, a private residence and hire a contractor directly for exempt home renovation work. The WSIB's general clearance policy says it does not apply to householders who purchase services from a contractor. For businesses, the clearance has a money side. Without one, the construction policy says the principal may be liable for the contractor's payment obligations to the WSIB, up to the labour portion of the contract.

The exemption is written around who lives in the home. The WSIB's policy on compulsory coverage in construction limits exempt home renovation work to an existing private residence. That residence must be occupied, now or later, by the person who hires the contractor or by a member of their family. Its list of residences names a house, a condominium unit, an apartment unit and a cottage. An owner replacing the counters in a unit a tenant lives in falls outside that wording, and should ask the WSIB before relying on the exemption.

Coverage is a separate question from the clearance. The WSIB says people who own or run a business in construction, with or without employees, must have coverage and register, with some exceptions. Its construction policy defines construction work by the industries in Class G, Construction, of Schedule 1 to Ontario Regulation 175/98, and the matching class in the WSIB's Employer Classification Manual. This guide does not quote a classification code for countertop installation, because it could not confirm one from the WSIB's published pages.

The exceptions matter for small installers. Under the compulsory coverage policy, independent operators, sole proprietors, partners and executive officers in construction are exempt if the business does exempt home renovation work exclusively. A one-person installer who works only on homes for the people living in them may therefore have no WSIB coverage of their own. A missing WSIB account is not, on its own, evidence that such an installer is breaking the rules.

The exemption stops at the owner. The same policy says a business doing only exempt home renovation work must still register with the WSIB and cover any workers it hires. It also says the exemption does not apply to subcontractors the contractor retains, since the occupant did not hire them directly, and that those individuals require WSIB coverage.

In a condo, the building may do some of the checking for you. The Condominium Authority of Ontario says some corporations may require insurance information from contractors, as well as pre and post inspections. It also says some may require owners to use contractors the corporation has approved, or limit contractors to certain hours.

GTA contractors who publish condo checklists put specific documents on them. Red Stone Contracting's Toronto condo guide says your contractor must provide a $5M commercial liability insurance certificate naming the condo corporation as additionally insured. The same guide lists proof that all workers are covered under the WSIB. Maserat Developments lists a certificate of insurance naming the condo corporation as additional insured in its approval package, along with a WSIB clearance certificate. It puts the minimum at $2M general liability, with $5M at many buildings.

The WSIB's definition of exempt home renovation work names a condominium unit, so a board that asks for a clearance is applying its own rules. Missing paperwork can still hold up the job. Red Stone's guide warns that if a contractor does not carry the required coverage, the board application will be rejected. Toronto Interior Designer names incomplete submissions, including missing contractor insurance, as the primary cause of approval delays. Approval times and building fees are covered in the condo installation guide.

A detached house has no board and no property manager reading certificates. Red Stone Contracting says standard house renovation contractors typically carry $2 million liability coverage, while most Toronto condo corporations require $5 million. That is one contractor's account of the market. The limit on a particular installer's policy is known only once you see the certificate.

The condo package still works as a template for a house. On a certificate of insurance, check that the named insured matches the company on your quote. Then read the liability limit, and check that the policy dates run past the install date. Where the business has a WSIB account, the clearance adds registration and good standing. The WSIB says a clearance is valid for up to 90 days, and that most clearances expire on the 20th of February, May, August and November. It also says a valid clearance should be in place for the full length of a job.

If the template visit and the install fall either side of a clearance renewal date, ask for the renewed number before install day. And if a worker without coverage is hurt in your home, how your own home insurance responds is a question for your insurer, worth asking before the job starts.

The directory has no insurance or WSIB field for any of its 876 listings. It does store some text captured from company websites for 842 listings, including a page-text excerpt for 701. Searching that text gives a rough local picture of who advertises coverage.

Ten listings, belonging to 9 distinct firms, mention WSIB. All ten sit in the kitchen renovation or kitchen cabinets and countertops categories, and none is among the 300 listings in countertop installation. Thirty-five listings from 34 distinct firms say they are insured or mention carrying insurance, 6 of them in countertop installation. Seven of those firms state a liability limit in that text: six give $5 million and one gives $2 million.

Read those counts as a floor. A company with coverage may simply not mention it on the page the directory captured, and 34 listings have no captured website text at all. A line on a website is also a claim, not a certificate, so the documents listed at the end of this guide are how to confirm it.

A directory record describes a business. It does not describe the people who arrive on install day, and on countertop work those can differ. Nothing in the records shows whether a shop installs with its own staff or sends a subcontracted crew.

The WSIB rules follow the subcontract, so a shop that is exempt itself can still send a subcontracted installer who needs WSIB coverage of their own. For a house job, the useful question is who performs the installation, and whose WSIB account and insurance certificate cover them.

Ask before you pay a deposit, and in a condo before the board application goes in, since the application needs the certificate. These questions cover both documents and the crew:

• A certificate of insurance sent by the installer's broker. It should show the company name on your quote and its liability limit, with policy dates that run past the install date.
• For a condo, the corporation named as additional insured, at the limit your building's renovation rules set.
• The WSIB clearance number, checked on the WSIB's online service and valid on the install date. The WSIB provides clearances at no charge, so a registered installer has no cost reason to refuse.
• If there is no WSIB account: whether the installer works alone, with no employees, and only on homes for the people who live in them.
• Who will be on site for templating and installation, whether any of them are subcontractors, and whose coverage applies to each.

If an installer gives a business name but no clearance number, the WSIB's online search finds registered businesses by name, telephone, address or postal code. For comparing the quotes themselves, the installation cost guide gathers the installed prices GTA companies publish.