:: rawblogXport ::

:: Monday, June 07, 2004 ::

A building and remodeling boom By Dan Martin, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Rick, an unlicensed contractor who asked that his full name not be used, held a license until the early 1990s, when his $14,000 in annual insurance premiums became untenable and he went unlicensed.

"I did better work after that because I didn't have to worry about money so much," says Rick, who does carpentry, electrical, masonry and other projects and gets nearly all his work from referrals.

Since then, premiums have skyrocketed, forcing many of his peers to take the same route, he said.'There are a lot of guys out there who know what they are doing and are real professional but are shying away from being a licensed contractor because it's just too hard,' he said.

However, the lower prices offered by the unlicensed come with potentially huge risks. Under state law, a homeowner who hires unlicensed workers is technically required to provide worker's compensation insurance, though this rarely happens.

'So if someone falls off your roof and gets paralyzed, you're toast,' says Ken Kuniyuki, a construction-law attorney. 'They'll sue you because they don't have worker's comp and chances are your homeowner's insurance won't cover them.'

Personal-liability waivers also are a bad idea, he said, since worker's compensation law does not honor them.

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