Fully Insured

Certificates of Proof of Insurance are readily available to all persons so desiring them. Please don't hesitate to ask and I'll have them mailed to you. You are entitled to them.

Liability Insurance:

Currently there are only 3 companies in the state of California offering liability insurance to roofing contractors. The premium cost is based largely on gross sales and types of roofing work done. Each company has different "exclusions" to deal with. An exclusion is something a contractor is not covered for. Some of these exclusions include, using a torch (flame thrower) for flat roofing products such as Dibiten, doing any work for homeowner associations (lawsuit crazy), new construction (still don't know why), apartment buildings etc. At the moment the mold issue hasn't been a problem but various contractor associations are gearing up for it. So at Dunlap Roofing, we're with a company that doesn't allow torch-down roofing or anything to do with homeowner associations but is allowing us to do new construction. I expect to be adjusting my business on a yearly basis to comply with what I expect to be an ever-changing market. All of this at a yearly cost of approximately $40,000.00.

Workman's Compensation Insurance:

Now it gets worse. The good news is we can do anything we want; we just have to pay for it. The cost is based on the hourly wage for each employee. For the employee making less than $20.00 an hour the rate is 61%. That means for each $10 I pay a young employee I pay another $8.29 for worker's comp., thereby doubling the cost of said person. Fortunately the employees making more than $20.00 have a lower rate of 38%, although it's still more than a third of what they earn. Another cost factor is called the "Experience Modifier". If you have few to no claims there is a about 10% break allowed on the monthly bill. If you have had claims the modifier can easily exceed 100% to 125%, or more of monthly payroll. As you can see it's no wonder contractors statewide are very concerned about these cost and certainly contributed to the ouster of our last governor. Certificates of Proof of Insurance are readily available to all persons so desiring them. Please don't hesitate to ask and I'll have them mailed to you. You are entitled to them.

Level Playing Field:

To make things worse, not all contractors obey the law. It is VERY easy to cheat on all these costs (although at great risk). Many contractors simply lie on their liability audits and pay cash to most if not all of their employees. This can easily save $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 a month in insurance costs. Costs that of course have to be spread to the consumer. So if you get several bids on your roofing project and it looks like everyone is bidding the same work but the estimates are 35% or more apart, you probably are dealing with one or more contractors who are not operating legally. This is a statewide, industry-wide problem that will only change when lawmakers smell the roses and lower costs, and enforce the laws evenly.

Insurance Update:

As of June 2007 insurance rates are down significantly.  (Thanks Arnie).  We are currently paying about $400,000 per year for liability insurance.  Worker's comp is down to 38% for those under $20 per hour and 14% for those over $20 per hour.

Fraud still remains the challenge as many if not most roofing contractors continue to lie on liability audits and cash out most of their employees.  We just hired a foreman who worked for one of our local competitors for 3 years and never received even one paycheck the entire time.  No wonder the competitors bids are less than ours.

So we remain committed to operating an honest business as it is in fact the best way to operate with a clear conscience.