Build your contractors file. About two minutes.
One question at a time, and only the questions your trade actually gets asked. At the end you see the whole file in plain words, and nothing leaves this page until you press send yourself. No name, no email, not until the file is built and you have read it.
Read it over. If something is off, change the answer. When it reads true, put it in the form and add how you want us to reply.
What a complete contractors file includes.
This is what a licensed person needs before any insurer will put a real price on a trade business. Bring it in any form you like – the tool above, an email, or a phone call – but a complete file is what turns a guess into a quote.
The business, plainly
Legal name as registered, the operating name if different, and whether you run as a sole proprietor, a partnership or a company. The name on the policy has to match the registration.
Experience, two ways
Years in the trade and years running this business. A first-year business run by someone with fifteen years on the tools is a common file, and it rates differently than a first-year everything.
The work mix
Residential against commercial, service against new construction, and anything above two storeys or below grade. The split moves the price more than most people expect.
The numbers
Expected sales for the year, payroll if there is one, what goes to subcontractors, and the biggest single job you would take. Bands are fine. Guesses beat silence.
Licences and tickets
Municipal business licence, trade qualification, and for gas or electrical work the Technical Safety BC licence with its ten thousand dollar bond – the name on that bond must match your registration exactly.
Tools, wheels and premises
What the tools are worth and where they sleep, the vehicle that gets you to jobs and whether it is personal or commercial, and whether the base is a rented home, an owned one, or a shop.
The history
Claims in the last five years, and whether any insurer has declined, cancelled or non-renewed you. Neither ends a quote here. Finding out later is the only version that hurts.
The paper you will need
Certificates naming property managers or general contractors, waivers their contracts demand, and the wording those contracts set. Send the clause itself if you have it. We read them every week.
Completed operations, pollution, tools cover, errors and omissions, rip and tear – which of these belong in your package is exactly what the quote comes back showing, priced so you can see what each one adds.
A licensed person reads the whole file.
Not a call centre, not a queue. Your file lands with the commercial desk, a licensed person reads it top to bottom, and you get a reply the next business day, and usually the same day – by email, by phone, or with a time to come in. Your choice, and you make it on the form.