You know inviting a stranger into your home can be risky business. When it comes to service people how do you know who you can trust? We've all heard about negative experiences, from some surprise expenses to con-artists, people that will take your money or take your down payment and skip out of town, or you will get the guy that just comes in to scope out the place, and then later comes to rob you. Don't let this happen to you. When you hire someone, do some major and minor checking on him. You may want to ask for references, and then call the references. Don't just call the references, you might want to actually drive by the addresses of the people that they referred. Drive by the business. Look in the yellow pages. See if they actually have a yellow page ad, to see if they are a legitimate business. Find out all you can about the company you are hiring. Call the Better Business Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, or your local trade association or builder's association and see how long they have been in business. The number one deterrent to these petty crimes is to be at home while the work is being done. You don't need to be constantly supervising the work while it's being done, but being in the house is a very good deterrent. Never leave a key under the mat, or in the mail box. If you can't be home, do not let a stranger just come into your house. Ask a trusted neighbor to be there when service people arrive to keep an eye on the house and an eye on them. Let them know what kind of vehicle to expect in the driveway and ask them to alert you or the police if they see anything unusual, such as people making several trips from your house carrying large pieces furniture or boxes into their van. It helps if service people are licensed and bonded to protect you from being sued. But just knowing that isn't enough, you have to ask a few questions.
1. Under what conditions does the bonding company pay claim?
2. Will the bonding company pay damages if something valuable is broken?
3. You need to ask specifically what is covered, or what isn't covered.
4. Does the insurer have sufficient funds for the number of members it has? Always go with an A.M. Best rated company of (A+). You can go to ambest.com to find out what your insurance company rating is.
5. What is the cap? Or in other words how much will they pay. Is there a spot where they will stop paying? Most insurers pay only a set amount and you need to know what that amount is. The remainder is left to the person who suffered the loss. This means that if a $10,000 ring is taken from you by the person who is bonded, and they are only bonded for $2,000, you have to settle up with the person who stole the ring.
Asking a few simple questions may save you a lot of nightmares.
Dictation made on 6/20/2007 1:38 PM EST.
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