Last Updated: October 25, 2026

Table of Contents

• What Insured Home Repair Actually Protects You From
• The Financial Case: Who Pays When Something Goes Wrong
• How to Verify Contractor Insurance Before Work Starts
• Contractor Insurance vs. Workmanship Warranty: What Each One Covers
• Why a Handyman Warranty for Home Repairs Changes the Deal
• Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Handyman
• Book Your Same-Week Visit With an Insured Team
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Insured Home Repair Actually Protects You From

Hiring an uninsured worker for home repairs puts your money and your property at risk. Insured home repair professionals carry liability coverage that pays for damage they cause, and they carry workplace coverage that protects you if a worker is hurt on your property. At FIXRR, we hear from Scarborough homeowners who learned this the hard way, and the story is always the same: a small job, a dropped tool, a cracked tile, and suddenly nobody wants to pay for it.

Here is the part most people miss. Your homeowner policy is not a backup plan for someone else’s mistake. If an uninsured worker damages your home, your insurer may treat the claim as your responsibility. That means your deductible, your premiums, and your claims history all take the hit.

The benefits of insured home repair professionals come down to three things:

• Someone else pays for accidental damage to your floors, walls, or fixtures
• You are not exposed if a worker is injured on your property
• You have a paper trail when a dispute happens

That last point matters more than homeowners expect. A certificate of insurance gives you a named party to deal with, not just a phone number that stops answering.

The Financial Case: Who Pays When Something Goes Wrong

When a repair goes wrong, the question that decides everything is simple: whose insurance responds? With an insured professional, the contractor’s liability policy answers first. With an uninsured one, you are standing alone.

Picture a common Scarborough scenario. A worker drills into a wall to hang shelving and hits a water line. The repair, the drywall, and the flooring add up fast. On an insured job, the contractor files a claim with their own insurer. On an uninsured job, you are calling your own insurer and explaining why your policy should cover someone else’s mistake.

The financial exposure runs both ways:

• Property damage you did not cause but now own
• Injury costs if a worker is hurt in your home
• Legal costs if the two of you end up in a dispute
• Lost time chasing someone who has no coverage to chase

Many homeowners assume a small cash job is low risk. The opposite is often true. Small jobs happen fast, with less planning, and that is exactly when accidents land.

How to Verify Contractor Insurance Before Work Starts

Verifying contractor insurance takes about ten minutes and protects you for the life of the job. Ask for a certificate of insurance, check the coverage dates, and call the insurer to confirm the policy is active. Do this before any work begins, not after.

A certificate of insurance is a one-page document from the contractor’s insurer that names the policy holder, the coverage type, the limits, and the expiry date. It is the single most useful document you will see during the hiring process.

Here is how we would check it:

1. Ask for the certificate by email. A legitimate contractor sends it without hesitation.
2. Check the expiry date. An expired certificate is the same as no coverage.
3. Confirm the legal business name matches who you are hiring.
4. Call the insurer’s number on the certificate and ask if the policy is active.
5. Ask what the policy covers. Liability and workplace coverage are separate.

Watch out: a certificate can be altered or out of date. The phone call to the insurer is the step people skip, and it is the step that catches problems.

If you are unsure what to ask, our handyman services FAQ answers the common hiring questions, including insurance and credentials.

Contractor Insurance vs. Workmanship Warranty: What Each One Covers

Contractor insurance and a workmanship warranty cover different things, and you want both. Insurance pays when something is damaged or someone is hurt during the job. A warranty covers the quality of the work itself after the job is done.

The distinction trips up a lot of homeowners. They hear “warranty” and assume they are protected from everything. They are not.

Book Your Same-Week Visit →

Coverage	Contractor Insurance	Workmanship Warranty
Protects against	Damage or injury during work	Faulty work that fails later
Who pays	Contractor’s insurer	The contractor directly
Typical trigger	Accident, injury, property damage	Callback, failed repair, poor finish
Duration	Policy term	Set period after job completion
Your role	Verify it before work starts	Keep your paperwork

A contractor with insurance but no warranty leaves you exposed if the work fails in a month. A contractor with a warranty but no insurance leaves you exposed the moment a tool slips.

For a closer look at what a workmanship guarantee actually includes, see what handyman workmanship warranties include.

Why a Handyman Warranty for Home Repairs Changes the Deal

A handyman warranty for home repairs shifts the risk of a bad outcome off your shoulders and onto the contractor. It means a failed repair gets fixed at no extra cost, within a set window, by the same team that did the work.

This is where the two protections work together. Insurance handles the accident. The warranty handles the quality. A contractor offering both is telling you they expect to stand behind the job.

At FIXRR, every job is backed by a 1-year workmanship warranty and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If something we fixed fails within that year, we come back. That is the practical version of peace of mind, and it is the reason we put it in writing rather than in a sales pitch.

What most guides miss is that a warranty is only as good as the company behind it. A one-year promise from a business that may not exist next year is worth very little. Ask how long the company has operated and whether the warranty is documented.

Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Handyman

Asking the right questions before hiring a handyman separates a good hire from an expensive lesson. The answers tell you whether the person at your door is covered, vetted, and accountable.

Ask these, in this order:

• Are you insured, and can you send the certificate?
• Do you carry workplace coverage for injuries on site?
• Is there a warranty on the work, and how long does it last?
• How many tasks can you handle in one visit?
• Do you do background checks on your team?
• What is your booking window, and how do you confirm it?
• What happens if the repair fails after you leave?

The last question is the one that separates serious operators from the rest. A vague answer about “standing behind our work” is not a warranty. A written term is.

For a step-by-step approach to the whole process, read our guide to choosing the right handyman service, or go deeper with how to find reliable handymen in Scarborough.

Book Your Same-Week Visit With an Insured Team

Finding an insured team that shows up on time should not be the hard part. FIXRR serves homeowners across Scarborough and the East GTA with same-week booking, most confirmed within 24 hours. Our Task Smasher™ service handles up to five tasks in a single visit, so your backlog clears in one trip instead of five.

Every FIXRR job comes with a 1-year workmanship warranty, a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and a fully insured, vetted team. You do not need to be home the whole time, and you do not need to chase anyone for a certificate. We send it before we arrive.

If you have a list of small repairs and no time to manage five separate appointments, that is exactly the job we built Task Smasher™ for. Book your same-week visit with an insured team and get the list done.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What insurance should a handyman have in Ontario?

Ask for commercial general liability coverage, which pays for accidental damage to your property or injury to someone on your site. Coverage limits vary by provider, so confirm the amount in writing before work begins. Also ask whether the business carries WSIB coverage for its workers; if a worker is injured in your home and the employer is not covered, the situation gets complicated fast. A certificate of insurance naming the policyholder, the limit and the expiry date is the document to request.

What happens if an uninsured contractor damages my home?

You may end up claiming on your own homeowners policy, and that can mean paying your deductible and possibly seeing higher premiums at renewal. Your insurer may also pursue the contractor to recover the cost, but that takes time. If the contractor has no assets or has disappeared, recovery is unlikely. Hiring insured home repair professionals shifts that risk to the contractor’s liability policy, so the claim goes through their insurer instead of yours.

Does a contractor’s insurance cover poor workmanship?

Usually not. Liability insurance responds to accidental damage, such as a dropped tool cracking a tub or a leak that ruins drywall. It generally excludes the cost of redoing faulty work itself. That gap is what a workmanship warranty fills. Ask for both: proof of liability coverage and a written warranty stating how long the work is guaranteed and what happens if a repair fails. FIXRR, for example, backs every job with a 1-year workmanship warranty.

Should I ask for proof of insurance before home repairs begin?

Yes, and before you pay a deposit. Request a certificate of insurance and check that the policy is current, the coverage limit is reasonable for the job, and the business name matches who you are hiring. A quick call to the insurer to confirm the certificate is genuine takes minutes. Combine that with a few questions to ask before hiring a handyman, such as who shows up, how payment works and what the warranty covers, and you have a clear picture of who you are letting into your home.