Surety Association of Canada (SAC)<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen I talk to our people across the country, including Ontario, Quebec, everywhere, they\u2019re saying: \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re going great guns and loss ratios are great. They\u2019re back down to the pre-pandemic levels. I think at the end of the second quarter we were at a 24 per cent loss ratio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ness says COVID-19 restrictions helped encourage the increasing adoption of E-bonds, a fully digital surety product (The final e-bond can have the look of a PDF but it much more than that, with additional security features.) Notably, E-bonds reduce the possibility of errors, as you cannot complete the process unless everything is correct, when sometimes mistakes can slip through on manual bonds.<\/p>\n
The insurance and bonding representatives say the introduction of new Ontario Construction Act prompt payment and adjudication requirements, and mandatory bonding for most larger government projects, has been helpful in reducing stress but the impact hasn\u2019t been overwhelming.<\/p>\n
After all, public agencies and municipalities had required surety bonds on most projects before the new rules went into effect, said Boan. \u201cThe automatic release of holdback has changed the process\u00a0 a little but there isn\u2019t much difference at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
New CCDC standard contract forms have increased the insurance requirements from $5 million to $10 million, and the deductibles as well. As well contractors pollution liability has become a standard CCDC requirement, says Civichino.<\/p>\n
He also said that insurers are taking water damage claims more seriously. \u201cInsurers are wanting the client to have a leak detection system installed in order to minimize water losses. Higher deductibles and higher water damage deductibles are more commonplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conclusion: There\u2019s no need to panic \u2013 surety will continue to be available and reasonably priced for qualified contractors. While insurance will cost more and underwriting will be more challenging, contractors can alleviate these concerns by consulting with their insurance specialists early in the project planning stages.<\/p>\n
Civichino sums up the advice:<\/p>\n
\n- Deal with a knowledgeable, experienced construction broker who is also familiar with the industry and products;<\/li>\n
- Send all insurance requirements, including any supplementary conditions, to the broker for review and advice;<\/li>\n
- Send all insurance requirements with plenty of lead time so the broker can tailor the policy to comply with all requirements; and<\/li>\n
- Failing to comply with insurance contract requirements can lead to a breach of contract leading to an uninsured financial losses for the contractor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ontario Construction Report staff writer After 18 months of COVID-19 pandemic stresses, how well are contractors managing with insurance and surety requirements and claims? The answer, say industry representatives, is surprisingly good, considering the massive stresses and challenges that the pandemic has caused in the economy. Indeed, insurance underwriting has become more complex and challenging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,125],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-resources-and-advice"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11573,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11545\/revisions\/11573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ontarioconstructionreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}