If you’re deciding between repairing fire damage or selling and walking away from the repair bill entirely, and you land on repairing, hiring the right contractor matters as much as the work itself. Here’s how to actually verify a contractor is properly insured before you sign anything in Seattle.
Bonding vs. Insurance: They’re Not the Same Thing
A bond protects you financially if the contractor fails to complete the job or violates terms of your contract. Insurance protects you if someone gets hurt or something gets damaged during the work. Washington requires contractors to carry both a bond and liability insurance to register with the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I), and you can verify a contractor’s registration status directly on L&I’s website before hiring anyone.
What Kind and How Much Insurance You Need to See
- Liability Insurance: Covers injury to you or your family and protects you from lawsuits related to the project.
- Workers’ Compensation: Protects the contractor’s own employees if they’re injured on your property. Ask for proof directly, don’t assume it’s covered just because they mention it.
- Property Damage Coverage: Covers damage to your home caused during the work itself, separate from the fire damage they’re there to repair.
Steps to Take Before You Sign
- Check the contractor’s L&I registration and any BBB history.
- Call former customers directly, not just the references the contractor hand-picks.
- Sit down for an in-depth conversation before signing anything.
- Ask to see actual insurance and bonding documents, not just verbal assurance.
- Get every detail in writing: scope of work, payment schedule, milestones, completion date, and what happens if delays occur.
Ask How They Handle Subcontractors
If your contractor brings in subcontractors for electrical, plumbing, or specialty fire restoration work, confirm those subs carry their own insurance too. A general contractor’s coverage doesn’t always extend automatically to uninsured subs working under them, which can leave you exposed if something goes wrong on a specialty portion of the job.
A Red Flag Worth Knowing
Be especially cautious of contractors who show up uninvited after a fire, sometimes called storm chasers, offering to start work immediately and asking for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate, properly insured contractors are generally comfortable with you taking time to verify their registration and checking references before signing anything. If someone is pressuring you to skip that step, treat it as a warning sign rather than a sales tactic.
How to Actually Verify L&I Registration in Two Minutes
Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries keeps a free, public contractor lookup tool on its website where anyone can search by business name or registration number. A clean result shows the registration as active, confirms current bond and insurance coverage on file, and often shows a history of any infraction citations or lawsuits filed against the contractor’s bond. An expired or inactive registration, or one with multiple recent bond claims against it, is a real warning sign worth taking seriously before signing anything, especially for fire-repair work where the amounts involved tend to be larger than a typical home repair job.
It’s also worth knowing that Washington’s contractor bond requirements are relatively modest, commonly $12,000 for a general contractor, which sounds like a lot until it becomes clear that amount has to cover every unresolved claim against that contractor, not just one project. If a contractor already has other claims filed against their bond, there may be little or nothing left to cover a problem on a given project even if the homeowner is clearly in the right. This is one more reason verifying insurance separately from bonding matters, since a legitimate liability insurance policy typically covers far more than the state’s minimum bond amount.
If vetting contractors and managing a repair project isn’t how you want to spend the next several months, selling as-is is a real alternative. I buy fire-damaged houses in Seattle and King County exactly as they are, no contractor required. Call (206) 900-8173 or send us a message to compare your options.