Contact Seniors vs Crime on this issue. Also, contact your own homeowners insurance company.

I had a "handyman" offer to clean my skylights recently. I asked if he had personal insurance. He did not. I called my insurance company and they said if he had an accident on my property that I would be liable. I did not hire the man.

This is a for instance: Your lawn guy is working for someone else and you ask him to remove a seedpod from a palm, it hits him in the face, if he can't work and there is no compensation from his employer, he's looking to you. If a landscaping crew works on your property and they saw block for a short retaining wall, if they cut off a finger, again, if there is no workers compensation, it will fall on the employer AND the homeowner. You must not assume all that everyone runs a business like a business.

In the first instance you described, I'd imagine a decent (not even good) could get a nice amount from the homeowner, as well as worker's comp. unless the employer authorized the job, the guy was working a second job on his boss's dime. In the second, it seems as if you'd have to prove some sort of liability or negligence towards the homeowner.

Where are you getting your info re homeowner liability? Are you an expert in this field?

Unless you hire a large company, the odds are there is little workers comp insurance. Most of the workers are paid by the hour under the table. The same is true for a lot of the subcontractors used by TV -- the employees are hired as self-employed and have no coverage. Ain't pretty, but it is the way it works here.

As a homeowner, you can be sued for anything. But will the law suit against you be successful? That's the all important question.

I was always taught that in order for a lawsuit to be successful, the homeowner would have to be negligent in some way.

Best advice - contact your homeowner insurance company and ask them directly instead of just speculating.