Workers' compensation
A separate coverage line for a separate risk: injuries to people your association actually employs.
Workers' compensation pays medical costs and lost wages for an employee hurt on the job. The requirement comes from your state's general employment law, not an HOA-specific statute, and the threshold for when a small employer must carry it varies by state. If your association has any paid staff, confirm your state's rule before an injury happens.
Why this is not covered by your general liability policy
General liability is built for claims from outsiders, a visitor who slips on the sidewalk, a car damaged by a falling branch. It responds to the ownership, maintenance, or use of common areas and the association's normal activities, but it typically excludes injuries to the association's own employees. That gap is exactly what workers' compensation exists to fill.
If your association directly employs anyone, a manager, a groundskeeper, a front-desk attendant, a lifeguard, that person's on-the-job injury is a workers' compensation claim, not a general liability claim.
"designed to help protect the HOA when a claim arises from the ownership, maintenance, or use of common areas, or from the normal activities of the association"
Source: HOA General Liability: What Premises and Operations Really Covers, StarNet Insurance Group
The threshold for who must carry it varies by state
Workers' compensation is not an HOA-specific rule. It is set by each state's general employment law, and the number of workers that triggers the requirement is different in every state, so check your own state's threshold rather than assuming a number from elsewhere applies to you.
As one example of how specific these thresholds get, Michigan requires coverage once an employer has three or more workers at any time, including part-timers, or one or more workers logging 35 or more hours weekly for 13 or more weeks. That is Michigan's rule, not a national one, and boards outside Michigan should not reuse this number.
"employs three or more workers at any time, including part-timers, or... employs one or more workers working 35 or more hours weekly for 13 or more weeks."
Source: Workers' Compensation Insurance for Michigan Condo Associations and HOAs, Hirzel Law
A contractor's uninsured worker is still the board's problem to ask about
Most associations do not employ many people directly. Landscaping, snow removal, and repairs usually come from outside contractors, and those contractors are generally expected to carry their own workers' compensation for their crews. But a contractor without that coverage can leave the association exposed if one of the contractor's workers is hurt on association property.
Before signing a vendor contract, ask the contractor to show proof of their own workers' compensation coverage, the same way you would ask for a certificate of general liability. This is a question for your broker or attorney to size for your specific state and contracts, not a rule this Course can state as settled everywhere.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your groundskeeper, a paid employee, throws out her back lifting a mower. Which coverage is built to pay her medical bills and lost wages?
A new board member asks who decides whether the association must carry workers' compensation for its two part-time groundskeepers. What is the accurate answer?
The board hires a landscaping contractor for a big cleanup. One of the contractor's workers is hurt on association property, and the contractor turns out to carry no workers' compensation of his own. What should the board have done beforehand?
Sources
- Workers' Compensation Insurance for Michigan Condo Associations and HOAs, Hirzel Law
- HOA General Liability: What Premises and Operations Really Covers, StarNet Insurance Group
Insurance
Not sure whether your association counts as an employer at all? Start with HOA insurance 101 to see where workers' compensation fits among the rest of your coverage.
Whether your association must carry workers' compensation, and at what employee count, is set by your state's general employment law and varies from state to state. Whether a specific contractor's crew is properly covered is a fact you have to confirm for each vendor, not something a certificate alone guarantees.