OrchidLand going into receivership

[Obie]

If you want to hire an unlicensed contractor there is nothing to prevent you from doing that.

You will just have to accept any bad results.You could end up liable if one of the workers is injured on your property.The list goes on.

[kalakoa]

if one of the workers is injured on your property

What if that property is a fractional share of the "privately owned but open to the public" roads lot (over which County insists they have jurisdiction)...

[Obie]

Always the broken record !!
We get it !

"A licensed contractor has worker’s compensation and liability insurance. This protects you as a homeowner from putting your property at risk if anyone is injured on your project or if anything is damaged while the work is being done."

[KeaauRich]

I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like if the Orchidland Assn. (on behalf of property owners) hires an unlicensed contractor, then the Association could be liable if any of the workers are injured, or if any injuries occur on account of substandard workmanship. Part of our dues pays for liability insurance to cover the membership/co-owners of the road against lawsuits, but if the Board has knowingly hired unlicensed contractors after having been informed by the state not to do so, I would think all bets are off. At a minimum, I would assume the Board members could be personally liable and not covered by the Assn.'s insurance.

Also, should the workmanship simply be substandard (as has been alleged by other subdivisions who have used this contractor) the Assn. would have -- I assume -- reduced ability to seek compensation since the contractor was unlicensed. So to Kalakoa's point, yes, if we as individuals want to hire an unlicensed contractor and roll the dice, that's a risk we can choose to take as individuals. It gets dicier when a few Board members, acting on behalf of the entire membership, take it upon themselves to ignore the law and/or smart business practices.

[kalakoa]

should the workmanship simply be substandard

Presumably a licensed contractor (or County/State employee) would never do shoddy work ... yet there are plenty of examples, like the time "they" had to re-pave highway 11 because "someone" didn't put down a thick enough layer of asphalt.

The recurring theme ("broken record") is that we're all somehow required to comply with -- and pay for -- regulations that don't directly benefit the reality of our common situation. This isn't Oahu, but our "private" subdivisions with "substandard" infrastructure are held to that same standard.