Who is responsible if a roofer falls at my house?

Most two-storey Greater Victoria roofs trigger the 3-metre rule and many single-storey eaves sit close to it, and the region's older core makes it worse: two-storey Fairfield and Fernwood homes with 10/12 and 12/12 pitches put crews on anchors and ropes from the first shingle, while Bear Mountain's hillside homes combine steep roofs with steep lots and long ladder runs. A crew that turns up to those roofs with no anchors, harnesses or roof brackets is announcing how it treats the rules, and the homeowner may be the one answering questions afterwards.

The prime-contractor trap shows up on renovation-style jobs rather than plain re-roofs. A Gordon Head owner who has a roofer, a gutter installer and a skylight company on site the same week, each hired separately, may find they are the coordinating party by default. WorkSafeBC has published an incident summary, seen in our research, describing a homeowner who did not know they held prime-contractor duties because no written agreement said otherwise. One paragraph in the roofing contract fixes that.

The regulation is specific. Fall protection is required wherever a worker could fall 3 metres or more, or a shorter distance with a risk of serious injury. On low-slope roofs of 4/12 or less, crews can work without protection only if they stay at least 2 metres from an unguarded edge. On slopes of 8/12 and steeper, personal fall protection or a safety net is mandatory. The preferred order is guardrails first, then fall restraint that stops a worker reaching the edge, then fall arrest that catches a fall, then work procedures.

None of this is the homeowner's job to set up. It is the homeowner's job to hire a company that does it, because a company that skips it is also likely to skip coverage and insurance.

Three patterns, in our reading, account for most of the risk.

• Hiring workers who should be registered and are not: WorkSafeBC says a homeowner who hires unregistered workers can take on employer-like responsibilities, and an injured worker may look to the homeowner and the homeowner's insurer
• Hiring a one-person operator who has no employees and has not bought optional personal coverage: they are not required to register, but if they are hurt there is no WorkSafeBC coverage behind them, so ask about personal coverage and liability insurance before they climb
• Becoming prime contractor by default: on a multi-employer site with no written agreement, the owner can be treated as the coordinating party
• Paying cash to a 'friend of a friend' or a handyman for roof work; the same problems, with fewer records
• Directing the work yourself (telling workers how to do the job) in a way that makes you look like the employer
• Ignoring an obvious hazard on your property, such as a rotten deck or an unmarked skylight opening, that you knew about and did not disclose

A WorkSafeBC clearance letter confirms the firm is registered and its account is in good standing; ask for it and check the date. For a sole proprietor with no employees, who is not required to register, ask instead whether they carry optional personal coverage. A certificate of liability insurance covers damage to your house, the neighbour's car and the gas line in the yard. A written contract that names the roofing company as the contractor responsible for the site, describes the scope and lists any other trades and who coordinates them closes the prime-contractor gap. If a roofer resists producing any of the three, that is the answer to which quote to take.

Your own home insurance is the last backstop, and a good moment to check that it has liability coverage in force.