WorkSafeBC Clearance Letters: Why Your Building Contractor Needs One

A WorkSafeBC clearance letter confirms that a business is registered with WorkSafeBC and paying its premiums. It matters to anyone who hires contractors in B.C., including strata councils, property managers and business owners: if you hire a registered contractor who isn’t making its required payments, you could be liable for premiums relating to the work it did for you.

Protecting yourself takes a few minutes online. WorkSafeBC says you need a clearance letter, addressed to you, confirming the contractor was “active and in good standing” for the entire period of your contract, and it recommends getting one before and after you receive services. This guide explains how to request a contractor clearance letter, how to read the result and what else to put in your file before you hire.

What a WorkSafeBC clearance letter is

Businesses registered with WorkSafeBC report their payroll and pay premiums for workplace insurance coverage. A clearance letter is WorkSafeBC’s statement of where a firm stands on that account: whether it’s registered, and whether it’s up to date with its payroll reporting and payments. The letter is generated for a named requestor, which should be you, and can cover one contractor or many at once.

It isn’t a safety certificate or a quality rating. A clean letter says nothing about whether a contractor works safely, carries liability insurance or does good work. That’s why it’s one document in a pre-hire file rather than the whole file.

Why it matters when you hire a contractor

WorkSafeBC’s guidance is direct. If you hire a registered contractor who isn’t making required payments, you could be liable for insurance premiums relating to the work or service it provided to you. To avoid that liability, you need a clearance letter from WorkSafeBC, addressed to you, confirming the contractor was “active and in good standing” for the entire period of your contract.

Two details are easy to miss:

• The letter has to be addressed to you. A letter the contractor pulled for another client, or attached to its bid, names someone else. WorkSafeBC makes the point even for contractors with advance clearance: the letter must be addressed to you.
• It has to cover the whole contract. A letter from before the work started can’t show whether the contractor kept paying while it worked for you.

There’s a related risk if a “contractor” isn’t really an independent business. WorkSafeBC says that when a contractor supplies only labour, supplies labour and minor materials such as nails, drywall tape or putty, or works regular hours for you on an ongoing basis, you are responsible for them as their employer and must pay premiums. Signs of an independent business include multiple contracts with different clients, advertising services to the public and providing its own major equipment.

When to get a clearance letter

WorkSafeBC’s advice is to always get a clearance letter before and after you receive services from a contractor. A practical way to apply that:

• Before work starts. Ideally before you sign, so a problem shows up while you can still choose another contractor.
• After the work is done. Request it before you release the final payment, so you can deal with any issue while the contract is still open.
• Regularly on ongoing contracts. WorkSafeBC honours an “active and in good standing” letter only up to the date to which the firm has met its premium payments. For a recurring cleaning or maintenance agreement, request a fresh letter on a set cycle, such as quarterly or before each renewal.

Some firms qualify for GoldStar clearance, which provides advance clearance to a future date, usually the start of the next quarter, so their letters stay current longer. WorkSafeBC makes GoldStar available to firms whose account has been active for 24 of the last 36 months, that are up to date with premiums and payroll reports, and that have no other outstanding liabilities to WorkSafeBC.

How to get a clearance letter

Letters are generated through WorkSafeBC’s online clearance letter application. At the time of writing, the process works like this:

1. Enter your details as the requestor. Choose business or individual and enter the legal name of the party that holds the contract, such as your strata corporation or company, along with a mailing address and phone number. A WorkSafeBC account number is optional for the requestor.
2. Add the contractor. Search by the firm’s WorkSafeBC account number, which has six or nine digits, or by its precise legal or trade name. Asking the contractor for both up front avoids mix-ups between businesses with similar names. One letter can include up to 150 firms.
3. Print or save the letter. Keep the PDF in the contract file, named with the contractor and the date you requested it.

Some requests can’t be done online. WorkSafeBC directs you to its Employer Service Centre for clearances that confirm a firm isn’t registered, clearances for a limited period, and letters that need a project or file number or comments.

How to read a clearance letter

The letter shows a status for each firm. Here’s what WorkSafeBC says each one means.

A clean result doesn’t tell you whether the people doing the work are covered. Sole proprietors and partners may not be automatically covered if they’re injured at work; they can buy WorkSafeBC Personal Coverage, and WorkSafeBC says it’s open to you to ask a contractor for proof of it.

Hiring a contractor for a strata in BC: what else to collect

Section 72 of the Strata Property Act makes the strata corporation responsible for repairing and maintaining common property and common assets, subject to bylaws that can shift some of that work to owners. So councils and strata managers hire contractors regularly, from cleaners and pressure washers to handyman and repair crews. Section 31 of the Act also requires each council member to act honestly and in good faith and to exercise the care, diligence and skill of a reasonably prudent person in comparable circumstances. A documented pre-hire check is a practical way to show that care.

Beyond the clearance letter, the items below are common practice in a pre-hire file. They aren’t WorkSafeBC requirements, but they answer questions a clearance letter can’t:

• Certificate of liability insurance showing the insurer, limits and expiry date. Some councils also ask to be named as an additional insured.
• Municipal business licence, where the municipality requires one for the work.
• Written scope and quote listing tasks, frequencies, exclusions and price.
• Bonding, if the contractor will hold keys or fobs or work inside suites.
• References from buildings of a similar type and size.

Safety obligations run in both directions. Under the Workers Compensation Act, the owner of a workplace must give the employer or prime contractor the information the owner knows that is necessary to identify and eliminate or control hazards. Where workers of two or more employers are working at the same time, the prime contractor must coordinate health and safety, and if no one has agreed in writing with the owner to be the prime contractor, the owner is the prime contractor. Whether and how that applies to your project depends on the facts, so check with WorkSafeBC or a lawyer before running a job with several contractors on site. This is general information, not legal advice.

Any contractor worth shortlisting, including us, should be able to give you its legal name, WorkSafeBC account number and insurance certificate on request. For cleaning contracts, our strata cleaning contract checklist covers what to put in the agreement itself, and our strata cleaning service starts with a written, itemized scope.

Pre-hire checklist

Copy these into your contractor file or council records.