Which insurance do I need for jobs to be done in my house? (ART)

[Flinn]

Hello Expats!

I´m a little confused about different information that I got concerning services that I contract to be done in my house, e.g. plumber, gardener, housemaide,...

I know that there ist the ART which is some kind of work insurance. How do I have to treat this? For example:

1. When I need the service of a plumber, do I have to let him show me his ART certificate and a proof of the payment?
2. The gardener comes once a week. Same case? Or do I have to contract an ART for him?
3. My housemaide comes once a week for r.a. 5 hours. Do I have to pay an ART for her?
   My colleague already had bad experiences with his maide. The familiy wasn´t satisfied with her service, so they fired her. They didn´t even have a contract. But she sued them because of whatever and they had to pay around 4000 ARS.

I´m a little worried about that, because in Germany you can trust the companies you contract when they come to repair your washing machine, they have to have their own insurance. But here someone told me that it´s pretty dangerous to hire someone without checking his ART because if they have an accident in your house, they will sue you.
Until now the only things I know of my maide are here name and her cell phone number. I don´t even know her surename or where she lives. I don´t believe that she´d sue me, but I want to avoid problems...

Who knows anything about this insurance and the terms and conditions?

Thanks a lot in advance!
Flinn

 

[nikad]

I have never heard of anybody checking on an occasional plumber´s ART, or gardener´s, etc. Same goes for maids... In 36 years here I have never heard anything like that. If the worker is a contractor it is his responsibility to have insurance ( I can assure you that most do not have it ). It might be different if it is your employee ( formal employee ) But this is not the case at all. About maids... well, if she is " en negro " she will most likely sue you if you fire her, if she is " en blanco " you will have to indemnify her if you fire her, so in money terms it is about the same really. If I was you and she was working full time I would formally hire her, if she just goes 2 hours 3 days a week, nope.

If you are getting any of these services through a company, ART is their resposability, not yours... just make sure you are given invoices, etc.

 

[fifs2]

Flinn,
Im sorry I don´t have any info such insurance... to protect us in case of injury of anyone working in the house we were advised to ensure any property we had was registered as "bien de family" - a family asset I guess so that if anyone did ever sue you that couldnt be considered as an available asset to sell to pay for any ruling against you.
Firing in blanco automatically means a suit against you, unless you have cameras hidden to catch her doing anything illegal I guess..but firing in negro will depend on the values/attitude of the mail herself.

 

[French jurist]

Well, while it's true that firing in blanco often means that you'll get sued afterwards, and juicios laborales are mostly in favor of the employee, firing someone in schwarz will lead to to a juicio with even more money to pay at the end. Do the math and be ethical.

For contractors, yes, they should be insured themselves, but it would be better to cover your back by asking a written presupuesto showing that the guy is working as a monotributo or whatever, before the work starts. Because if an accident occurs, and the guy sues you telling you are employing him + you can't prove you hired him as an independent contractor, you are "cooked".

For employees (in blanco), your civil responsability is not insured by the fact you are employing him/her in blanco.
In this latter case, the best solution is to get from a bank an insurance for your house that includes civil responsability in regard of employees. Not all banks include this aspect so read the contract before.