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Practice Tip: Permitting Short-Term Access to Your Property

By Mark Morfopoulos

If a contractor requires access to your site for any reason, the temptation is great to allow the access without having the contractor sign a document outlining the terms and conditions relating to its access rights. This is especially true if the contractor is entering your property for just a few days or a shorter time period. The problem is that even in a few hours ' or a few minutes, for that matter ' an accident can occur on your premises and you can find yourself defending claims brought by third parties when you did nothing to cause the damage or injury.

Of course, practicality is important. On the one hand, you want to protect yourself from liability that you did not cause. On the other hand, you do not want to give the contractor a long or intimidating document that he or she will take to a lawyer and cause you to incur unnecessary legal costs negotiating an agreement. A simple solution would be to have both owner and contractor sign a brief letter agreement to cover the major issues that can arise:

  • Identifying the site, name of the contractor, time the contractor is allowed to be on the site and activities permitted on the site;
  • Providing that the contractor will indemnify, defend and hold the owner harmless for damage caused by the contractor;
  • Requiring that the contractor take out insurance and provide the owner with an Insurance Certificate naming the owner as an additional insured;
  • Stating that the contractor must promptly notify the owner if an accident occurs;
  • Containing language protecting the owner from the dissemination of confidential information to outside parties; and
  • Acknowledging that the party signing the agreement letter is an independent contractor.

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