Checking an Excavation Contractor's Insurance and Bond (Oregon)

Quick Verdict

Before you let anyone dig on your property, confirm your excavation contractor's insurance and bond are real and current. These are three separate protections, not one: the CCB surety bond, general liability insurance, and workers compensation. On an excavation job, a utility strike or an injured worker can become your problem if coverage is missing, so the bond alone is not enough. Ask for a certificate of insurance, confirm it lists the contractor and is in force, and verify the CCB license is active before work starts. This is the cheapest protection you will ever buy.

Three Different Protections, Three Different Jobs

Homeowners often hear "bonded and insured" and assume it is one thing. It is not. Each piece covers a different risk, and a contractor can have one without the others.

Protection	What It Covers	Who It Protects
CCB surety bond	A limited pool to pay certain valid claims against the contractor	You, up to the bond limit
General liability insurance	Property damage and injury the contractor causes	You and third parties
Workers compensation	Injury to the contractor's own workers	The workers, and you from their claims

The excavation cost and hiring guide covers the broader vetting process. This page zeroes in on confirming these three are in place before a machine arrives.

Why This Matters More on an Excavation Job

Excavation carries real risk that lighter trades do not. A bucket can strike an unmarked gas, water, or electric line. A trench wall can collapse on a worker. Heavy equipment can crack a neighbor's driveway or undermine a foundation. These are exactly the events that turn into expensive claims.

If the contractor is uninsured and one of these happens, the cost can land on you, the property owner. A homeowner has been left holding the bill for a damaged utility or an injured worker when the contractor had no coverage to draw on. That is the scenario verifying insurance is meant to prevent.

• Utility strike. Liability insurance is what pays to repair the line and any resulting damage.
• Worker injury in a trench. Workers comp keeps that claim off your homeowner's policy.
• Damage to your or a neighbor's property. Liability insurance, not the bond, is the real backstop.

The Bond Is Limited, So Insurance Is the Real Protection

This is the most important point, and the one most people get wrong. The CCB surety bond is a licensing requirement, not a blanket guarantee. It is a limited pool of money meant to satisfy certain valid claims, and once that limit is reached, it is gone. It can be exhausted by a single claim or shared across several.

So while you should confirm the contractor is bonded, do not treat the bond as your safety net for a serious loss. General liability insurance, with much higher limits, is what actually protects you when a utility strike or property damage runs into real money. Our companion piece on what it means to be bonded explains the bond's limits in full. The short version: bonded and insured are not the same thing, and you want both.

How to Request and Verify a Certificate of Insurance

You do not have to take a contractor's word. Here is the simple verification anyone can do.

• Ask for a certificate of insurance (COI). Reputable contractors provide this without hesitation. It lists the policies, limits, and effective dates.
• Check the dates. Confirm the policies are current, not expired. Coverage that lapsed last month protects no one.
• Confirm it is the right contractor. The named insured on the COI should match the business you are hiring.
• Ask for it to be sent by the insurer. For larger jobs, having the COI come directly from the insurance agent confirms it is genuine and current.
• Verify the CCB license too. A bond and insurance ride on an active license; check it the same day. The how to verify an Oregon CCB license piece walks through the lookup.

Tie It to the CCB License

In Oregon, the surety bond exists because the CCB requires it as a condition of licensing. So the bond, the license, and the insurance are linked. An active CCB license means the contractor carries the required bond; a current COI confirms the liability and workers comp coverage on top of it. Verifying the license is the fastest first check, because it tells you the bond requirement is being met. Then the COI fills in the coverage that actually protects you on a serious claim.

There is no cost table here, because the point is not what coverage costs the contractor. The point is confirming it exists, in force, before any excavation begins.

Red Flags and When to Walk Away

Most contractors clear this bar without a second thought. The ones who do not tend to signal it early, and on an excavation job the consequences of hiring an uninsured operator are too serious to ignore. A few patterns should make you pause:

• Stalling on the certificate. A contractor who keeps promising to send the COI but never does, or gets defensive when asked, is a problem. Legitimate, insured contractors hand it over routinely.
• An expired or mismatched certificate. A COI with lapsed dates, or one naming a different business than the one you are hiring, is not valid proof of coverage. Read the dates and the named insured.
• Cash-only, no-contract, no-license pitches. A deep discount in exchange for skipping a written contract and a verifiable license usually means the savings come from skipped coverage, and you inherit the risk.
• No CCB license at all. Without an active license, there is no required bond behind the work, and unlicensed contractors are far less likely to carry real insurance.

The reason to be strict is the nature of the work. A weekend handyman with no coverage who hangs a shelf wrong is a small risk. An uninsured operator running a machine that can strike a gas line, collapse a trench, or crack a foundation is a large one, and any loss can land on you. When the verification does not check out, the right move is to walk away and hire someone who can prove they are covered. The few minutes it takes to confirm a license and read a certificate is the best protection you have before the digging starts.

The Bottom Line

The bond, liability insurance, and workers comp are three separate protections, and on an excavation job you want all three confirmed before work starts. Verify the CCB license is active, request a current certificate of insurance, and remember that the bond is limited, so liability insurance is your real backstop. Cojo is CCB licensed and insured. See our excavation services and request a free estimate.