Just a bit too much

No worries. I work in construction, so deal with it every day. It's basically an insurance policy that (in theory) pays out to get another contractor to finish the job in the event the original contractor fails to perform. In reality, it's like every other insurance product, and is somewhat of a ponzi scheme where they collect their premiums every month, and then fight tooth-and-nail against ever paying out a penny, no matter how legit the claim. In the end, you're usually lucky to get 2/3rds of the money, and half of that will go to lawyer's fees to even get that.

To give you an idea of how ridiculous it's gotten, here in NYC insurance and bonding on highrise projects is now around 20% of the construction costs. That said, NY State's workman's comp laws are completely insane compared to every other state, and pretty much encourage false and frivolous claims. So not only are we paying those premiums, we're paying to fight the most outrageous claims, settling on ones that are too expensive to fight, and hiring private investigators to spy on claimants. We get about 40% thrown out after we present their lawyers with photos of their clients actively working on the side, playing golf, skiing, etc, when their claims say they aren't fit to work, can't walk, etc.

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