The property manager's vendor COI checklist

Every vendor who works on a property you manage brings risk with them, from the landscaper to the elevator technician. Their certificate of insurance is the evidence that if something goes wrong, their insurer answers before the owner's policy or yours. It only works if someone reads it against a standard.

This checklist covers the fields to confirm on every vendor certificate before the vendor starts. It's for property managers, associations and building operators who handle a lot of certificates.

This is general information, not legal or insurance advice.

Why the certificate isn't enough on its own

A certificate summarizes the vendor's policies on the day an agent issued it. It doesn't grant or change coverage, and it doesn't show whether the policy is still in force. The ACORD 25 says so in the box at the top: it is "issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights upon the certificate holder."

So the job isn't to see that the vendor "has insurance". It's to check that the coverage meets your requirements, that the right parties are covered and that nothing has lapsed since the certificate was issued.

The checklist

If any line fails, send the certificate back to the vendor's agent for correction before the vendor starts.

1. The insured is the vendor you hired. The exact legal entity on your agreement. A certificate for "ABC Landscape LLC" doesn't cover work done by "ABC Lawn Care Inc."
2. Every policy is current. Check the expiry date on each policy row; the issue date at the top only tells you when the certificate was made. Flag anything expiring within 30 days.
3. General liability limits meet your minimum. Each occurrence and aggregate against your agreement or the owner's requirements. Note whether the aggregate is per policy or per location; a shared aggregate can be used up by claims elsewhere.
4. The coverages fit the work. General liability at minimum, and auto, workers' comp or an umbrella depending on the trade and the crew.
5. Workers' compensation where the law requires it. If the vendor's employees work on your property, workers' comp keeps their injuries from becoming the property's claim. Requirements vary by state.
6. Auto liability if vehicles come on site. Trucks, trailers and vans. Note which auto boxes are marked.
7. Your entities are additional insureds. The management company, the ownership entity and often the association, each by its exact legal name. Being the certificate holder only means you received a copy.
8. Additional insured status is backed by an endorsement. A "Y" in the ADDL INSD column is the agent's statement. For higher-risk work, ask for the endorsement itself.
9. A waiver of subrogation, where your agreement calls for one. It stops the vendor's insurer from pursuing the owner or management company to recover what it paid.
10. Primary and noncontributory wording, if required. It makes the vendor's policy pay before yours. Look for it on the endorsement or in the description box.
11. The certificate holder is your correct entity and address. Errors here suggest the whole certificate was filled in carelessly.
12. The producer is a real, reachable agency. That's who confirms the policy if you need to. A missing or vague producer is a red flag.

When a field fails

Don't accept "we'll fix it later" from a vendor keen to start. A wrong insured name or missing additional insured status leaves a gap that shows up after an incident. Send the certificate back to the agent with a note saying what needs correcting, and hold the start date until a corrected one arrives.

For certificates that look altered, such as fonts that change inside a row or dates that don't line up, call the agency at a number you look up yourself and ask it to confirm the policy in writing.

After day one

Policies renew, get cancelled and change mid-term. A vendor compliant in January can be uninsured by June without telling you. The hard part is rarely reading one certificate; it's watching every vendor's expiry dates and asking for renewals before they arrive.

Software can take over that part. TradeGuard reads each certificate's dates and emails the vendor for a renewal before each one, through an upload link that needs no account. It was built for general contractors and doesn't have properties or units yet, so your vendors sit in a single list. See COI tracking for property managers.

The short version

Run every vendor certificate through the twelve fields, send back anything incomplete, and check again at renewal. That catches the wrong insured name, the missing endorsement and the expired policy before the vendor starts work.