Additional insured endorsements

Four form numbers stand between a signed subcontract and a crew on the site.

The insurance article is the part of a subcontract nobody negotiates and everybody waits on. It names limits, and then it names forms by number, and the job cannot mobilise until a broker has issued them and somebody has read what came back. Here is what each of the four asks for — and, after that, exactly what VendoRFP reads off the certificate when a company wants to price your scope.

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Industry paperwork, explained

What your own article is asking the broker for.

An additional insured is a party written onto somebody else’s liability policy so that the policy answers for that party too. On a job the party written on is you, the policy belongs to the subcontractor, and the effect is that a claim arising out of the sub’s work is met by the sub’s carrier rather than by yours. Two of the four forms below grant that status, one for work in progress and one for work already finished. The other two settle what happens next.

Standard forms, not platform features

These four numbers travel in nearly every subcontract in the country. They are issued by a carrier at a broker’s request and they live in the contract between you and the company. What VendoRFP holds is the schedule further down this page: the limit on each line and the date the policy runs to.

CG 20 10
Additional insured — ongoing operations
While the work is under way, a claim arising out of it can land on you as easily as on the company that caused it. This form puts you onto the subcontractor’s own general liability policy for that period, so its insurer answers first for what its crew did. The status ends when the work does, which is the whole reason a second form exists.
CG 20 37
Additional insured — completed operations
A defect does not announce itself on the last day of the job. Water finds a way through flashing two winters later, a panel fails in a heat wave the summer after handover, and by then the crew that installed it has been off the site for a year. This form carries additional insured status forward into that period. An article that asks for ongoing operations and forgets this one leaves you exposed for exactly the claims that take longest to appear.
CG 24 04
Waiver of subrogation
When an insurer pays a claim, it inherits the right to chase whoever it thinks caused the loss — including whoever hired its own insured. This form gives that right up in advance. Without it, a company’s carrier can pay a loss on Monday and open a recovery action against you on Tuesday, and both sides end up litigating a claim they thought was closed.
CG 20 01
Primary and noncontributory
Two policies that both answer a loss will usually share it, and sharing means your own loss run takes a hit for something a subcontractor’s crew did. This form settles the order in advance: the company’s policy pays down to its limit before yours is asked for anything. It is the difference between a claim that stays on one carrier’s record and a claim that quietly raises a renewal on both.

What the check reads

The check is arithmetic, on three things per line.

VendoRFP holds a coverage line for every kind your article names. Each line carries an amount, a date, and a flag saying whether a reviewer here has read that amount off the certificate. Those three decide whether a company can price your scope, and they run before a proposal exists rather than at award. The wording of an endorsement is settled where it has always been settled — in the subcontract, between you, the company and its broker.

The amount the policy is written for

One figure per line, compared against the figure you set for that trade. Below yours, the difference is arithmetic and the company is told what it is short in dollars. At or above yours, the line clears.

The date the policy runs to

Held with the certificate rather than in somebody’s calendar. Past that date the line stops passing.

Whether a person here has read that figure

A figure a company has typed in and a figure a reviewer has read off the certificate are two different states, and they are reported to you as two different states. An amount that clears your floor lets a company answer while the read is pending; it is never shown to you as confirmed until somebody has confirmed it.

The lines a figure can be set against

These are the coverage kinds the requirements editor writes and the request prints, in the words a company reads them in. You set a figure against the ones your article names and leave the rest alone.

General liability (per occurrence)
General liability (aggregate)
Workers' comp / employer's liability
Auto liability
Umbrella / excess
Professional liability
Pollution liability
Crime / employee dishonesty

The floor you set

Per trade, because your article is per trade.

An insurance article rarely names one number. The mechanical sub on a hospital fit-out is held to more than the painter working behind it, the umbrella over both is a different figure again, and the next owner’s article rewrites all of them. So the limits are held per trade rather than per company: you type each figure in against the trade it applies to, and mark the line required or preferred.

Required

A company carrying less than your figure on this line, or carrying nothing on it, cannot send you a proposal. It is told which line and by how much, in dollars, so the answer is something its broker can act on rather than a closed door.

Preferred

The same arithmetic runs and the same shortfall is calculated, and the company answers anyway. The gap is reported to you beside its price, so you are choosing with the number in front of you instead of finding it after the award.

The rule, in the product’s own words

You set the coverage limits you require, often the number your own insurer or lender asks for. A vendor whose recorded coverage falls below one of them cannot propose on your work until it is raised.

What the file holds

The certificate, the dates, and the credential the trade turns on.

A limit is a number on a line. Behind it sits the document the number was read from, and beside that, whatever else the trade has to hold before it works on your site. An insurance policy that lapses has 30 days to come back into force; a certification gets no window at all, because it has to be current on the day the company proposes.

HVAC

On file before it prices your scope

General liabilityThe certificate, carrying the limit on each line your insurance article names a figure for, and the date the policy runs out.
EPA 608 certificationThe federal certification required to handle refrigerants under EPA Section 608. It carries no expiration date.
Workers’ compensationThe certificate covering the company’s own crew, with the date the policy runs out.

Electrical

On file before it prices your scope

General liabilityThe certificate, carrying the limit on each line your insurance article names a figure for, and the date the policy runs out.
Electrical contractor licenseThe state license to perform electrical work as a company, with the date it expires.
Workers’ compensationThe certificate covering the company’s own crew, with the date the policy runs out.

Painting

On file before it prices your scope

General liabilityThe certificate, carrying the limit on each line your insurance article names a figure for, and the date the policy runs out.
Workers’ compensationThe certificate covering the company’s own crew, with the date the policy runs out.

Insurance and trade credentials verified, expiration dates tracked, and a lapse pauses new proposals and new work.

How a certificate is verified

Additional insured endorsements

Type your article’s limits in once and let them run on every scope.

Create an account, set a figure against each line your subcontract names, per trade, and mark it required or preferred. VendoRFP reads the certificate of whoever answers.

Start free How verification works

An insurance article names limits and it names forms. The forms are issued by a carrier and live in your subcontract; the limits are held here, per trade, and checked against a certificate before anybody prices your work.

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Industries we serve

Job-site tradesSubcontractor prequalificationHow a request works