Property Management Vendor Insurance Requirements for Contractors

General liability is the coverage every property manager asks for first. It responds to third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations — a resident slipping on a wet breezeway, overspray damaging a vehicle, water intrusion through a window left open.

What managers check on the certificate: the coverage line exists, the limits meet the contract, and the policy is active for the whole contract term. What they check on the endorsement: whether their entities are actually insured under it.

Requirements differ meaningfully between a 24-unit local property and an institutional owner's portfolio. Ask for the written vendor insurance requirements and price to them — do not assume a number you saw online applies to your buyer.

These two numbers are frequently confused, and the confusion is expensive. Per occurrence is the most the policy pays for a single claim. General aggregate is the most it pays across the whole policy period, regardless of how many claims.

A contract asking for a specific aggregate is asking about your capacity across the year, not the job. If you have already had claims, your remaining aggregate may be lower than the certificate suggests — your agent can tell you where you stand.

Watch for a separate products/completed operations aggregate line, which some contracts specify independently, and for per-project aggregate endorsements that reset the aggregate for a specific property. Managers on larger portfolios sometimes require the latter.

Workers' compensation covers your employees' work injuries and, just as importantly to the property owner, keeps injured workers out of a liability claim against the property. This is why managers rarely budge on it.

Whether a sole proprietor with no employees must carry a policy is a state question. Some states allow an exemption filing; others do not. Even where an exemption exists, a management company may still require a policy contractually. Confirm your state's rule through your state workers' compensation agency — the U.S. Department of Labor's state workers' compensation directory lists each agency.

If you use subcontractors, expect to be asked for their certificates too. Uninsured subs frequently land on your policy at audit.

Trucks, trailers and equipment on the road need commercial auto coverage. Personal auto policies commonly exclude business use and are usually rejected on a vendor certificate for a business-titled vehicle.

Certificates typically show a combined single limit. Contracts may also ask for hired and non-owned auto coverage if your crews ever drive a rented truck or a personal vehicle for work — worth confirming before a compliance reviewer asks.

Inland marine or contractor's equipment coverage protects your own machines, trailers and hand tools against theft and damage. Property managers rarely require it, because it protects you rather than them, but it belongs on your list anyway: a stolen trailer with a hot-water skid stops your revenue completely.

Check whether your policy is scheduled (each item listed) or blanket (a total limit), and whether equipment left on a property overnight is covered.

An umbrella policy sits above your general liability, auto and employer's liability and extends limits once the underlying policy is exhausted. Institutional owners, REITs and larger management companies frequently ask vendors for one.

Two details to verify with your agent: which underlying policies the umbrella follows, and whether additional insured status on the underlying GL flows up to the umbrella. If it does not, the certificate may technically satisfy the letter of the requirement without providing what the buyer expects.

This is the coverage gap most specific to pressure washing. Standard general liability policies commonly contain a pollution exclusion, and wash water carrying oils, grease, detergents or heavy metals into a storm drain can be characterized as a pollution incident rather than ordinary property damage.

If you clean dumpster pads, drive lanes, fuel islands or equipment yards, ask your agent directly how your policy treats wash-water discharge, and whether a contractor's pollution liability policy or endorsement makes sense for your work. Municipal discharge rules are set locally under the EPA NPDES stormwater program, so what constitutes a violation depends on your city or county authority.

The practical protection is procedural as well as financial: contain and recover wash water, and put that commitment in your proposal's compliance section.

This single distinction causes more rejected certificates than everything else combined.

When a vendor agreement says "name owner and manager as additional insured," the deliverable is an endorsement form, attached. Ask your agent for it by name.

Primary and non-contributory means your policy pays first and does not ask the property owner's insurer to share. Managers request it so their own coverage and loss history stay clean.

Waiver of subrogation means your insurer gives up its right to recover a paid claim from the owner or manager. It is commonly requested on general liability and separately on workers' compensation.

Completed operations covers claims that surface after you have finished and left — water intrusion discovered two months later, a coating failure, damage found at a later inspection. Some additional-insured endorsement forms cover only ongoing operations, so if the contract requires both, confirm the specific form your agent is attaching does both.

All three are endorsement-level items with premium implications. Bring them to your agent as a written list from the buyer, not as a paraphrase.

Send your agent one message containing everything, and you will usually get a correct certificate on the first pass:

Compliance review is clerical. Almost every rejection is one of these, and almost all of them are fixable the same day if you respond fast.

Review every certificate against this before you submit it. Each item corresponds to a field a compliance reviewer looks at, in the order they read the document.

Bring this list to an annual review. An agent who works with cleaning and grounds contractors will answer all of it quickly.

Requirements are not standardized, and treating them as if they were is how contractors lose bids they had already won. Four sources of variation:

State law. Workers' compensation thresholds and exemptions, contractor licensing, and required coverage all differ by state. Your state's department of insurance publishes consumer and business guidance — find yours through the NAIC directory of state insurance departments.

Buyer type. A local HOA, a regional management firm, an institutional owner and a public housing authority each impose different limits and documentation. Public agencies add procurement requirements — many require registration through SAM.gov or a state portal on top of insurance.

Contract type. A one-time wash, an annual service agreement and a master services agreement carry different indemnity and insurance provisions, even at the same property.

Property specifics. Height, lift use, lender covenants and prior loss history at a property can all raise what a manager asks for. Broader trade-by-trade context is in commercial insurance requirements, and the approval workflow this fits into is in becoming a property management vendor.