COI Request Letter | COI Tracker

Before you write

The producer, usually the vendor’s agent or broker, issues the certificate. Your email should tell the vendor to ask that producer, and it should give one monitored address for the reply. A request with no requirement set produces a certificate that matched some other customer. If you do not yet know which lines the contract requires, stop and write that down. The letter cannot invent it.

Send the request before work starts. For a renewal, send it before the earliest required end date. The renewal process is the cadence. Say that you need a certificate that names you for this contract. A reply that says “nothing has changed,” or a certificate issued to a different customer, does not answer the request.

What the message has to include

Your organization’s name and the property, project, or contract the request applies to.
The other party’s legal name as it appears on the agreement, plus any trade name you know they use.
The certificate holder’s exact name and address, copied from the contract or exhibit.
A pointer to the section or exhibit that already states the coverage lines and limits. Do not retype figures you are not sure of.
Any additional insured, waiver, or similar wording the agreement requires, and whether you want the endorsement attached or your standard accepts a remark. If the agreement does not say, mark that item unknown and ask. Do not guess in the email.
A due date before work starts, or before the current certificate’s earliest required end date if this is a renewal.
One mailbox or upload location that someone actually reads.

Vendor wording

Illustration for a vendor email. Adapt every bracket. Do not file this unchanged.

Please send a current certificate of insurance for [vendor legal name] for work at [site or contract name]. List [your organization’s legal name] as the certificate holder at [address]. Show the coverage lines and limits required by [section or exhibit]. Where that agreement requires additional insured status or a waiver of subrogation, include the endorsement if our requirements say the certificate remark is not enough. Ask your agent or broker to email the certificate to [one monitored address] by [date], before work begins. A certificate issued to a different customer does not meet this request.

Subcontractor wording

Illustration for a subcontract email. Adapt every bracket. Do not drop it into a subcontract as a legal clause.

Please send a current certificate of insurance for [subcontractor legal name] for [project name and address] under subcontract [number]. List [holder legal names and addresses from the exhibit] as certificate holder. Show the coverage lines required by [exhibit]. Where that exhibit requires additional insured status or a waiver of subrogation, include the endorsement if the exhibit says the certificate remark is not enough. Ask your producer to email it to [one monitored address] by [date], before work starts on site. A certificate issued for a different project or a different contractor does not meet this request. If the subcontract requires certificates from your own subcontractors, send those to the same address for review.

Keep a copy of what you sent, including the date and the person you wrote to. When someone replies with a question, answer from the requirement set, not from a new improvised email.

After they reply

Save the file under a name that includes the party and the date. Run the verification checklist. Do not mark the row accepted because the attachment arrived. If the scan is unreadable, ask for another copy instead of guessing a digit. This page does not print a sample policy number, because sample numbers get pasted into live trackers.

Corrections: info@coitracker.com.