Subcontractor certificates of insurance

Who requests what

A subcontractor certificate of insurance is requested because a company is performing part of a construction contract, not because it sent a generic vendor packet. The party who should request it is the party whose contract says the certificate must be collected. Often that is the general contractor or construction manager, collecting from each subcontractor before the crew is allowed on site. An owner sometimes collects from the general contractor and also wants to be named. A subcontractor who hires another firm is often required, by its own subcontract, to collect downward.

Read the exhibit for the names. It may list one certificate holder, or it may list the owner, the general contractor, and a lender as holders or as additional insureds. Those are different roles. How to read a certificate separates the holder box from additional insured wording. If the exhibit is silent, do not invent a name to put on the request. Ask the person who owns the contract form.

The mechanics of filing, reviewing, and renewing match vendor COI tracking. The construction differences are the project identity, the site-access decision, and wording the exhibit often asks for: additional insured status, a waiver of subrogation, primary and noncontributory language, and sometimes a per-project or completed-operations requirement. Whether your form actually requires each of those is an exhibit question. This page will not say that every subcontract does.

Project workflow

1. Put the exhibit in the subcontract before you chase paper. A request with no exhibit produces a certificate that matched some other job.
2. Send the request at award. The morning the crew arrives is late. The producer needs time to issue a certificate that names this project.
3. Log the request against the project and the subcontract. A company-wide row that says “COI on file” will be used for the next job by mistake. The spreadsheet shape is one row per subcontractor per requirement set.
4. Review the file that comes back against this project’s exhibit, using the field order in the reading guide. Received is not accepted.
5. A named person decides site access. The coordinator records that decision. They do not change a no to a yes to keep the schedule. If your company has no such person, name one before the first mobilization.
6. If work starts without an accepted certificate, record the dates of the gap. Do not backdate Accepted across days you had no reviewed file.
7. Watch the earliest required end date while the job is open. A project that runs past the subcontractor’s policy anniversary needs a renewal before that date, not a scramble at closeout.
8. At closeout, keep the certificate you accepted and mark the subcontract inactive. Stopping the chase is part of the workflow. So is keeping the old PDF.

Request checklist

Send this in writing to a person at the subcontractor, and ask them to have their producer reply to one monitored address. Adapt every item to the exhibit. This is not a form to paste into a subcontract.

• Project name, site address, and subcontract or purchase-order number.
• Legal name of the subcontractor as it appears on the subcontract, plus any trade name you know they use.
• Certificate-holder names and addresses, copied from the exhibit.
• Any additional insured parties the exhibit lists, and whether the exhibit wants the endorsement attached or accepts a sentence on the certificate. If the exhibit does not say, do not guess. Mark it unknown and ask.
• Waiver of subrogation, primary and noncontributory wording, or per-project wording, only if the exhibit requires them, with the same question about the endorsement form.
• The coverage lines the exhibit names. Do not add a line because a different trade sent it.
• A due date before mobilization or before the subcontractor is badged onto the site.
• A statement that a certificate issued to a different contractor, or for a different project, does not answer this request.
• If the subcontract requires the subcontractor to collect from its own subcontractors, say who reviews those lower-tier certificates and where they should be sent.

What to compare

Compare the certificate to this subcontract’s exhibit, not to the last job that looked similar. The reading guide defines the fields. On a project, pay particular attention to:

• The named insured versus the company that signed the subcontract.
• The holder box versus the names in the exhibit.
• The description of operations. It should be this project, not a different address and not a blank that could be any job.
• Each required line’s effective date versus the day you intend to let them start.
• Each required line’s expiration versus how long you expect them on site. If the job will outlast the policy, the renewal task belongs on the log now.
• Limits as printed versus the exhibit. This site does not publish sample limits. A figure that was acceptable on a tenant improvement can be short on a different project. Unknown is the honest mark until someone compares the two documents.
• Endorsements the exhibit requires, filed with the certificate if your standard says the remark is not enough.

Common gaps

These are patterns coordinators see. A gap is a reason to send the certificate back or to record an exception with an owner. It is not, by itself, a statement that the subcontractor is uninsured.

• Wrong project. The description names another general contractor or another address. The policies may be real and still be the wrong evidence for this job.
• Wrong named insured. The subcontract is with a local entity and the certificate names a parent or a different company formed after a sale.
• Liability only. Automobile is missing when the exhibit requires it and the crew will drive onto the site. Workers’ compensation is missing when the exhibit requires it. Whether a particular trade must carry each line is the exhibit, not a guess from the trade’s name.
• Dates that start too late. The effective date is after the day the crew arrived. The later certificate does not erase the earlier days.
• A remark with no form. The description says additional insured or waiver of subrogation, and the exhibit asked for the endorsement. The remark is a prompt. The form is still outstanding.
• Umbrella assumptions. An umbrella or excess line is listed, and nobody checked whether the exhibit required it to follow the underlying coverage. Do not treat the word “umbrella” as a match. Mark it unknown until the exhibit and the certificate have been compared, and ask your broker when the exhibit’s wording is unclear.
• One date for every line. The log shows a single expiration, while automobile ends months before general liability. Track the earliest required date. The spreadsheet formulas show how a blank date gets hidden if you only keep the minimum.
• The annual renewal falls during the job. The certificate was acceptable in March and expired in June while the subcontractor was still on site. Nobody sent a renewal request because the original review was marked accepted and then forgotten.
• Lower-tier work with only the first-tier certificate. The subcontract says the requirement passes down, and the file contains one PDF.

Lower-tier subcontractors

If your subcontract requires the subcontractor to collect certificates from the firms it hires, your project file is not complete when only the first tier is present. Say that in the original request. Decide who reviews the lower-tier certificates: you, or the subcontractor with a copy to you. “They handle their own subs” is not a status. Either the certificates are in the file and reviewed against the same exhibit, or the requirement is waived in writing by someone with authority, or it is an open gap.

This page does not decide how far down the chain your contract reaches. Some subcontracts stop at the first tier. Some do not. Read the clause. If you cannot tell, the reach is unknown until counsel or the contract owner says otherwise.

Wrap-ups and annual policies

Some projects insure enrolled contractors under an owner-controlled or contractor-controlled insurance program. Whether a subcontractor is enrolled, and which lines the program replaces, is a fact about that project. A certificate from the subcontractor’s ordinary practice policy does not answer enrollment. Mark enrollment unknown until the wrap administrator or the contract says otherwise. This page will not describe a specific project’s program, and it will not tell you which lines a wrap replaces.

Outside a wrap, subcontractors usually bring annual policies and the producer issues a certificate for your project. The annual policy can renew or cancel while your job is still open. Your log has to follow those dates. A certificate that was right on the day of mobilization can be the wrong document three months later.

During the job and at closeout

Use the same renewal habit as any other certificate: request a replacement before the earliest required line ends, review the new file against the same exhibit, and keep the prior file. The lead time many teams use is about 30 days. That is a habit, not a statute. Lengthen it when producers miss shorter windows or when your rule is that the crew stops the day a required line lapses. Details are on the vendor renewal checklist.

Closeout is not the moment to collect the first certificate. It is the moment to confirm the file still holds what you accepted, mark the subcontract inactive, and stop the reminders. How many years to keep the PDF is a records question for your schedule and your counsel. This guide will not give you a number of years.

Tools that advertise construction workflows including subcontractor COIs are named, without rankings, on the comparison page. OnComply has advertised collecting COIs along with other construction documents, and Built has advertised COI tracking beside construction documents. Those are descriptions of ads observed for the November 6, 2026 edition of that page, not tests, and not a recommendation. If the list no longer fits a sheet, the comparison page and the pricing guide are the next reading. COI Tracker does not sell a product on either page.

Corrections: info@coitracker.com.