COI requirements for general contractors

Requiring the right insurance from your subcontractors is the cheapest risk control a general contractor has. Set the bar too low — or fail to verify it — and an uninsured sub’s claim becomes a hit to your policy, your loss history, and your future premiums. Here are the requirements most GCs write into every subcontract, what each one does, and why it matters.

These are common industry minimums for general reference. Your actual requirements should be set with your insurance broker and match what your own contracts, owners, and lenders demand. Higher-risk trades and larger projects typically call for higher limits.

Commercial General Liability (GL)

Typical minimum: $1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate. GL covers third-party bodily injury and property damage the sub’s work causes — the fire, the flooded unit, the injured bystander. Require an occurrence form (not claims-made), and make sure products-completed operations coverage is included and extends past project closeout, since construction defect claims often surface years later. On larger jobs, GCs frequently require the aggregate to apply per project so one bad claim doesn’t exhaust the sub’s whole year of coverage.

Automobile Liability

Typical minimum: $1,000,000 combined single limit. Any sub that drives to your site, hauls materials, or operates vehicles on the job needs auto liability covering owned, hired, and non-owned autos. A sub’s truck backing into a car — or worse, a person — on your site is a claim you don’t want flowing to you.

Workers’ Compensation & Employer’s Liability

Typical minimum: statutory WC + $1,000,000 Employer’s Liability. This is the most important line on a construction certificate. Workers’ comp pays for a sub’s own injured employees; without it, an injured worker’s claim can be charged to your policy and drive up your experience modification rate (EMR). Require statutory coverage in every state the sub will work, plus Employer’s Liability limits (commonly $1M each accident / $1M disease-each-employee / $1M disease-policy limit).

Umbrella / Excess Liability

Often required: $2,000,000–$5,000,000 on commercial work. An umbrella adds a layer of limit above GL and Auto. Whether you require one depends on the project size and the trade’s risk — a $5M umbrella is common on larger commercial jobs and for high-hazard subs.

Additional Insured — primary & non-contributory

Require the GC (and usually the project owner) to be named additional insured on the sub’s GL policy, via the CG 20 10 (ongoing operations) and CG 20 37 (completed operations) endorsements. Critically, require it on a primary & non-contributory basis — meaning the sub’s policy pays first and in full, without dragging your policy in to share the loss. Being listed as certificate holder is not the same thing; only the endorsement extends coverage to you. Learn to spot this on the form in the ACORD 25 walkthrough.

Waiver of Subrogation

Require a waiver of subrogation in your favor on the sub’s GL and WC policies. Subrogation is the insurer’s right to recover a claim payment from whoever caused the loss — including you. The waiver gives up that right against you, so the sub’s carrier can’t pay a claim and then come after your company to get it back.

The general contractor’s COI checklist

Want this generated for a specific trade and project size? Use the free COI requirements checklist tool — pick a vendor type and it lays out the recommended limits and endorsements instantly.

Enforcing it is the hard part

Writing requirements into a subcontract is easy; verifying that 30 subs actually meet them, on every renewal, is where it breaks down. CoverGuard reads each sub’s ACORD 25 with AI, checks the limits and endorsements against exactly these requirements, flags anyone short, and chases the renewal before coverage lapses. For the full workflow, see how to track subcontractor COIs.

Frequently asked questions