COI Requirements by Vendor Type: A Reference Guide for Property Teams
Recommended insurance requirements by vendor type — landscaping, HVAC, janitorial, roofing, snow removal, security, and more — with the reasoning behind each, so requirements match actual risk.
Travis
Diamond Flooring Starts Next Week
2 coverage gaps—we've reached out and resolved this before work begins.
- Emailed Vendor
- Verified with Insurance Broker
- Updated new COI in system
Diamond Flooring starts next week. Travis finds that the general liability limit needs an increase and the additional insured is not listed, emails the vendor, verifies coverage with the insurance broker, and updates the new COI in the system before work begins.
Vendor insurance requirements should scale with what the vendor can actually break — which is why a flat, one-size requirement is always wrong in both directions: needless friction for the mailroom courier, dangerous optimism for the roofer. This page is a working reference: recommended requirements by common vendor type, with the reasoning, so you can calibrate rather than copy.
Two ground rules first. Every vendor, regardless of type, needs the core endorsement set: additional insured status for the owner and manager (by attached endorsement — ongoing and completed operations for trades), primary and noncontributory wording, and waiver of subrogation. And the contract, not this page, is always the binding source — these are defensible baselines to draft from, with your broker and attorney calibrating for your portfolio.
Low-risk vendors (Tier 1)
Consultants, inspectors, plant care, filter delivery, office services. GL $1M/$2M; workers' comp if they have employees; auto only if they operate vehicles on site. The main risk here is a slip-trip claim or minor property damage — the requirement exists mostly so the claim has somewhere to go that isn't your policy.
Pest control (non-fumigation). As above, but confirm the GL doesn't exclude pollution/pesticide application — some do, and a "contractor's pollution liability" gap surfaces exactly when a treatment goes wrong. Fumigation moves the vendor to Tier 3 treatment.
Standard trades (Tier 2)
Janitorial. GL $1M/$2M, comp, auto $1M, umbrella $1M–$2M. Janitorial generates more slip-and-fall claims than almost any other category (wet floors, after-hours work), and third-party crime exposure (keys, access) is worth a fidelity/crime rider on larger contracts. High claim frequency, moderate severity.
Landscaping. GL $1M/$2M, comp, auto $1M (trailers and equipment on the road), umbrella $2M. Thrown-object and hardscape damage claims are routine; if they apply chemicals, the pesticide question from above applies. Snow work under the same contract? Price it as snow, below — not as landscaping.
HVAC / plumbing / electrical. GL $1M/$2M, comp, auto $1M, umbrella $2M. These trades' losses skew severe rather than frequent — water damage from a failed fitting, fire from electrical work — and they're classic completed-operations claims that surface months later. The CG 20 37 is non-negotiable here, and it's the endorsement most often missing.
Painting / flooring / general maintenance. GL $1M/$2M, comp, auto, umbrella $1M–$2M. Watch for uninsured-sub leakage: small trades sub out overflow work, so flow-down language matters even at this tier.
High-hazard vendors (Tier 3)
Roofing. GL $1M/$2M, comp, auto, umbrella $5M+. Roofing combines the two worst loss profiles — falls (severity) and torch/hot work (fire) — and many GL policies carry roofing-specific exclusions or height limits; read the form, not just the limits. Completed-ops tail matters for years.
Elevator, structural, demolition, fire suppression. Same shape as roofing: umbrella $5M+, completed-ops confirmed, contractual liability confirmed. For life-safety systems, errors ripple into every future incident — verify the coverage supports the indemnity the contract asks for.
Snow and ice removal. The sleeper of the tier: GL $1M/$2M with umbrella $2M–$5M, and check for snow-removal exclusions on the GL — carriers increasingly add them. Slip-and-fall claims follow snow vendors at extraordinary rates, arrive months later, and turn on whose log shows what was treated when. Require incident/service logs contractually alongside the insurance.
Security guards. GL $1M/$2M plus assault-and-battery coverage confirmed (often excluded or sub-limited on guard-firm policies — the exclusion swallows the most likely claim), umbrella $2M+, comp. Wrongful-detention/professional exposure deserves a look on larger sites.
Special cases
Vendors with no employees still carry GL — the risk is what their work damages, not their headcount. For comp: coverage or a valid state exemption certificate on file, because an injured "exempt" owner-operator becomes a claim against someone, and the ladder points at you.
Construction beyond routine trades — anything with subcontract structures, wraps, or owner flow-downs — graduates to the subcontractor insurance requirements framework.
FAQ
What insurance should every vendor have, minimum? GL $1M/$2M with the owner and manager as additional insureds by endorsement, plus comp (or a valid exemption) if applicable. Everything above that is calibration to the vendor's actual risk.
Should small vendors get lower requirements? Lower tiers, not waived endorsements. A solo handyman can carry $1M GL with the right endorsements for a few hundred dollars a year; the endorsement set is what routes claims correctly and it doesn't scale with company size.
How do I enforce different requirements per vendor type? A tiered requirements schedule, assigned at onboarding, checked at every renewal — the tracking template has one built in, and requirements verification per-vendor is exactly what Travis automates when the roster outgrows manual review.
A tiered schedule only works if someone verifies each cert against the right tier — every vendor, every renewal. That's Travis's job. Free plan at tightrope.ai/coi.