Subcontractor Insurance Requirements: What GCs Should Demand
The CertifiKit team
Certificate-of-insurance desk
Most general contractors should require subcontractors to carry at least $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate in general liability, statutory workers' comp with $1M employers' liability, $1M commercial auto, and — critically — an additional insured endorsement with a waiver of subrogation. Those numbers are the floor, not the ceiling: riskier trades and bigger contracts justify more.
Here's the standard set, what each piece does, and the mistakes that make requirements worthless in practice.
What insurance should a subcontractor carry?
| Coverage | Typical minimum | What it protects you from |
|---|---|---|
| General liability (GL) | $1M each occurrence / $2M aggregate | Property damage and injuries the sub causes |
| Workers' compensation | Statutory + $1M employers' liability | Injuries to the sub's own crew — without it, those claims look for your policy |
| Commercial auto | $1M combined single limit | The sub's truck hitting something on the way to your site |
| Umbrella / excess | $1M–$5M (trade-dependent) | Catastrophic claims that blow past the GL limit |
High-risk trades — roofing, demolition, structural steel, anything with cranes — commonly warrant $2M occurrence GL and a larger umbrella.
Which endorsements actually matter?
Limits get the attention, but endorsements decide whether the coverage works for you:
- Additional insured (CG 20 10 + CG 20 37). Makes you a covered party under the sub's policy for both ongoing and completed operations. Without it, the sub's insurer owes you nothing directly. Full explainer here.
- Waiver of subrogation. Stops the sub's insurer from paying a claim and then suing you to get the money back.
- Primary & non-contributory wording. Makes the sub's policy pay first, instead of splitting the claim with (and raising the premiums on) your own policy.
A certificate that shows big limits but lacks these three is a certificate that protects the sub, not you.
What are the most common mistakes?
- Accepting the certificate without reading it. The named insured is a different LLC, the GL line expired last month, the workers' comp box is blank — all routine findings. A 60-second check catches all three.
- Checking once and never again. Policies renew (or don't) annually. Certificates collected in March are fiction by October. Expiry tracking is the actual job — see our COI compliance checklist for the cadence.
- Taking the checkbox as proof of endorsement. The ADDL INSD checkbox on an ACORD 25 is unverified shorthand. Ask for the endorsement form number — and ideally the endorsement page itself.
- Requirements that live in the contract but nowhere else. If the office manager checking certificates doesn't have the requirements as a checklist, every review is a judgment call.
Should requirements be in the subcontract?
Yes — insurance requirements belong in the subcontract as a condition of payment, with a clause requiring 30 days' notice of cancellation. The contract makes requirements enforceable; the certificate check makes them real. You need both.
How do I enforce all this without a full-time hire?
The mechanics are simple but relentless: collect a certificate before mobilization, verify it field by field, chase the agent for fixes, calendar the expiration, repeat for every sub on every project.
That's the part worth automating. CertifiKit verifies any sub's certificate against your requirements in 60 seconds and emails the exact fix list to their insurance agent. Try it free — run your worst sub's COI through the instant checker, no account needed. When you're ready to stop chasing renewals by hand, plans start at $99/month.