Why Your Appliance Repair Vendor Needs a COI (and What It Should Say)

A certificate of insurance is a one-page summary, issued by the contractor's insurer or agent, showing which policies are in force, their limits and their dates. For an appliance repair vendor, a property manager should ask for general liability that names the owner and the management company as additional insureds, plus proof of New York workers' compensation and disability coverage, and should check the dates before every job.

This is general information about how COIs work in property management, not legal or insurance advice. The exact limits and wording you need come from your management agreement, the owner's insurance requirements and, for co-ops and condos, the board.

What a certificate of insurance actually does

A COI shows that coverage existed when the certificate was issued. That's all. It doesn't change the policy, and it doesn't promise the policy will still be there next month. New York's own workers' comp certificate, Form C-105.2, says it is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights on the holder, and liability certificates generally carry similar language.

So why bother? Because the alternative is finding out after the fact. Picture a dishwasher supply line that a technician reconnects on a Friday. It weeps all weekend, and on Monday the apartment below has a stained ceiling and a swollen cabinet. That claim runs through the vendor's liability policy, and the COI on file is how you knew that policy existed and whom to call.

It also answers a simpler question: is this company set up to work in occupied buildings at all? A vendor who can't produce a COI within a day or two is telling you something.

General liability: the policy for the apartment

General liability is the part that responds when a contractor's work damages property or hurts someone who isn't their employee. For appliance work, that's water from a dishwasher or washer hookup, a scorched cabinet next to a range, or a tenant who trips over a refrigerator pulled out into the kitchen.

What to check on the certificate:

• The named insured matches the company name on the vendor's invoices.
• The policy dates cover the day of the work.
• The per-occurrence and aggregate limits meet whatever your owner or board requires.
• The description of operations reasonably covers appliance repair.

We won't suggest a dollar limit here. That number belongs to the owner's insurance requirements or your broker, and it varies by building. If you don't have a written requirement, that's worth fixing before you need it.

Workers' comp and disability in New York

Workers' comp covers the technician, not the apartment, and in New York most employers have to carry it. The Workers' Compensation Board states that virtually all employers in New York State must provide workers' compensation coverage for their employees. The main exception is a sole proprietor with no employees.

The same goes for disability and Paid Family Leave. The Board says virtually all employers must provide disability and Paid Family Leave benefits coverage for their employees, with similar exemptions for owners who have no employees.

Why a property manager cares: a technician who wrenches a back carrying a range up a fourth-floor walk-up is a workplace injury. If the employer has no coverage, an injury on your property gets messy fast. Ask your broker how that exposure works for your buildings.

On the paperwork, ask for the state's forms. For government permits and contracts, the Board says ACORD forms are not acceptable proof of New York workers' compensation coverage; the accepted proof is Form C-105.2 from the carrier (or Form U-26.3 if the policy is with the State Insurance Fund). You aren't a government agency, but asking for the same form costs nothing, and it comes from the carrier rather than a broker's summary. The Board also runs a free employer coverage lookup where you can check whether a business has a policy on file.

If a vendor says they don't need workers' comp because they're a one-person shop, that can be true. Then ask who else will be coming to your buildings. Helpers usually count as employees.

Additional insured is not the same as certificate holder

This is where most COI files go wrong. Being the certificate holder only means the certificate was addressed to you. Being an additional insured means the vendor's policy was endorsed to extend coverage to you, so you can make a claim under it directly.

For an apartment building, ask that the additional insureds include:

1. The owner entity, spelled exactly as it appears on the deed or the building's own policy (usually an LLC, not the street address).
2. The management company.
3. For a co-op or condo, the corporation or the board of managers, if the building's rules call for it.

Then ask for a copy of the additional insured endorsement itself, not just a checkbox on the certificate. Your owner's insurance requirements may also ask for wording such as primary and noncontributory coverage or a waiver of subrogation. Those are terms for your broker to specify, not for you and the vendor to improvise over email.

A COI addressed to "XYZ Management" with no additional insured endorsement is a piece of paper in a folder. It still shows coverage exists, but it gives the owner less than they probably think it does.

Tracking expirations so a job never starts uncovered

Policies renew yearly, often on different dates, and a vendor's certificate from last spring proves nothing about today. The fix is boring and it works.

Keep one row per vendor with the policy type, carrier, policy number, expiration date and the date you received the certificate. Set a reminder 30 days before each expiration, and ask for the renewed certificate then. If you use work-order software, some tools can flag a vendor whose COI has lapsed so the job can't be dispatched. A spreadsheet with conditional formatting does the same thing for free.

Don't let the technician arrive and then discover the gap. Some doorman buildings and co-ops check for the certificate at the desk, and a vendor turned away in the lobby is a failed visit you'll pay for one way or another.

Why boards and owners keep asking

Because they carry the risk if the vendor's coverage isn't there. A co-op board's alteration agreement or house rules commonly require a COI before any contractor works in the building, and many managing agents keep a standing requirement for every vendor, however small the job.

Treat the request as routine. A vendor who works with property managers gets these requests every week and should turn them around quickly. When you're comparing vendors, our list of questions to ask an appliance repair company covers what else to check before the first visit.

How we handle it

We file a certificate of insurance with your managing agent before our first visit to a building. Send us the owner entity, the management company and any additional insured wording your owner requires through our contact page, and we'll get the paperwork moving. When it's on file, open a work order for the first unit.