Atlanta says lien holder. My broker says there is no such box. Who is right?

Your broker. An ACORD 25 — the certificate of liability insurance — has no lien holder field. It has a Certificate Holder box, a Description of Operations box, and tick columns for additional insured and waiver of subrogation. Lien holder is a property-form concept: on an ACORD 27 or 28 you can record an additional interest as a mortgagee, loss payee or lienholder, which is broadly the property equivalent of naming an additional insured on liability. The city’s wording has borrowed a property term for a liability certificate. What it means in practice is the Certificate Holder box, with the address as published. If the permit also needs the City to have cover rather than just evidence, that is additional insured status — worth confirming with the office rather than guessing, because their wording does not separate the two.

How long before the shoot should we apply?

As early as the dates are firm. Atlanta can turn applications around quickly, and quickly is not a plan — the permit is not released until the certificate has been received, so the real path is application first, certificate immediately behind it, and both well clear of the shoot. Productions that leave it to the last week are relying on a fast day at the office.

We are shooting in Atlanta and two neighbouring counties. One policy?

One policy, several certificates, written at the highest limit anything on your schedule requires. Georgia sets no state-wide rule, so each jurisdiction states its own — and the wording differs too — Atlanta asks for a “lien holder”, which is not a field on a liability certificate at all. Get the requirement in writing from each before you have the certificates issued rather than after one is rejected.

Does this cover us on private property or a stage?

The permit requirement follows use of public property, so a shoot entirely inside a stage or a private location may not need a city permit at all. It will still need insurance — the stage, the location owner and any studio will each have their own requirement, and those are usually additional insured rather than lien holder, at limits set by the agreement rather than by the city.

What insurance does a City of Atlanta film permit require?

A million dollars of liability cover with the City of Atlanta on the certificate at 55 Trinity Avenue SW, Atlanta, GA 30303. The city’s own wording asks for it as “lien holder”, which is worth understanding rather than repeating: there is no lien holder field on an ACORD 25 liability certificate at all. In practice that means the Certificate Holder box. Unusually, Atlanta does not require workers compensation for the permit itself.

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The detail

The City of Atlanta requires liability insurance for all film productions including student filmmakers, and states: "The minimum coverage requirement is one million dollars."
City of Atlanta — ATL311 knowledge base
Atlanta states: "The City of Atlanta must be listed as the lien holder on a certificate of insurance," and that the certificate must include the City’s address, 55 Trinity Avenue SW, Atlanta, GA 30303. Note that an ACORD 25 liability certificate has no lien holder field — the term belongs to the property forms — so in practice this is the Certificate Holder box.
City of Atlanta — ATL311 knowledge base
For the film permit itself, "The City does not require worker’s compensation."
City of Atlanta — ATL311 knowledge base
Student filmmakers are directed to obtain the certificate of insurance through their school directly.
City of Atlanta — ATL311 knowledge base
A permit may be required for pyrotechnics or explosives, smoke, water or flame effects, display of real or artificial firearms, vehicle chases or crashes, dangerous stunts, and use of regulated wild animals — as well as for ordinary filming on public property or any closure.
City of Atlanta — Office of Film & Entertainment, Permitting
All filming locations are inspected for compliance, and discrepancies between the filming activity and what was reported on the permit application incur fines. The permit must be kept on site during filming.
City of Atlanta — The Permitting Process
No permit is required to film on public property while exercising First Amendment rights, including rallies, protests and demonstrations.
City of Atlanta — Office of Film & Entertainment, Permitting

What this means for you

THE CITY ASKS FOR A "LIEN HOLDER" AND THERE IS NO SUCH BOX. An ACORD 25 certificate of liability insurance has a Certificate Holder box, a Description of Operations box, and columns for additional insured and waiver of subrogation. It has no lien holder field — that belongs to the property forms, ACORD 27 and 28, where an additional interest can be a mortgagee, a loss payee or a lienholder. On a property certificate a lienholder is doing roughly the job an additional insured does on a liability one, which is presumably where the wording came from.
SO PUT THE CITY IN THE CERTIFICATE HOLDER BOX, with the full address, and do not send your broker looking for a field that does not exist. If your production also needs the City to have actual cover under the policy — as opposed to simply receiving evidence of it — that is additional insured status and it is a different request. Ask the office which they want before assuming; the published wording does not distinguish them.
THE ADDRESS IS PART OF THE REQUIREMENT. 55 Trinity Avenue SW, Atlanta, GA 30303, on the certificate. A certificate naming the City without it is incomplete, and incomplete certificates come back rather than being fixed for you.
NO WORKERS COMPENSATION FOR THE PERMIT, which surprises anyone arriving from Los Angeles, where proof of it is listed alongside general liability. It does not mean you have no workers compensation obligation — Georgia law and your own crew are separate questions from what the permit office checks.
THE PERMIT IS NOT ISSUED UNTIL THE CERTIFICATE ARRIVES, though you can apply first. That ordering is useful: start the application while the certificate is being produced rather than treating them as sequential.
STUDENT PRODUCTIONS GO THROUGH THEIR SCHOOL. Atlanta says so explicitly, and it is the cheapest route by a wide margin — a school’s policy will generally issue the certificate at no cost where a standalone policy for a student film will not.
THE CITY IS NOT THE ONLY AUTHORITY. Atlanta is one jurisdiction inside a metro with many, and the requirement changes at the boundary. A schedule that leaves the city limits needs checking against wherever it lands.
THE PERMIT TRIGGER LIST IS ALMOST THE POLICY EXCLUSION LIST, and this is the part worth noticing. Pyrotechnics, firearms, vehicle chases, dangerous stunts and regulated animals all require a permit — and every one of them is excluded by name on a standard production form. If an activity puts you in front of the permit office, it has almost certainly put you in front of an underwriter too, and the two need declaring at the same time rather than one after the other.
MISDECLARING THE ACTIVITY IS FINED AND UNINSURED. Atlanta inspects locations for compliance and fines discrepancies between what you are doing and what the application said. The same misdescription is what an insurer would rely on to contest a claim, so the permit application and the insurance submission need to say the same thing.

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We do the filings, and we place the accounts other brokers decline — lapsed authority, claims history, new ventures. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.