Why does the property manager want to be additional insured?

Because if your work injures a tenant, the tenant sues the owner and the manager as well as you. Additional insured status lets them defend under your policy for claims arising from your work.

Do I need hired and non-owned auto if I drive my own truck?

If the truck is titled to you personally and used for the business, the packet usually wants a commercial auto policy on it. Hired and non-owned covers employees driving their own cars and rentals, not the vehicle you own.

How do I get the endorsement copies they ask for?

Ask your agent for the endorsement pages from the policy. If the endorsement is blanket and does not name the manager, ask for a note on the certificate referencing the form and the written contract.

Can you check the insurance requirements I was sent?

Yes. Paste them into our free COI Requirements Decoder, pick your type of business, and it explains each requirement, flags what is often missing and lists the lines to quote, without the text leaving your browser. One button then asks a licensed agent to quote what it found.

A young landscaping crew lead in a work shirt and backwards cap holding a folded vendor packet at the gated entrance of an apartment complex at dusk, a pickup with an equipment trailer behind him

A property manager sent vendor insurance requirements. What do I need to work at their buildings?

Usually general liability at $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, commercial auto with hired and non-owned, workers comp even with no employees, often an umbrella, and for cleaning a bond or crime coverage. The owner, the management company and their affiliates are named as additional insureds, primary and non-contributory, with a waiver of subrogation, and the packet asks for the endorsement pages with the certificate.

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A vendor packet, line by line

Packet says	What it means	What gets vendors rejected
GL $1M / $2M	Your general liability limits	Rarely the limits; usually the endorsements
Auto $1M including hired and non-owned	Your vehicles, and staff driving their own	No hired and non-owned when you own no vehicles
Workers comp, exemptions not accepted	A policy even with no employees	Sending an exemption form anyway
Umbrella $1M to $5M	Extra limit above GL, auto and employer’s liability	No umbrella on a small account
Owner, manager and affiliates as additional insureds	Every named entity on the endorsement	One entity named, two missing
Primary and non-contributory, waiver on all policies	Your policies pay first and do not pursue them	Waiver on GL only, not auto and comp
Copies of endorsements with the certificate	The forms themselves, not a Y in a box	Sending the certificate alone
Bond or crime, $25,000	Theft by your staff from tenants or owner	No bond at all

GL $1M / $2M
What it means
Your general liability limits
What gets vendors rejected
Rarely the limits; usually the endorsements
Auto $1M including hired and non-owned
What it means
Your vehicles, and staff driving their own
What gets vendors rejected
No hired and non-owned when you own no vehicles
Workers comp, exemptions not accepted
What it means
A policy even with no employees
What gets vendors rejected
Sending an exemption form anyway
Umbrella $1M to $5M
What it means
Extra limit above GL, auto and employer’s liability
What gets vendors rejected
No umbrella on a small account
Owner, manager and affiliates as additional insureds
What it means
Every named entity on the endorsement
What gets vendors rejected
One entity named, two missing
Primary and non-contributory, waiver on all policies
What it means
Your policies pay first and do not pursue them
What gets vendors rejected
Waiver on GL only, not auto and comp
Copies of endorsements with the certificate
What it means
The forms themselves, not a Y in a box
What gets vendors rejected
Sending the certificate alone
Bond or crime, $25,000
What it means
Theft by your staff from tenants or owner
What gets vendors rejected
No bond at all

The detail

Property manager vendor packets commonly require general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, auto of $1,000,000 and workers comp with employer’s liability of $1,000,000.
Kevin Kelsey, agency placement experience
Many vendor packets refuse workers comp exemption certificates and require a policy even when the vendor has no employees.
Kevin Kelsey, agency placement experience
CG 20 26 12 19 adds a scheduled person or organization as an insured for liability caused in whole or in part by your acts or omissions in the performance of your ongoing operations or in connection with your premises.
ISO endorsements reproduced in Risk & Insurance Education Alliance, "Certificates of Insurance and Additional Insureds" course materials (2019)
The ACORD 25 states that a statement on the certificate does not confer rights to the certificate holder in lieu of an additional insured or waiver endorsement.
ACORD 25 Certificate of Liability Insurance (2016/03), reproduced in ISO endorsements reproduced in Risk & Insurance Education Alliance, "Certificates of Insurance and Additional Insureds" course materials (2019)

What this means for you

Send the whole packet to your agent. Forwarding the email that says "please send a COI" loses the clauses that decide whether it is accepted.
Use a blanket endorsement if you can. A vendor who works for many managers saves weeks a year with blanket additional insured, primary and waiver endorsements that apply wherever a written contract requires them.
Answer the comp clause honestly. If you have no employees and the packet refuses exemptions, ask whether a policy covering only you is available in your state before you bid.
Renewals repeat the work. Most packets want an updated certificate every year. Ask your agent to send renewals to every holder on file automatically.

Go deeper on any of these

Need this handled?

Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.