If you hire subcontractors — whether for tear-off, sheet metal, gutters, or specialty roofing systems — you must require them to carry their own insurance and provide proof before they start work. This is not optional risk management. It is the single most important step you can take to protect your business from audit surcharges, liability gaps, and claims that should never hit your policy. Failing to verify subcontractor insurance is the most expensive mistake roofing contractors make.
Minimum Insurance Requirements
Every subcontractor working on your projects should carry the following coverages at minimum:
General liability: $1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 general aggregate. This protects against third-party bodily injury and property damage caused by the sub's operations. Require completed operations coverage to be included — if the sub's work fails after project completion, their GL should respond, not yours.
Workers compensation: Statutory limits as required by your state, with employers liability of at least $500,000/$500,000/$500,000. This is the most critical coverage to verify. If your sub does not carry workers comp and one of their employees is injured on your jobsite, your workers comp policy will likely be charged for the claim. In many states, the principal contractor (you) is the statutory employer of uninsured subcontractor employees — meaning you are legally responsible for their workers comp benefits.
Commercial auto: $1,000,000 combined single limit. Your sub's crews drive to and from your jobsites. If they cause an accident en route, you can be named in the lawsuit as the party who hired them. Their auto policy should be the first line of defense.
Umbrella: $1,000,000 minimum, following form over GL, auto, and employers liability. For subs working on commercial projects where you are required to carry $3M to $5M in umbrella, require your subs to carry proportional umbrella limits — typically $1M to $2M.
Additional Insured and Waiver of Subrogation
Require every subcontractor to name you as an additional insured on their GL and umbrella policies, with both ongoing operations (CG 20 10) and completed operations (CG 20 37) endorsements. Also require a waiver of subrogation on their GL and workers comp policies in your favor. These endorsements ensure that if a claim arises from the sub's work, their policy responds first and their carrier cannot subrogate against you.
Certificate Verification Process
Do not accept a subcontractor's verbal assurance that they "have insurance." Require an ACORD 25 certificate of insurance listing your company as the certificate holder and additional insured. Verify the following before the sub starts work:
Policy dates are current — not expired. Limits meet your minimum requirements. Additional insured endorsement is confirmed on the certificate. Waiver of subrogation is confirmed. The carrier is admitted in your state or is an approved surplus lines carrier with an AM Best rating of A- VII or better. Workers comp coverage is active — you can verify this through your state's workers comp board or insurance department website.
Set up a certificate tracking system — either a spreadsheet or a dedicated platform like myCOI, CertificateTracker, or PINS — that flags certificates 30 days before expiration and sends automated renewal requests to your subs. Expired certificates are as dangerous as no certificate at all.
The Premium Audit Consequence
Here is the financial reality that makes subcontractor insurance verification non-negotiable. At your annual premium audit, your GL and workers comp carriers will review every subcontractor you used during the policy period. For each sub that cannot produce a valid certificate of insurance covering the period they worked for you, the auditor will add that sub's contract value or estimated payroll to your policy as uninsured subcontractor cost. The premium is then calculated at your roofing classification rate — NCCI code 5551 for workers comp, which runs $15 to $45 per $100 of payroll depending on your state.
If you used three uninsured sub crews at $80,000 each in contract value, the auditor might add $240,000 to your payroll base. At a $25 per $100 workers comp rate, that is a $60,000 audit surcharge — due immediately. This single audit adjustment can exceed your entire original premium. It is entirely preventable by verifying certificates before subs start work.