Vendor insurance is the unglamorous half of procurement that prevents a six-figure problem from becoming a seven-figure problem. Before any cleaning contractor touches your equipment, your facility, or your people, the certificate of insurance and the indemnity language should be locked in. Here's what we carry and what to ask any vendor for.
Minimum coverage to require
- Commercial General Liability — a common contract requirement is $2M per occurrence / $4M aggregate; our current limits and a certificate are available on request
- Auto Liability — a common contract minimum is $1M combined single limit; our current limits are available on request
- Workers' Compensation — statutory limits in every state of operation
- Umbrella / Excess — $5M minimum for industrial and food work
- Pollution Liability — required for restoration and any soot/biohazard scope
Endorsements that matter
Additional Insured endorsement naming your entity, with primary and non-contributory wording. Waiver of Subrogation in your favor on GL and WC. Per-project aggregate on GL for large or long-duration work. These three together cover most of the risk-transfer gaps a base certificate leaves open.
Specialty riders
- Food-industry rider for any work in USDA, FDA, or SQF facilities
- Garagekeepers coverage if we hold collector vehicles overnight
- Restoration-industry endorsement for IICRC-scope work
- Confined-space rider if your scope requires permit-required entries
What we can turn around quickly
Certificates issued the same day with your additional-insured language. We can carry your indemnity contract on file and re-issue annually without prompting. Our broker handles your annual renewal questions directly.
Red flags at any vendor
No COI on first request. Refusal to add Additional Insured endorsement. Coverage limits that look low for the scope. WC excluded by sole-proprietor exception in a state that doesn't recognize it. Any of these means walk away — the math on a single uncovered claim is dramatically worse than the price difference between a cheap and a professional vendor.