Vendor insurance is the least exciting item on any board agenda, right up until the moment it becomes the only thing that matters. A landscaper's mower throws a rock through a resident's window. A porter slips on a wet clubhouse floor. A pool tech's ladder damages the deck. When something goes wrong, the question is simple and expensive: whose insurance pays?
If the answer is "the association's," you have a problem you could have prevented. Here is what every board should verify before a vendor starts work — and why keeping a certificate in a folder is not the same as being covered.
The coverage that actually protects your community
Not all insurance is equal, and vendors sometimes carry the cheapest policy that lets them say "we're insured." These are the coverages that matter for HOA work:
General liability. This covers property damage and bodily injury the vendor causes while working. It is the policy that pays when the mower breaks a window or the pressure washer cracks a walkway. The limit your association requires is your association's to set, and the number most boards use is the one their own insurer or lender already asks for — so start with a call to your agent, write the per-occurrence and aggregate figures into your vendor policy, and then hold every certificate against those figures. A limit is only meaningful once your board has written it down.
Workers' compensation. If a vendor's employee is injured on your property, workers' comp covers their medical bills and lost wages. Without it, an injured worker can come after the association directly. Any vendor with employees should carry it — and in most states it is legally required.
Commercial auto. Relevant for vendors driving trucks and trailers onto the property. If a vendor's vehicle damages a gate, a car, or a resident, this is the policy in play.
Professional or pollution coverage. Situational, but worth asking about for pool vendors handling chemicals or any vendor doing specialized work where a mistake causes contamination.
"Additional insured" is the phrase that matters
Here is the detail most boards miss. A vendor can be fully insured and your association can still be exposed — unless the association is named as an additional insured on the vendor's general liability policy.
Being an additional insured means the vendor's policy extends to defend and cover your association if a claim arises from their work. Without it, you are relying entirely on the vendor to handle a claim, and if they lapse, dispute it, or go under, the exposure lands back on the community.
Ask for a certificate of insurance (COI) that lists your association by name as an additional insured. If the certificate does not say it, you do not have it, no matter what the vendor tells you over the phone.
A certificate on file is a snapshot, not a guarantee
This is the trap that catches even diligent boards. You collect a COI when you sign the vendor. It looks great. You file it. Eighteen months later, that policy was canceled for non-payment four months ago and nobody noticed — because nobody was looking.
Insurance is not a one-time check. Policies lapse, get canceled, downgrade at renewal, or quietly drop the additional-insured endorsement. A certificate proves coverage existed on the day it was issued and says nothing about today.
That means a board's real job is not collecting certificates. It is monitoring them:
- Track every vendor's policy expiration date
- Re-verify coverage at each renewal, not just at signing
- Confirm the additional-insured endorsement survives the renewal
- Have a plan for what happens the day a policy lapses
Most self-managed boards cannot realistically do this for every vendor, every renewal cycle. It is tedious, and it only pays off on the day something goes wrong.
Where HOAcrew fits
This monitoring problem is a big part of why HOAcrew exists. Three documents are on file and current before a company can bid at your community: general liability, workers' compensation, and the credential its own trade requires — a CPO card for pool, auto liability for landscaping, a background check for porter and amenity staffing. Each is verified by an admin who reads the certificate itself and stored with its expiry date, and each is held to a stated renewal window — 30 days for insurance, none for a competency certificate. Once that window closes, the company cannot bid for or be awarded new work until the document is current again.
The limits those certificates are measured against are the ones your community sets — often the number its own insurer or lender asks for. Your board writes the figure down once; every certificate is then checked against it, and every expiry date is held against it. You read current status in one dashboard instead of a folder of stale PDFs.
HOAcrew is where a board runs this. Vetted independent local companies submit proposals against the scope you publish; your board compares them side by side, selects one, and the contract is between your community and the company it chose. If a company's coverage falls out of the window, your board reopens the scope, replacement proposals reach it within 10 business days at no additional cost, and your board picks the next company. Every company's own invoice arrives in one view, with the visit records beside it.
Verify the coverage, insist on additional-insured status, and check it again at every renewal. Get that right and the next board inherits a file it can trust — every certificate read, dated, and checked against the limits your community set.