How to verify a contractor’s insurance before work starts

Direct answer. Do more than file a PDF labelled “public liability”. Match the named insured to the business you are appointing; check the policy type, insurer, effective dates, territory, indemnity limit, activities covered, endorsements and exclusions against the actual job; and resolve any ambiguity with the broker or insurer using independently obtained contact details. If a contractor employs people, check the applicable employers’ liability requirement as well. Record what was checked, by whom, when, what the policy documents actually show and any unresolved conditions. A certificate alone does not guarantee a future claim will be paid or that unsafe work becomes acceptable. HSE employers’ liability guidance; FCA firm checker.

This article answers the insurance verification task. The existing contractor-compliance checklist owns the whole pre-start document set, and the insurance-expiry article owns renewal tracking. Link to those, but do not repeat their wider checklists. The target reader may be a principal contractor, property manager, facilities company or buyer appointing a specialist trade; the coverage required depends on role, contract and risk.

Decide what insurance the job actually calls for

Ask first what could go wrong and who could suffer the loss. Public liability can address certain third-party injury or property-damage claims. Employers’ liability addresses certain injury or illness claims by employees. Professional indemnity may be relevant when the contractor gives design or advice. Motor, contract works, product, environmental or other specialist cover may be relevant to particular operations. The labels alone do not tell you whether a policy responds to the contemplated work. Ask your own insurance or procurement adviser for the contract-specific requirements rather than copying a standard insurance table from another project.

In Great Britain, employers generally need employers’ liability insurance from an authorised insurer with at least £5 million of cover as soon as they become an employer; exemptions and worker-status details matter. HSE’s guide explains who must insure and exceptions. A genuinely self-employed sole trader with no employees may not need the same compulsory EL policy, but check the actual engagement and people they bring to site instead of accepting “sole trader” as an answer to every case. Northern Ireland has its own regime and should be checked with HSENI. GOV.UK employers’ liability; HSE HSE40; HSENI insurance.

Public liability is generally voluntary under GB law, though a client, landlord, site owner or contract may require it. There is no universal statutory £1 million, £2 million or £5 million public-liability limit for all construction and property work. A buyer should set a proportionate contractual minimum for the exposure, location and client requirements, then confirm the insurer has actually provided that level for the relevant activity. HSE HSE40 on public versus employers’ liability.

Ask for the right evidence

Request the current certificate or schedule and, where scope or exclusions matter, the relevant policy wording and endorsements. A single summary page may show dates and limits but omit exclusions for roofing heat, deep excavation, asbestos, high-rise work or subcontracting. If the contractor cannot provide the schedule, ask the broker to confirm the exact activity and site in writing. Do not assume an unrelated tender certificate still applies after renewal or a change of trade.

Start a simple verification record:

Keep copies of the evidence actually relied on and record changes, rather than overwriting an expired document with its renewal. If a later incident occurs, a present-day certificate may not show what cover was represented when the job began.

Match the insured business to the contract

Compare the policyholder name with the firm you are appointing. A certificate for “ABC Holdings Ltd” is not automatically evidence that “ABC Roofing Ltd” or a self-employed worker has cover. Group policies can include subsidiaries, but the schedule or insurer must show who is included. If the contractor trades under a different name, record the legal entity and how it maps to the policy. Check whether the policy extends to subcontracted labour and whether those subcontractors need their own policies under your contract.

Do not confuse a broker’s logo with the insurer. The broker may arrange the cover, but the underwriter and wording determine the policy. Where a certificate is questionable, use an independently found number or portal to seek confirmation; do not rely solely on a phone number printed on a suspect document. The FCA Firm Checker helps check whether a financial firm is authorised for the relevant financial service. It is not a public policy-validity database for a particular contractor; authorisation does not prove a specific policy is live or covers the job.

Read the limit, excess and work description together

A £5 million headline limit may not be £5 million available for every type of loss. Check whether the limit is any one claim or a policy aggregate; whether there is a relevant sublimit; and what excess or deductible applies. Compare the limit with contractual wording and the risk rather than judging it in isolation. A subcontractor may have the right figure but an endorsement excluding the activity for which you hired them.

Example: roof repair near occupied property. A roofing contractor sends a current public-liability certificate with the contract’s minimum limit. The planned method involves a torch-on membrane. The schedule excludes heat-applied work unless a specified hot-work procedure is followed and evidence kept. Verification therefore needs the endorsement, the method and any insurer confirmation that the planned scope qualifies; a green tick based on the headline number would be misleading. The site still needs appropriate fire controls and supervision even if the policy responds.

Example: designer-installer. A company will design supports as well as install them. Public liability alone may not answer a claim arising from defective professional design. Check whether the contract requires professional indemnity, who owns design liability, and whether the policy covers that service and duration. Ask a competent procurement/insurance adviser where the allocation is complex. Do not presume PI is mandatory for every installer or sufficient for every design obligation.

Example: labour brought to site. A sole trader says they have no employees, then brings two workers. Recheck the worker relationships and the relevant EL and subcontractor arrangements before accepting the original “not applicable” note. The buyer should not decide employment status merely from a trade card or invoice label; escalate a genuine ambiguity.

Check dates against the whole job, then plan renewals

Confirm cover is effective when work begins, not merely when the document was uploaded. If it expires during the planned contract, obtain the renewal before expiry and decide what to do if evidence is not received. A document with last year’s date should not remain “approved” because it was approved at onboarding. Equally, an automatically generated alert is a prompt to investigate, not proof that cover lapsed; the broker may have renewed the policy and not yet sent the new schedule.

For long projects, plan a review before the policy expires and when the work scope changes. A variation from general maintenance to asbestos disturbance, structural design or a different site may require a new coverage decision even though the policy dates stay the same. Keep a record of who can suspend instruction or site access while a coverage question is open. Avoid promising “we never use uninsured contractors” merely because a software dashboard is green; the underlying document and scope still need checking.

Verify without claiming a guarantee

Use a three-state decision rather than a simplistic compliant/non-compliant badge:

1. Accept for the defined scope, with policy and decision evidence recorded.
2. Conditionally accept, only after a named item is supplied and checked before the affected work begins.
3. Do not release the work, because dates, entity, cover, scope or authenticity remain unresolved.

The responsible buyer or adviser should make that decision. If the insurer confirms a policy exists, ask a scope-specific question in writing where it matters; “policy in force” does not answer whether a particular operation is excluded. Do not ask an insurance intermediary to certify safety competence, and do not use insurance as a substitute for RAMS, trade qualifications, permits or supervision.

Watch for common document errors: a certificate in a different entity’s name; a policy that ended before the job; an expired EL certificate for an employer; a public-liability-only pack where design work is contracted; limits below the client requirement; hot-work or height exclusions hidden in endorsements; or an evidence file that cannot be traced to the insurer. Ask questions neutrally: an inconsistency can be an administrative error, but it must be resolved before approval.

This task supports procurement and safety management, but it is not legal advice on a particular policy. Coverage can turn on wording, disclosures, exclusions, claims circumstances and the insurer’s decision. Use an insurance professional for disputed or high-value exposure. A buyer should also review its own contract and insurance position; transferring an activity to a contractor does not always transfer every related liability.

For teams with many contractors, the Complys contractor-compliance page is the relevant product destination. Ask for a demonstration of the currently deployed document-review, expiry and escalation workflow before relying on advertised automation. This guide does not assert that Complys verifies a policy directly with an insurer, guarantees cover, certifies a contractor or decides claims. Human approval remains necessary for ambiguous scope and exclusions.

Source and claim register — checked 5 October 2026