Property appraisers insurance checklist: what an appraisal firm should carry

The appraisal firm insurance checklist

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Property appraisers usually carry professional liability (e&o), general liability and hired & non-owned auto. Appraisers value property that lenders lend against, under licences and standards that regulators enforce, and are sued by lenders after defaults and by buyers after discoveries, years after the report. The lender and the client's vendor desk ask for proof of each. The checklist below says what every item does, who requires it and how to check it on the policies you already have.

Reviewed by Michael LaBarbera, Licensed property & casualty agent, Provident Financial Group · Reviewed Oct 12, 2026 Updated Oct 14, 2026

Who asks an appraisal firm for what

Who	What they usually want to see
Banks, lenders & SBA loans	Property or auto physical damage with the lender as loss payee, and liability proof at closing and every renewal
Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding	General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella
Landlords & commercial leases	General liability with the landlord as additional insured, property coverage on tenant improvements and workers' compensation

Each of them wants a certificate, and most want it again at every renewal. A live certificate link from the wallet shows today's coverage to every holder and tells them when it changes.

How to check what you already have

Professional liability declarations. Claims-made or occurrence, the retroactive date (it should not have moved), the limit per claim and aggregate, the deductible, and whether defence costs sit inside or outside the limit.
General liability declarations page. Three liability numbers matter: each occurrence, general aggregate and the products–completed operations aggregate. Then the forms list: blanket additional insured, waiver of subrogation and primary and non-contributory wording satisfy every contract; scheduled forms satisfy one.
Hired and non-owned auto. Look for the symbols 8 and 9 or an endorsement by that name on the auto or general liability policy; without it, staff in their own cars are uninsured on company business.
Cyber declarations. The headline limit matters less than the sublimits: social engineering, funds-transfer fraud, ransomware and business interruption, plus the regulatory coverage and the panel of breach vendors.
Workers' compensation information page. Item 3.A must list every state you work in, item 4 must carry the right class codes, and the employers' liability limits should meet what contracts ask. Check that the estimated payroll is close to this year's.
Auto schedule. Every vehicle listed with the right garaging address and use; symbols that include hired and non-owned auto; physical damage with the lender as loss payee where the vehicle is financed.
Bonds. The obligee (board, municipality or owner), the penal sum and the expiry date; a bond is renewed with the licence or the job, not with the policy year.

What usually goes wrong for property appraisal firms

Lender claims after a default, pleading an inflated value.
Appraisal management company agreements with indemnity clauses beyond the policy.
A retroactive date that moved when you switched carriers, cutting off earlier work.
Contracts with indemnity clauses wider than the policy will support.
Damage to the exact thing you are working on is excluded on most general liability forms; installation floaters and care, custody and control endorsements fill that hole.
Social engineering (wire fraud) sublimited to a small amount on a cyber policy with a large headline limit.

What underwriters will ask an appraisal firm

Appraisals per year and property types, licence level, AMC agreements, and retroactive dates
Services, largest engagement size and the contracts you sign
Claims-made retroactive date and any prior claims or circumstances
Residential versus commercial split of the work
Whether any work is done above three stories or below grade
Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection

Have the answers in the wallet before the renewal and the quote request fills itself in; CoverMatch sends one application to every eligible carrier and lines the quotes up against what you have.

Renewal timing

Audits at year end compare payroll, receipts and subcontractor costs with the estimate, so keep the wallet's size figures and the subcontractor certificates current. Start comparing sixty days before expiration, and ask for the limits the next contract will need rather than the ones the last one did.

Questions people actually ask

Who sues appraisers?

Lenders and investors after a loan defaults, and buyers who discover a defect, often years after the report. Appraisers' E&O is claims-made for that reason; keep the retroactive date and buy a tail at retirement.

Do appraisal management companies require insurance?

Yes, at stated E&O limits, and their agreements often include indemnity language the policy will not fund. Read the agreement; the carrier will ask about it on a claim.

What is a retroactive date on an E&O policy?

The date before which no work is covered. On a claims-made policy you want it to stay at the day you first bought coverage, not reset at each renewal or carrier change. CoverMatch checks it on every quote comparison because it is the difference between covering ten years of work and one.

Does general liability cover damage to a customer's property while I work on it?

It covers damage to the rest of their property, not usually the part in your hands. Many forms exclude property in your care, custody or control, so an appraisal firm that handles valuable items or systems needs an endorsement or an installation floater. The policy explainer in the wallet flags the exclusion when it reads your policy.

Does cyber insurance cover a fraudulent wire transfer?

Only under a social-engineering or funds-transfer-fraud insuring agreement, and often at a sublimit well below the policy limit. Ask for the sublimit before you buy; it is the claim small businesses actually have.