Property management insurance checklist: what a property management company should carry

The property management company insurance checklist

QUICK ANSWER

Property management usually carry professional liability (e&o), general liability and commercial crime. Property managers collect rents and reserves into trust accounts, screen tenants under fair-housing rules, maintain buildings they do not own, and are named alongside the owner in every claim at every property. 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 a property management company 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.
Crime declarations. Employee theft, forgery, funds-transfer fraud and social engineering each have their own limit; third-party coverage if you work in clients' premises.
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.
Employment practices declarations. Limit and retention, third-party coverage for claims by customers, and whether wage-and-hour claims carry any defence sublimit.
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.

What usually goes wrong for property management companies

Fair-housing and tenant-screening complaints, the professional claim of the class.
Trust accounts holding owners' money with no crime coverage.
Owners' policies that assume the manager is insured and a manager's policy that assumes the reverse.
Funds-transfer fraud sublimits far below the size of a single wire.
Social engineering (wire fraud) sublimited to a small amount on a cyber policy with a large headline limit.
A workers' compensation estimate set low in January and settled with a large audit bill in the spring.

What underwriters will ask a property management company

Units and associations managed, trust accounts and controls, staff and on-site employees, and management agreements
Units and associations under management, trust-account controls and whether you employ on-site staff
Funds handled per month, dual controls and trust-account practice
Multi-factor authentication, backups and endpoint protection
Records held, payment card handling and any client network access
Payroll by class of work, headcount and turnover

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

What covers a fair-housing complaint against a manager?

Professional liability written for property managers, which includes discrimination claims from applicants and tenants. Written screening criteria applied the same way every time are the defence.

Why do owners ask about the manager's crime coverage?

Because the manager holds their rents and reserves, and theft by a bookkeeper is the claim owners fear. Crime coverage over client funds and monthly reconciliations are what the management agreement should require.

Whose insurance covers a slip-and-fall at a building we manage?

The owner's general liability, with the manager named as additional insured, is the usual structure; the manager's own policy covers management errors and the manager's staff. The management agreement should say which, and the live certificate shows the owner what is in place.

A spoofed email redirected a client payment. Which policy responds?

Crime under funds-transfer fraud or social engineering, or cyber if the policy includes it, and in both cases only up to the sublimit. Those sublimits are the number to check before buying either 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.