Who asks a smart home installer for what
| Who | What they usually want to see |
|---|---|
| Enterprise clients & vendor onboarding | General liability, professional or cyber liability, workers' compensation and often an umbrella |
| Property managers & HOAs | General liability with the manager and owner as additional insureds, and workers' compensation |
| General contractors | General liability and workers' compensation with a waiver of subrogation, often primary and non-contributory wording and commercial auto |
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
- 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.
- 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.
- Equipment schedule. Owned items scheduled above the per-item threshold, a blanket limit for small tools, leased or rented equipment included, and the valuation (replacement cost or actual cash value).
- Umbrella schedule of underlying insurance. Each primary policy listed with the limits the umbrella expects; a gap between the two is uninsured.
- Technology E&O declarations. The retroactive date, whether cyber coverages are included in the same form, contractual liability wording and the exclusions for guarantees of uptime.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
What usually goes wrong for smart home installers
- Remote access to clients' homes and cameras with no cyber policy behind it.
- A failed system during a storm or a break-in, excluded by general liability as failure to perform.
- 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.
- A completed-operations aggregate quietly limited by endorsement; the declarations page looks fine until the forms are read.
- Theft from a locked truck overnight with no tools floater, or a per-item limit lower than the one tool that mattered.
- A personal auto policy on a truck with the company name on the door.
What underwriters will ask a smart home installer
- Whether the business holds remote access and credentials, the share of security and access-control work, and typical project size
- Residential versus commercial split of the work
- Whether any work is done above three stories or below grade
- Years of completed-operations coverage with no gap
- Whether you warranty your work and for how long
- Total value of hand and power tools kept on the trucks
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.