What documents do vendors need for property management companies?

At minimum: a signed W-9, a certificate of insurance showing general liability, workers compensation, and commercial auto, with the management company named as additional insured, and any trade or business licenses your work requires. Many companies also ask for background checks on technicians, a written safety policy, and a signed vendor agreement.

How much insurance do I need to work for property managers?

It varies by company, but in our experience the most common minimums are $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate for general liability, $1 million for commercial auto, and statutory workers compensation with $1 million employer's liability. Trades involving heights, electrical, or water often face higher requirements or an umbrella policy ask. Get the requirements sheet before you assume.

What is the difference between certificate holder and additional insured?

The certificate holder just receives a copy of your COI. Being named as additional insured means the property management company is actually covered under your liability policy if they are sued because of your work. Property managers almost always require additional insured status, and it requires an endorsement from your insurance carrier, not just a name on the certificate.

How do I keep vendor compliance current?

Track every expiration date in one place, set reminders 45 days out, and renew before the old document lapses. Most vendor portals suspend you automatically on the expiration date, and nobody calls to warn you. Assign one person in your company to own compliance and check the portals monthly.

Vendor Compliance Checklist for Field Service Companies

Vendor compliance is the least interesting part of selling to property managers, and it is the part that stops the most contractors cold. You can have the best pitch and the best price and still sit on the sidelines for six weeks because your COI has the wrong wording.

The fix is boring. Have everything ready before you need it, submitted correctly the first time, and tracked so it never lapses.

This is the checklist we use when we onboard a field service client into property management work. Print it, work through it, and you will clear vendor approval faster than the last five contractors who pitched the same regional manager.

Insurance: types and typical limits

Insurance is the biggest piece and the one most likely to get rejected. Here is what property management companies usually ask for. Limits below are rules of thumb from our experience, not legal advice. Always get the specific requirements sheet from the company you are working with.

General liability

Covers bodily injury and property damage caused by your work. The most common requirement we see is $1 million per occurrence and $2 million general aggregate. Some larger management companies or higher risk trades ask for $2 million per occurrence.

The endorsements matter as much as the limits:

Additional insured. The management company, and often each property owner LLC, must be named. This requires a policy endorsement, not just a line on the certificate.
Primary and non-contributory. Means your policy pays first before theirs. Common on requirements sheets.
Waiver of subrogation. Means your carrier will not go after the PM to recover what it paid. Also common.

Send the requirements sheet to your agent and ask them to confirm each endorsement is on the policy. If your agent hesitates on any of this, consider a new agent who works with commercial contractors.

Workers compensation

Required in nearly every case. Statutory limits for your state plus employer’s liability, usually $500,000 to $1 million per accident. If you are an owner-operator with an exemption, expect pushback. Many PM companies will not accept an exemption because they cannot easily verify it, and some will require a policy anyway.

Commercial auto

Covers your vehicles on their property. $1 million combined single limit is the typical ask. Personal auto policies on work trucks will not satisfy this and can leave you uncovered.

Umbrella or excess liability

Not always required, but common for roofing, electrical, HVAC, tree work, anything at height, and anything involving water. $1 million to $5 million depending on the trade and the company.

Other coverage you may be asked about

Pollution liability for pressure washing, painting, and anything involving chemicals or runoff.
Professional liability if you do inspections or reports.
Cyber liability occasionally, if you handle resident data or access their systems.

Licenses, registrations, and tax documents

Licenses

Upload every license your work requires, current, with expiration dates visible.

State contractor license, if your trade requires one
Trade-specific licenses (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, pesticide applicator, etc.)
City or county business license
Any certifications the trade expects (for example, dryer vent technicians often carry an industry certification, and PM companies sometimes ask about it)
Your Secretary of State registration or good standing certificate, occasionally requested

If a license is under an individual’s name and the business operates under a company name, be ready to explain the relationship.

W-9 and banking

W-9 signed and dated, with your legal business name and EIN. The name must match the named insured on your COI exactly.
Some companies also request an ACH form for direct deposit and a voided check. Set this up during onboarding so you are not chasing a paper check later.

Safety documents and background checks

Safety program

Larger management companies, and nearly all with institutional owners, ask for some evidence of a safety program. What we have seen requested:

A written safety policy or safety manual. It does not need to be long. Two to five pages covering PPE, ladder safety, vehicle safety, and incident reporting is enough for most trades.
OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 cards for supervisors, sometimes for all field staff
A drug and alcohol policy
Incident reporting procedure
Fall protection plan if your work involves roofs or ladders above a certain height

If you do not have a written safety policy, write one this week. A one page policy that exists beats a perfect one that does not.

Background checks and personnel

Anyone entering occupied units may need:

Criminal background check, usually within the last 12 months
Drug screening, depending on company
A signed code of conduct for on-site behavior
Photo ID and a company uniform or badge

Know which technicians can pass before you are asked. Some vendor portals run the checks for you at a per-person fee.

Vendor onboarding portal steps

Most property management companies use a vendor management platform, and many use a third party compliance service. The steps are similar across all of them.

Get the portal invitation from the compliance contact. If you do not know who that is, ask the regional or the maintenance supervisor.
Create your account using your legal business name and the email address you will actually monitor.
Read the requirements page before uploading anything. Note every endorsement and limit.
Send the requirements to your insurance agent and request a COI that meets them exactly, with the certificate holder name and address they specify.
Upload the W-9, COI, licenses, safety documents, and any signed agreements.
Pay the registration fee if there is one.
Email the compliance contact to confirm submission.
Check status every five business days. Fix rejections the same day.
When approved, save your vendor ID number. You will need it on invoices.

For the follow-up sequence and how to handle rejections, see how to become an approved vendor.

The full checklist

Here is everything in one table. Copy it into a spreadsheet, add a column for each PM company, and check items off as you go.

Item	Typical requirement	Who provides it	Expires?
W-9, signed and dated	Legal name matches COI	You	No, but re-sign if anything changes
General liability COI	$1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate	Insurance agent	Annually
Additional insured endorsement	PM company and property owner named	Insurance agent	With policy
Primary and non-contributory	If on requirements sheet	Insurance agent	With policy
Waiver of subrogation	If on requirements sheet	Insurance agent	With policy
Workers compensation	Statutory plus $500K to $1M employer’s liability	Insurance agent	Annually
Commercial auto	$1M combined single limit	Insurance agent	Annually
Umbrella or excess	$1M to $5M, trade dependent	Insurance agent	Annually
Pollution liability	Trade dependent	Insurance agent	Annually
State contractor license	If required for trade	State licensing board	Varies, often 1 to 2 years
Trade licenses	Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, etc.	State board	Varies
Business license	City or county	Local government	Annually
Good standing certificate	Occasionally	Secretary of State	Request when needed
Written safety policy	2 to 5 pages minimum	You	Review annually
OSHA 10 or 30 cards	Supervisors, sometimes all staff	Training provider	OSHA cards do not expire, but some PMs want recent
Drug and alcohol policy	If requested	You	Review annually
Background checks	Techs entering units, within 12 months	Third party or portal	Annually
Signed vendor agreement	Their document	PM company	Often annually
Code of conduct	Their document	PM company	Once
ACH form and voided check	For direct deposit	You and your bank	No
Portal registration fee	Varies	You	Often annually
Vendor ID number	Saved for invoicing	Portal	No

Keeping it current

Getting approved once is not the job. Staying approved is. Here is how to make sure a lapse never costs you a work order.

One owner. Assign one person in your company to own compliance. Not “the office.” A name.
One tracker. A spreadsheet or a CRM record with every document, every PM company, every portal login, and every expiration date.
45-day reminders. Set a calendar alert 45 days before each policy or license expires. That gives your agent time to issue the renewal COI and you time to upload it before the old one lapses.
Monthly portal check. Log into every portal once a month and confirm your status is still active. Portals change their requirements without telling you.
Update when anything changes. New truck, new tech entering units, new business address, new entity name. Each of those can affect a document on file.

If you use Jobber, a custom field on each PM client record for “compliance expiration” and a recurring task to check it works well. We cover that setup in our Jobber setup checklist.

What to do this week

If you are planning to sell to property managers and have not started on compliance, do these five things before you make a single call.

Call your insurance agent. Ask whether your policy supports additional insured, primary and non-contributory, and waiver of subrogation endorsements, and what limits you carry.
Sign a W-9 and save it as a PDF.
Pull every license and put it in the same folder.
Write a two page safety policy.
Decide which technicians can pass a background check.

That puts you weeks ahead of most contractors who get a portal invitation and then start scrambling. Once you are ready, the guide on getting into property management accounts covers the sales side.

Where Intrepid fits

Compliance is part of the sales process we run for field service companies, because a sale that stalls in the vendor portal is not a sale. We get the requirements, work with your agent, submit the documents, and track expirations so you stay on the vendor list. See how we approach sales for the trades or book a call if you want a hand getting through it.