What Is a Certificate of Insurance, and Why Does Your Chicago Building Require One?

What Is a Certificate of Insurance?

A Certificate of Insurance, usually shortened to COI, is a one-page form issued by your mover’s insurance agent that proves the company carries active liability coverage. Your building requires one so it has a path to recovery if a crew scratches an elevator cab, cracks a lobby tile, or injures someone in a corridor. No approved COI, no freight elevator reservation.

Most managed buildings in Chicago treat this as a hard gate rather than a formality. The property manager will not release the dock, the elevator, or the service entrance until the document clears review, and review can take longer than people expect during the first week of May.

What is actually on the document

Most COIs arrive on ACORD form 25, the Certificate of Liability Insurance. It lists the producer, meaning the agency that issued it, the mover’s legal business name as the named insured, the insurance carriers behind each policy, policy numbers, and effective and expiration dates.

Below that sits the coverage grid. Commercial general liability, automobile liability, umbrella or excess liability, and workers’ compensation with employers’ liability each get their own row. Property coverage is not on this form. That lives on the ACORD 24 or 28, which is a different document your building is unlikely to ask a mover for.

You do not fill any of this out. The certificate comes from the mover’s licensed agent, broker, or carrier, and a building that knows what it is doing will notice if a certificate arrives from the customer’s email instead.

Certificate holder and additional insured are not the same thing

This is the single most common reason a COI gets bounced back, and it is worth understanding before you forward anything to management.

The ACORD 25 states in its header that it is issued as a matter of information only, confers no rights on the certificate holder, and does not amend, extend, or alter the coverage in the listed policies. Sitting in the certificate holder box means you received a piece of paper. It grants nothing.

Additional insured status is different. It comes from an endorsement attached to the mover’s actual policy, commonly ISO forms CG 20 10 or CG 20 37, and the certificate should reference the endorsement rather than just checking a box. If your building’s packet asks for additional insured status, the checkbox alone will not satisfy a careful reviewer.

Two related requests show up in Chicago move-in packets. A waiver of subrogation, often ISO form CG 24 04, prevents the mover’s insurer from later pursuing the building to recover what it paid out. Primary and non-contributory wording puts the mover’s policy first in line ahead of the building’s own coverage. Both of these are endorsements on the policy, not phrases anyone can type onto a certificate.

One more thing worth knowing: the 30-day cancellation-notice language that many older leases still require was effectively removed from the ACORD form in its 2010 revision. If your building insists on it, that is a conversation between the building and the mover’s agent, and it is better had two weeks out than on move morning.

Why your building wants it

Nothing in the Chicago city code requires a COI for a residential move. The demand comes from the building’s own rules and the management company’s vendor policy, which is why a walk-up in Logan Square may ask for nothing at all while a tower in Streeterville sends a four-page packet.

What the building is protecting is specific and physical. Elevator cabs get gouged by dresser corners. Lobby stone chips. Garage clearance bars get hit by trucks that should never have entered the ramp. Corridor walls in a converted West Loop loft take more damage in a single move-out than in a year of ordinary use.

The limits your building requires are set by the building. There is no citywide number, and a Class A tower on Wacker will ask for more than a 12-unit courtyard building in Lake View. The figure is in your move-in packet, and it is the first thing to send your mover.

The other certificate of insurance, and why it is not the same one

Illinois already requires movers to provide proof of coverage to the state, which confuses people who hear the phrase twice in one week.

Any company transporting household goods for hire in Illinois must hold a Household Goods License from the Illinois Commerce Commission, publish and file a tariff of its services and prices, and operate under the Illinois Commercial Transportation Law. Before a licensed mover can operate as an intrastate carrier, it files evidence of public liability coverage on Form E and cargo coverage on Form H, along with evidence of workers’ compensation.

Under 92 Ill. Adm. Code 1457, those certificates go to the Commission and must be written by an insurer admitted to do business in Illinois. That filing satisfies the state. It does nothing for your building, which wants its own certificate, with its own legal entity named, for your specific address and date.

Sweet Home Movers Chicago is licensed by the Illinois Commerce Commission and issues COIs for managed buildings at no charge.

What gets a certificate rejected

Every one of these is fixable in advance and painful on the day. Send the packet to your mover when you book, not when management follows up.

Frequently asked questions

Does a Certificate of Insurance cover my furniture if the movers damage it?

No. General liability coverage on a COI protects the building and third parties, not your belongings. Damage to your own goods falls under the mover’s cargo liability and the valuation option you select on the bill of lading, which is a separate conversation and a separate document. Ask your mover to explain the valuation choices before you sign.

Can I fill out the COI myself or edit the one I have?

No. The certificate has to come from the mover’s licensed insurance agent, broker, or carrier, and any edit you make invalidates it. Buildings routinely reject certificates that arrive from a resident’s email rather than an agency. Forward your building’s requirements to your mover and let the agent issue the document.

My building wants to be named as additional insured. Is that different from certificate holder?

Yes, and it matters. Certificate holder means the building received a copy. Additional insured means the building is covered under the mover’s liability policy for claims arising from the work, and it requires an endorsement on the policy itself. If your packet asks for additional insured status, say so explicitly when you request the certificate.

Does the City of Chicago require a COI for a residential move?

No. The city regulates the curb through CDOT parking permits, and the state regulates movers through the Illinois Commerce Commission. The COI requirement comes from your building’s rules, so a self-managed two-flat may ask for nothing while a high-rise sends a detailed packet with named entities and required limits.

How much coverage will my building require?

That number is set by the building and appears in your move-in packet or on the management company’s vendor page. It varies widely across Chicago, and downtown towers generally ask for more than smaller residential buildings. Get the packet the day you sign the lease, then forward it to your mover with the entity names exactly as written.

My building also asked for a crew list. Why?

Buildings with badged access or a security desk want names in advance so the crew can be cleared through the service entrance. It is a screening step, not paperwork for its own sake, and it is a question worth asking any mover you are quoting. A company staffing jobs with day labor cannot always produce a stable list a week out.

Before you send anything

Pull your move-in packet first. The three details that decide whether the certificate clears review on the first pass are the exact legal name of the entity to be named, whether the building wants certificate holder status or additional insured status, and the required limits. Everything else on the form is standard.

Sweet Home Movers Chicago is licensed by the Illinois Commerce Commission, staffs jobs with full-time background-checked employees rather than day labor, and issues certificates of insurance for your building at no charge. Send us your packet, and we will get it to our agent.