Insurance and COI verification
Every company's certificate of insurance, collected, verified and dated.
Vendors upload their certificate of insurance, business license, W-9, and trade credentials. A person at HOAcrew opens the certificate and takes the limits and the expiration date straight off the document. Where that disagrees with what the vendor typed, the certificate wins.
Certificate of liability insurance
Harbor Mutual Insurance Co.
Insured: Ridgeline Grounds Co. · uploaded by the vendor
- Commercial general liabilitygates proposals
- $2,000,000each occurrence
- 14 Mar 2027
- Workers’ compensationgates proposals
- Statutoryemployer’s liability included
- 31 Jan 2027
- CPO certificationgates proposals
- Heldthe pool trade’s own credential
- 02 Nov 2026
- W-9gates payout
- On fileno expiration date on this form
- —
Replaced, kept on file
Your community sets the coverage limits it requires, often the number its own insurer or lender asks for. A vendor whose recorded coverage falls below one of them cannot propose on your work until it is raised.
Example certificate. Every field on it is one HOAcrew holds and checks, and each document keeps its earlier versions, so your board can see what changed and when.
An example certificate as it sits on file. Commercial general liability at $2,000,000 each occurrence expiring 14 March 2027. Workers’ compensation, statutory, expiring 31 January 2027. A CPO certification expiring 2 November 2026. All three gate proposals. A W-9 is on file and gates payout rather than proposals. Once an admin has read a certificate, the limit recorded from it is compared with the limit the community set every time that vendor proposes there, and a vendor below a required limit is refused and told by how much. The certificate it replaced is kept: version 1, uploaded 9 March 2025, superseded 11 March 2026, and it had been verified too.
The rulebook
Four numbers decide whether a vendor can propose.
Every vendor is held to these, the same way at every community on the platform, whatever its size.
Insurance renewals
Insurance gets 30 days past expiration. Then proposals close.
A renewal certificate routinely arrives late, so insurance gets a window and a competency certificate gets none. When a window shuts, new proposals close. A contract already signed is your board's to act on.
An insurance line
general liability · workers’ comp · auto liability
30-day grace period- Uploadedthe vendor uploads it
- Verifiedan HOAcrew admin checks it
- Covering, and the vendor can proposeuntil the policy’s own expiration date
- 30-day renewal windowstill able to propose, and the replacement is expected
- Proposals closeduntil a current certificate is verified
A competency certificate
CPO · lifeguard certification · background check
No grace period- Uploadedthe vendor uploads it
- Verifiedan HOAcrew admin checks it
- Current, and the vendor can proposeuntil the certificate’s own expiration date
- Proposals closed, the same dayan expired certification is not a certification
What closes is new proposals and award. The W-9 is collected and verified in the same review, and gates nothing.
Two document lifecycles drawn on the same time axis. Both begin the same way: the vendor uploads the document, an HOAcrew admin verifies it, and it covers the vendor, who can propose, until its own expiration date. They differ after that. An insurance line (general liability, workers’ compensation, auto liability) has a 30-day renewal window after expiration during which the vendor can still propose, because a renewal certificate routinely arrives after the old one lapses. Only when that window closes does the vendor stop being able to propose on or be awarded work, until a current certificate is verified. A competency certificate (CPO, lifeguard certification, background check) has no window at all: proposals close the same day it expires, because an expired certification is not a certification. On both lanes the gate is on proposals and award.
Against a PDF in your inbox
Every certificate opens from your dashboard with a date on it.
| A PDF that arrived by email | On HOAcrew | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the certificate lives | Whoever still has the email | One file, opened from your dashboard |
| Who verified it, and when | Usually nobody, at no point | An HOAcrew admin, with a date |
| The date it runs out | Inside the PDF, unread | Stored on the document itself |
| What a lapse does | It is noticed, or it is not | Proposals close when the window shuts |
| The certificate it replaced | Overwritten or lost | Kept, versioned and dated |
| Answering an auditor | Reassembled from four inboxes | Read off the file, same day |
| The limits your community requires | Written into a contract, unchecked | Compared before a proposal lands |
Your community sets the coverage limits it requires, often the number its own insurer or lender asks for. A vendor whose recorded coverage falls below one of them cannot propose on your work until it is raised.
What is verified
Three documents decide a proposal.
Two are the same in every trade. The third is whatever that trade’s own work requires: a CPO card, an auto policy, or a background check.
| General liability | Required in every trade before a company can propose. A policy that lapses has 30 days to be renewed. After that, proposals close. |
|---|---|
| Workers’ compensation | Required in every trade before a company can propose. A policy that lapses has 30 days to be renewed. After that, proposals close. |
| The trade credential | A CPO card for pool, auto liability for landscaping and a background check for porter and amenity staffing. Auto liability carries the same 30-day window as the other insurance lines. A trade certification gets none, because an expired one is not a certificate. |
Also on file, and not a gate
| Business registration | Business registration is collected and verified as well. A proposal turns on the insurance and the trade credential; the registration says which company a community would be signing with. |
|---|---|
| W-9 | A W-9 is collected and verified in the same review. |
Why it matters
This is where an uninsured claim lands.
When something goes wrong on shared property, the deductible and the legal bill look for whoever was covered.
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