# One set of rules per project: tracking requirements and renewals across active jobs

White paper R-11, COI Journal Resource Center. A GC with a school job, a hospital job and a tenant fit-out is running three sets of insurance rules at once, for dozens of trades, with policies expiring all year. Here is a structure that holds up.

Question: How do construction companies set different insurance requirements per project, and monitor contractor insurance expirations and renewals across all active projects?

By The editors, COI Journal. November 13, 2026. Docket COIJ-26-0012. Published by Forsured.

## Key findings

- Requirements come from the prime contract and flow down. A public owner's exhibit can require far more than your standard subcontract.
- Keep requirements as data: one record per project, with trade tiers, so every certificate is checked against the right list.
- Track coverage at the policy level, not the certificate level. One trade's renewal affects every project it works on.
- Completed operations requirements can run for years after a job closes, so the diary has to outlive the project.

## Why requirements differ by project

A GC's standard subcontract sets a baseline. Each prime contract can raise it. Public owners in particular publish detailed insurance exhibits, and the GC has to flow those requirements down to every trade.

The differences are real. Sonoma County's construction template scales general liability limits by project size, from $1 million per occurrence on jobs under $1 million to $10 million on jobs of $10 million and up, and sets completed operations durations from one to five years by the same tiers. Oregon DOT's subcontractor exhibit names specific additional insured forms and a 30-day notice requirement. Neither matches a typical private job.

## Requirements as data

The structure that holds up treats requirements as data, not as a PDF in a folder.

- **One record per project.** Coverages, limits, endorsements, durations, additional insureds by exact legal name, carrier rating, deductible caps, notice and delivery rules.
- **Trade tiers inside the project.** Sonoma's template, for example, sets higher limits for framing, mechanical and electrical trades than for other trades.
- **A source for every line.** Which contract clause each requirement comes from, so a reviewer can answer "says who?"

With that in place, each certificate is checked against the right list automatically, and a change to the prime contract updates one record instead of a hundred emails.

## Coverage at the policy level

A trade working three of your jobs has one general liability policy, not three. When that policy renews, it affects all three projects at once. When it lapses, all three are exposed.

So track renewals at the policy level: each trade's policies, their expiration dates, and every project that depends on them. Then a single renewal request covers every job, and a single lapse flags every job.

## A renewal calendar that works

1. **Diary every expiration date** for every policy of every trade.
2. **Request renewals 30 days out**, certificate plus endorsements, because endorsements don't automatically carry over.
3. **Re-check the renewal against every project** the trade works on, since the new policy may differ.
4. **Escalate on the date.** No renewal in hand means no coverage. See our white paper on [lapses mid-project](https://coijournal.com/reports/coverage-lapse-mid-project/).
5. **Keep the diary after close-out.** Completed operations requirements can run for years. See [completed operations](https://coijournal.com/dictionary/completed-operations/).

## Where aggregates come in

If a trade's general aggregate is shared across every job it works, a big claim on one project can reduce what's left for yours. That's why some owners require the aggregate to apply per project. See [per project aggregate](https://coijournal.com/dictionary/per-project-aggregate/).

## The minimum viable version

If you do nothing else: one requirements record per project, one renewal diary per trade policy, and a rule that renewals are checked against every project before the old policy ends.

## How we wrote this

This qualitative paper uses published public owner requirements from Sonoma County and Oregon DOT as examples. General information, not legal or insurance advice.

## Sources

- [Insurance requirement Template 2 (construction and public works)](https://sonomacounty.gov/administrative-support-and-fiscal-services/human-resources/divisions-and-units/liability-and-insurance/insurance/insurance-requirements-for-contracts-and-agreements/view-all-insurance-requirement-templates/template-2), County of Sonoma
- [Exhibit F: Subcontractor Insurance Requirements](https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Safety/Documents/State_Fiscal_Year_Exhibit_F_SUBCONTRACTOR_INSURANCE_REQUIREMENTS.pdf), Oregon Department of Transportation