Waiver of subrogation vs additional insured

Both clauses are written for the general contractor’s benefit (and often the owner’s), and both are paid for on your policy. That is where the likeness ends.

Additional insured status makes the GC an insured under your policy for claims that arise out of your work. When someone hurt or damaged by your work sues the GC, the GC sends that suit to your insurer, and your insurer defends it and pays within the endorsement’s terms. It protects the GC from outsiders.

A waiver of subrogation protects the GC from your insurer. Subrogation is an insurer’s right, once it has paid a claim, to step into its customer’s shoes and sue whoever caused the loss. Texas states it plainly for workers’ comp: when an injured worker claims benefits, the carrier “is subrogated to the rights of the injured employee” and may pursue the third party who caused the injury (Labor Code § 417.001(b)). If that third party is the GC, the waiver is what stops the suit.

The difference only shows once something goes wrong. Take one fall on a site you are working as a subcontractor: your worker is hurt, and the GC’s housekeeping played a part.

Your workers’ comp policy pays the worker. Without a waiver, your carrier can now pursue the GC for its share. With a waiver on the comp policy, it cannot. Separately, the worker may sue the GC directly; whether your general liability policy then defends the GC as an additional insured depends on the endorsement’s wording and, in some states, on the anti-indemnity limits in § 8 below.

Note what neither clause does: neither stops the injured person from suing anyone. The workers’ comp guide covers why a missing comp policy on a sub lands on the GC at audit, which is the other reason comp is in every subcontract.

A subcontract rarely asks for “additional insured” once. It asks for it on named lines, and it asks for the waiver on a slightly different list, because workers’ comp has no additional insureds.

Two rows deserve a closer read. On general liability, check that the additional insured endorsement covers completed operations as well as ongoing work — construction claims arrive after handover, and an ongoing-only form stops at practical completion. The general liability guide explains the completed-operations aggregate those claims are paid from, and the occurrence vs claims-made comparison covers why the trigger date matters for the same late claims. On the umbrella, read whether it extends to anyone who is an insured on the underlying policy or keeps its own list of insureds; a subcontract that asks for umbrella cover usually wants it to follow.

On the standard ACORD 25 certificate each policy line has two narrow boxes beside it: one for additional insured, one for subrogation waived. A “Y” in a box means the broker says the endorsement exists on that line. It does not create it.

So the proof a GC should hold is the endorsement page itself — form name, edition date, and the schedule or blanket wording — stapled behind the certificate. Our certificate of insurance guide reads the rest of the ACORD 25 box by box, and the certificate request sheet writes out the request to the broker with both columns ticked, so the endorsements come back with the certificate rather than after the first claim.

Either clause can be written two ways. A scheduled endorsement names the GC (and the owner) in a schedule on the form; each new contract means a new request to the broker. A blanket endorsement grants the status or the waiver to any person or organisation you have agreed, in a written contract, to cover.

For a sub working for several GCs a year, blanket forms save a broker request per job. The catch sits in the trigger wording: read what the form requires — a written contract, signed before the work or before the loss — and make your paperwork meet it.

The same paragraph of a subcontract usually adds “primary and non-contributory”. It is about order, not amount: your policy pays first for the GC as an additional insured, and does not ask the GC’s own insurer to share the loss. It only makes sense on a line where the GC is already an additional insured, and like the other two it has to be in the endorsement, not just typed on the certificate.

If an ask is not on your policy, the answer is a broker call before signing, not a promise you cannot keep. The contractor insurance cost guide shows where these endorsements sit in the premium, and the bond vs liability comparison covers the bond the same subcontract may ask for alongside them.

Some states limit how far a construction contract can push these clauses — how much of the GC’s own fault you can be made to indemnify or insure, and in some cases whether a waiver of subrogation can be required on certain policies. The rules differ by state, by project type and by policy line, so check your state’s statute before relying on either clause. Texas is a clear example of how such a law reaches the insurance as well as the contract.

The practical reading for a sub on a Texas commercial job: additional insured cover for claims caused by your own fault, and for injuries to your own employees, survives; cover for the GC’s own negligence on other claims does not, whatever the subcontract says. The Texas licensing sheet covers who licenses what in that state. Elsewhere, look up your own state’s anti-indemnity statute on the legislature’s site, or ask a construction attorney before you sign a contract that conflicts with it.