Vendor’s Guide to Insurance Verification for Commercial Properties

We are going to send A LOT of emails. Here is why:

1. We need to keep everybody on the same page: you, the property manager, and your client.
2. The volume of emails will subside after we get through the initial slump. Promise.

Here’s all the emails that we will send you:

Insurance documentation collection

If the building doesn’t have all of your documents on file, we will send you an email to obtain them.

If you don’t respond to this first email, we will send 3 more reminders. The sooner you provide the documents, the faster we will review and verify your insurance coverage!

One great thing about working with Jones is that you DO NOT have to create an account to submit documents. Simply click on the link in the body of the email request and attach your documents.

‼️ Look out for emails with the subject line “Your COI is needed for [building’s address]”. Also, you might want to check your promotions tab.

‼️ If you don’t know who in your company handles insurance documents, still respond and provide the contact information for your insurance broker. We will take it from there.

Insurance documentation review

As soon as you provide your insurance documents, we notify the property manager and add the documents into a review queue.

Our review process is very, very thorough.

Oftentimes, we uncover coverage gaps in COIs that property managers thought were compliant (they weren’t).

What can be missing:

• Correct Additional Insured and Certificate Holder
• Expiration dates are in the past
• Insufficient Limits
• Particular policies missing or have insufficient limits
• Other items (e.g. endorsements)

Your insurance documents will probably contain gaps, too – more than other buildings’ teams ever flagged. This isn’t because the standards are too high. This happens because the Jones team really puts a magnifying glass on documents.

The good news is that we are fast. We commit to reviewing insurance documents within 24 hours, but in reality, our audit times are 5 hours on average.

Gap resolution

Once we finish with the audit, we notify the property manager. They see where you stand in terms of your insurance coverage and do one of the following:

1. Waive the requirements in order to get you approved faster
2. Ask for you to make changes to your coverage and provide updated documents.

The choice is entirely theirs. It depends on how much risk they are ready to tolerate, and for liability reasons, this isn’t something Jones has a say in. We can only relay their decisions!

If the property manager chooses option 1 and waives whatever coverage you are missing, we will notify you immediately. Congratulations – you are done with insurance compliance. We will talk to you again when your COI expires.

If the property manager chooses option 2, we have work to do.

Jones will send you an email detailing what it is exactly that is missing. The email will look something like this:

Here are some things you can do to help us help you:

Read the email and use the links we have included in the body. They will take you to a relevant section in the Jones Insurance Guide, a resource we’ve created to help you resolve gaps faster.

Respond to the email promptly. If you are confused, that’s OK. Just put us in touch with your insurance broker. They will know what to do.

Oftentimes, one email exchange doesn’t get us there. For example, you might fix one gap but not the other. Insurance is confusing! Keep responding and don’t hesitate to ask questions.

Once we complete the gap resolution process and mark your insurance documents as compliant, the hardest part is over.

Here’s what victory looks like:

What happens next:

• We notify the property team that you are fully compliant and ready to start the project.
• We’ll keep your insurance documents on file and will reach out before they expire.
• This will be a piece of cake – you will just need to provide the updated version.

What’s in it for you?

For starters, insurance compliance is not really a matter of choice. The building needs it to avoid claims. However, there are other perks in working with Jones:

Access to The Jones Network of 8K+ commercial buildings.

Core information about your compliance will be accessible to ALL buildings and property managers in your area. We are letting them search by service provided (e.g. “plumbers”) on Jones and decide which vendor to contact based on compliance status. If your COI has just been approved at Building A, Buildings B and C might want to hire you to save time.