Insurance, Bond & Warranty Tracking
Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors
I keep a register of every policy, bond and warranty the contracts require, held or owed, and chase each one before it lapses rather than after a loss. Cover you were contractually promised and never got is discovered, almost always, on the one day it was needed.
The problem
Every contract carries a quiet schedule of cover: the insurances each party must hold at what levels, the performance bond in place before work starts, the collateral warranties owed to a funder or purchaser, the professional indemnity a designing subcontractor carries. It is written once and forgotten, and none of it announces itself when it lapses. The cost appears at the worst moment: a defect emerges and the warranty was never signed, a subcontractor fails and the bond was never put in place, a claim arrives against a lapsed policy. What was a two-line chaser becomes an uninsured loss.
The solution
First the register: every insurance, bond and warranty the contracts require, held by you and owed to you, with its cover level, its expiry and renewal dates, and who must provide what to whom, capturing both directions because cover you owe upstream and cover owed to you downstream fail the same silent way. Then it runs with the cycle: renewals and expiries flagged ahead of the date, warranties owed but not executed chased while the party still has reason to sign, any cover below the contract requirement raised as a gap. Each flag names the document, party and date.
What you receive
The cover the contracts promised is in place and stays in place: policies renew before they lapse, bonds are secured before they are needed, and warranties owed to you get signed while the other side still has a reason to. When a defect, a failure or a claim eventually tests the schedule of cover, the answer is a live register entry rather than a discovery, and the worst-day surprise stops happening.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Turnaround: two working days per cycle.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
How it works
You tell me what the contracts require in cover
One call on the jobs, the parties and any cover you already suspect is missing or overdue. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the contracts and what is in place
The list below sets the register's opening position; anything already lapsed or never delivered gets flagged in the first pass.
- A
Policies, bonds and warranties in force
ImportantWithout it: Anything you cannot show a certificate for is marked unverified rather than confirmed in force, even where it probably is
Where to find it: The broker's file, the finance folder and wherever executed deeds are kept.
Why I need it: What is actually in force
- B
The contract's requirements
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to compare what you hold against, so the register cannot tell you what is missing at all
Where to find it: The commercial folder, the buying folder, and the solicitor's file for any funder or purchaser requirements.
Why I need it: What was required, which is often not the same thing
- C
Renewal dates
OptionalWithout it: You are not warned ahead of a lapse, so a gap in cover is only found once it has already happened
Where to find it: The broker's file or renewal schedule, or simply the broker's contact details so I can ask them directly.
Why I need it: A lapsed policy on a live project is an uninsured project
- D
Subcontractor certificates
ImportantWithout it: Cover below the main contract is reported as unverified, and a genuine gap in a subcontractor's insurance looks the same as one you simply have not chased yet
Where to find it: The subcontracts and orders, and whatever chasing has been done so far.
Why I need it: The chain is only as covered as its weakest link
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I build the register from the contracts' own words
Every policy, bond and warranty required, held or owed, with cover levels, expiry and renewal dates and who owes what to whom, on one document you hold too.
I reconcile it against what is genuinely in place
Certificates, executed bonds and signed warranties matched to the requirements, so every gap and every near expiry shows on day one.
I flag each renewal and outstanding item ahead of time
Each flag names the document, the party and the date, with enough runway to renew, execute or chase before anything lapses.
Every Date Diarised
Every dated entry in the register carries a diary entry with enough lead time to act on it, with the action and its owner named.
You secure or chase what each flag asks for
Renewals arranged, warranties chased for signature, missing cover pursued; what goes out goes in your name, and the register records it done. Each cycle closes with a short written position report, so the file shows the month rather than remembers it.
Nothing Assumed In Force
Cover is reported as in force only when the certificate is on file; anything without one is marked unverified and chased, never assumed.
I keep the promised cover in place and watched
Between projects the service pauses rather than cancels: nothing is re-onboarded, the file and the diary stay warm, and it resumes the day the next project starts.
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
When a flag calls for a letter chasing a warranty or reserving a position on cover, Commercial Correspondence Drafting is the drafting arm of the same discipline, and the wider run of contractual clocks lives in Notice & Deadline Tracking. The cover a contract must carry is often set when its terms are first agreed, which is Contract Review & Amendment Schedule.