Tenant Certificates of Insurance: How to Read an ACORD 25

A tenant's certificate of insurance is a one-page summary, issued by the tenant's broker or insurer, of the policies the tenant carries: who is insured, by whom, for how much and until when. It is evidence that coverage existed on the day it was issued. It is not the policy, and on its own it gives the landlord no rights.

In the US, a tenant's liability certificate usually arrives on the ACORD 25, the Certificate of Liability Insurance. This piece reads one against a lease, box by box, then runs the checks a landlord should make on every certificate, with the dates and limits worked out. Insurance is one part of the lease file; rent, dates and deposits make up the rest of commercial lease administration.

Nothing here is coverage advice. What the lease requires and what the policy says decide, and your broker and your attorney are the people to ask.

What a commercial lease usually asks the tenant to carry

The insurance article of a commercial lease lists the coverages the tenant must carry and a limit for each. The items that come up most often:

• Commercial general liability, for injury and property damage arising from the premises and the tenant's operations.
• Property insurance on the tenant's improvements, fixtures, equipment and stock.
• Umbrella or excess liability, sitting on top of the general liability.
• Workers' compensation and employers' liability, as the law of the state or province requires (in Canada, usually provincial board coverage, shown by a clearance from the board rather than on a broker's certificate).
• Auto liability, where the tenant runs vehicles.

Around those, leases often add conditions: the landlord (and often its property manager or lender) named as additional insured on the liability policy; a waiver of subrogation; the tenant's liability coverage stated to be primary and non-contributory with the landlord's own; a minimum rating for the insurer; and when certificates are due, typically before the tenant takes possession and at every renewal. Your lease's wording, not this list, is the requirement.

Three forms are worth telling apart. The ACORD 25 is a liability certificate. Evidence of the tenant's property insurance comes on a property form instead: the ACORD 24, Certificate of Property Insurance, or the ACORD 28, Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance. All three appear on the New York Department of Financial Services list of approved certificates.

In Canada, brokers also issue CSIO's Certificate of Liability Insurance, listed among CSIO's industry forms beside a Certificate of Property Insurance. The checks below are the same; read its own headings rather than assuming the ACORD layout.

All of this is the tenant's own insurance. The landlord's building insurance, billed back to tenants as a pass-through, is a different subject, covered in common area maintenance charges.

How to read an ACORD 25, box by box

The ACORD 25 is ACORD's standard Certificate of Liability Insurance: one page, filled in by the tenant's broker, summarizing the general liability, auto, umbrella and workers' compensation policies in force on the day it is issued. The landlord doesn't fill one in; it reads the one the broker sends.

The boxes below are those of the ACORD 25 (2016/03) edition, which many certificates in circulation still carry. A 2025/12 edition exists, and it is on the New York DFS list of approved certificates; in New York, it is the only ACORD 25 now on that list. The edition is printed at the bottom left of the form. If yours is the newer one, the paragraph just above the coverages table adds that the limits shown may be the amounts the certificate holder asked for, not necessarily the policy's full limits.

Box	What it says	What the landlord checks
DATE (MM/DD/YYYY), top right	The day the certificate was issued	Not when coverage starts. A certificate dated last year says nothing about today
The notice at the top	The certificate is for information only, gives the holder no rights, and does not amend, extend or alter the policies	Read everything below it as a summary, not as coverage
IMPORTANT	If the holder is an additional insured, the policy must provide for it or be endorsed; a waiver of subrogation may also need an endorsement	A statement on the certificate is not the endorsement
PRODUCER	The broker, with a contact	Who to call with questions and for the renewal
INSURED	The policyholder's name and address	The tenant entity exactly as named on the lease
INSURER(S) AFFORDING COVERAGE, A to F	Each insurer, with its NAIC number	Which letter each policy row points to
COVERAGES	One row per policy, described below	Type, dates, limits and the two flag columns
DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS / LOCATIONS / VEHICLES	Free text; an ACORD 101, Additional Remarks Schedule, may be attached for more	The premises, the lease, and any additional-insured wording
CERTIFICATE HOLDER	The party the certificate is issued to	Your entity's legal name and address
CANCELLATION	Notice of cancellation is delivered according to the policy provisions	The certificate itself promises you no notice
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE	A signature	That it is signed

The coverages table

Each row starts with an insurer letter (INSR LTR) and the TYPE OF INSURANCE, then two narrow columns, ADDL INSD (additional insured) and SUBR WVD (subrogation waived), then the POLICY NUMBER, POLICY EFF and POLICY EXP, both headed (MM/DD/YYYY), and finally the limits.

The general liability row carries six limits: EACH OCCURRENCE, DAMAGE TO RENTED PREMISES (each occurrence), MED EXP (any one person), PERSONAL & ADV INJURY, GENERAL AGGREGATE and PRODUCTS - COMP/OP AGG (the aggregate for claims from products sold and work completed). Tick boxes say whether the general aggregate applies per policy, per project or per location, and whether the policy is written on an occurrence or a claims-made basis.

Below it come automobile liability (a combined single limit, or bodily injury and property damage separately), umbrella and excess liability (each occurrence and aggregate), and workers' compensation and employers' liability (statutory, with three employers' liability limits). Just above the table, the form also warns that the limits shown may already have been reduced by paid claims, which matters most for an aggregate.

One callout on dates. The form declares its format in the headings, MM/DD/YYYY, so 03/01/2027 is March 1, 2027, not January 3. A reader used to day-first dates, common in Canada, should read the heading rather than guess.

Certificate holder vs. additional insured

The certificate holder is the party the certificate is issued to, for information. In the form's own words, it "confers no rights upon the certificate holder." Being the holder gives the landlord no coverage. It gives the landlord a piece of paper.

An additional insured is a party the policy itself covers, for the scope its endorsement defines. That status comes from the policy, through an endorsement or a blanket additional-insured provision, never from the certificate. The ACORD 25's IMPORTANT note says as much.

	Certificate holder	Additional insured
What it is	The party the certificate is issued to, for information	A party the policy itself covers, for the scope its endorsement defines
Where it comes from	The certificate	The policy: an endorsement or a blanket provision
Coverage under the tenant's policy	None from being the holder	Yes, within the endorsement's terms
Where it shows on the ACORD 25	The CERTIFICATE HOLDER box	The ADDL INSD column and the description box (statements, not proof)
How to check it	Your entity's name and address	Ask for the endorsement

The named insured is different again: the policyholder itself, the tenant, shown in the INSURED box.

In the US, one commonly seen example for landlords is ISO's form CG 20 11, Additional Insured – Managers or Lessors of Premises. Canadian policies use their own endorsement wording. CG 20 11 exists in several editions, and it is one of several forms that can grant the status. Ask the broker which endorsement the policy carries, and request a copy if the lease calls for one.

Some policies grant the status through a blanket additional-insured endorsement instead: it covers any party the tenant has agreed, in a written contract, to add, so no endorsement names the landlord. The certificate may then say "blanket" in the description box. Ask the broker for the blanket endorsement itself, and check that its conditions (often a written contract signed before the loss) fit your lease.

A tick in the ADDL INSD column, or a sentence in the description box naming the landlord, is the broker's statement that the status exists. The endorsement is the proof. What you accept is for the lease and your counsel to decide.

Four checks on every certificate, worked

A fictional lease: tenant Linden Street Bakery LLC, landlord Larkspur Retail Center LLC. The lease requires commercial general liability of $2,000,000 each occurrence, with the landlord named as additional insured. The tenant's broker sends an ACORD 25. (The same lease, with this certificate's expiry among its critical dates, is the lease abstract example.)

1. The limit: each occurrence, not the aggregate

The general liability row shows EACH OCCURRENCE $1,000,000 and GENERAL AGGREGATE $2,000,000. The $2,000,000 on the page is the aggregate, the most the policy pays for most claims across its policy period, not the per-occurrence limit the lease names. Against the lease, the certificate is below requirement. Whether an umbrella policy may make up the difference depends on the lease's wording: some leases allow primary and umbrella limits to be combined, some do not. Read yours.

2. The landlord, named as additional insured

The ADDL INSD column is blank, and the description box says nothing about Larkspur Retail Center LLC. Ask before accepting. A certificate holder box that reads "Larkspur Retail Center LLC" does not answer the question.

3. The dates: ask 30 days before expiry

POLICY EXP reads 06/30/2027. Ask for the renewal certificate 30 days ahead: June 30, 2027, minus 30 days is May 31, 2027. Thirty days is a working lead time, not a rule; your lease may set its own deadline.

4. The gap between two policies

The tenant's old policy expires 01/15/2027. A renewal certificate arrives in December showing POLICY EFF 03/01/2027. Between the two, from January 16 to February 28, 2027, there are 44 days with no general liability on file: 16 days in January and 28 in February, assuming each policy covers its own first and last day (the policies' terms decide). If the renewal simply replaces the old certificate in your file, the file shows a current policy and the hole disappears. Keep both, and ask about the days in between.

And a fifth line, quicker than the others: whose policy it is. The INSURED box must name the tenant entity on the lease. A certificate for Linden Street Bakery Holdings, a franchisor or a sister company is not the tenant's cover, however close the name. Ask the tenant.

Certificate of insurance tracking: one record per coverage

Certificate of insurance tracking is less about the paper than about the record behind it. Keep one record per lease per coverage, not one per tenant: a tenant's general liability, umbrella and property policies renew on their own dates.

The certificate that stands today is the latest-ending policy that has already started. A renewal that has not started yet is upcoming, not a replacement, and that one rule keeps the gap in check 4 visible.

The rhythm:

• At move-in, before possession, as the lease requires.
• 30 days before each expiry, ask for the renewal.
• On every renewal, run the checks again; limits and named parties change.
• When the lease's requirement changes, after an amendment or an assignment.

The request itself can be three lines:

Please send a current certificate of insurance for commercial general liability, naming Larkspur Retail Center LLC as additional insured, as required by section 12 of your lease. The certificate on file expires June 30, 2027. Please attach the additional insured endorsement.

If you track by hand, a spreadsheet works with these columns:

Column	Example	Why
Tenant entity, as on the lease	Linden Street Bakery LLC	Whose policy it should be
Coverage	General liability	One row per coverage
Insurer and policy number	Insurer A, GL-000123	Who to ask about the renewal
Limit on the certificate	$1,000,000 each occurrence	The figure, with its label
Limit the lease requires	$2,000,000 each occurrence	Check 1, side by side
Policy effective and expiry	07/01/2026 to 06/30/2027	Checks 3 and 4
Landlord additional insured	No	Check 2
Endorsement on file	No	The proof, not the statement
Received, accepted by	07/02/2026, J. Ruiz	Who decided, and when
Request renewal on	05/31/2027	Expiry minus 30 days

If a tenant's insurance lapses, what the landlord may do is set by the lease's insurance and default clauses. Ask your attorney before acting.

Vendors too. A contractor working in the building should carry its own certificates, and the same discipline applies: a current certificate on file, checked before the work order goes out.

Insurance is one register of the lease file. The security deposit and any letter of credit sit beside it, and the commercial rent roll is where the whole building's leases are read side by side.

Where ChargeRecoveries fits

ChargeRecoveries keeps tenant COI tracking on the lease itself: each certificate with its coverage, insurer, policy number, dates, its limit beside the limit the lease requires, and whether the landlord is named as additional insured. It is flagged when it is below requirement (when the lease's limit is entered, a certificate with no limit counts as not meeting it), when the landlord is not named, 30 days before it expires, and when a renewal leaves days with no cover. Tenants file certificates from their portal, and nothing counts until you accept it. On Pro + AI, the assistant reads an ACORD 25 PDF and proposes each coverage, every amount shown with its label on the page; it never proposes "no" for additional insured, and you confirm. The register holds one limit per certificate, so check 1 stays yours. You can look around the demo building.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a certificate holder and an additional insured? The certificate holder receives the certificate, for information, and gains no rights from it. An additional insured is covered by the policy itself, through an endorsement or a blanket provision.

What is an ACORD 25? The ACORD Certificate of Liability Insurance: a standard one-page form brokers use in the US to summarize a client's liability policies.

ACORD 25, 24 or 28: which does a landlord need? Often both kinds. The ACORD 25 evidences liability coverage; property coverage comes on the ACORD 24 or the ACORD 28. The lease says which evidence it requires.

What is a blanket additional insured endorsement? An endorsement that makes any party the tenant agreed in writing to add an additional insured, without naming each one. Ask for the endorsement and read its conditions.

Does a certificate of insurance prove coverage? It shows coverage as of its date. It states that it confers no rights and does not change the policy. The policy and its endorsements are the coverage.

How often should a landlord collect tenant certificates? At move-in, at each policy renewal (ask about 30 days before expiry), and whenever the lease's requirement changes.

Who is the certificate holder on a COI from a tenant? Usually the landlord's entity, and sometimes its property manager or lender, as the lease specifies.

What does SUBR WVD mean on an ACORD 25? Subrogation waived: the broker's indication that the insurer has given up, for that policy, its right to recover from the certificate holder (or another named party) what it pays on a claim. Like additional insured status, it depends on the policy terms or an endorsement.

What if a tenant's insurance lapses? The lease's insurance and default clauses set what happens next. Ask your attorney.