What is the ACORD 855?

The practical answer

ACORD 855 NY is titled New York Construction Certificate of Liability Insurance Addendum. It is one of the certificate forms on the New York Department of Financial Services list of approved certificates of insurance, and it is issued alongside an ACORD 25 rather than instead of one.

It exists because the ACORD 25 is a summary that cannot show what a general liability policy excludes. On New York construction work the exclusions are the whole question, so the 855 asks the producer to answer directly.

Why New York, and why construction

New York regulates which certificate of insurance forms may be used in the state, and DFS publishes the approved list. The construction addendum sits on that list at edition 2014/05.

The underlying pressure is New York Labor Law sections 240 and 241, the provisions usually called the scaffold law, which impose a strict standard of liability on owners and general contractors for gravity related injuries. Carriers writing New York construction respond with exclusions and limitations, and a certificate that shows a five million dollar limit says nothing about whether the policy will respond to the claim that limit was bought for.

What the addendum asks the producer to disclose

The form is a structured disclosure rather than free text. Broadly it asks whether the referenced policy contains exclusions or endorsements that limit or deny coverage, and it groups those questions around the things that go wrong on New York jobs:

• Losses at particular locations, or on particular classes of project such as residential or conversion work.
• Losses occurring above a stated height, and losses occurring below grade.
• Limitations tied to the type of work performed or to the trades involved.
• Whether additional insured status is granted, and on what basis.
• Whether coverage responds on a primary and non-contributory basis.
• Whether blanket contractual liability is present.
• Whether products and completed operations coverage is included.
• How the umbrella or excess layer responds, and whether it follows the primary form.
• Subcontractor conditions and warranties, where the policy makes coverage depend on the insurance carried downstream.

How to read it against the certificate

• Match the policy numbers and effective dates on the addendum to the ACORD 25 it arrived with. An addendum for a different policy term is not evidence about the current one.
• Read the answers as pointers, not conclusions. A disclosure that an exclusion exists should be followed by a request for the endorsement itself.
• The addendum carries the same disclaimer as the certificate: it summarizes policy provisions, is issued as a matter of information only, and confers no rights. It does not amend the policy.
• Blank answers are answers. An addendum returned with fields left empty tells you the producer would not commit, which is worth a conversation before the crew mobilizes.
• Where the addendum says additional insured status is granted, still collect the endorsement. The CG 20 10 and CG 20 37 question does not go away because a second form mentions it.

When to require it

Requiring the 855 on every trade partner on every job creates work without adding much, because most producers will need a specific request and some pushback before issuing one. Requiring it where the exposure is real is the sensible middle: New York projects, work at height, below grade work, residential and conversion projects, and any subcontractor whose limits look surprisingly cheap for the trade.

Write the requirement into the subcontract rather than asking for it at certificate time. A producer asked for an addendum after the fact will often decline, and by then the crew is already on site.