Arizona Subcontractor Insurance Requirements: What GCs Must Require from Subs
What coverage general contractors should require from subcontractors on Arizona job sites — where workers' compensation is mandatory, and the ROC license bond is often mistaken for liability insurance.
The most common mistake: treating an active ROC license as proof of insurance. The license requires a bond, not general liability — a sub can be fully licensed in Arizona and carry no liability coverage at all.
Arizona sets no general liability minimum for private construction, so GCs set it in the subcontract — typically $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate general liability, $1M commercial auto, and an umbrella on larger jobs. Workers' compensation is mandatory for any employer with employees, and a GC can be treated as the statutory employer of an uninsured sub's workers. The ROC license bond that every Arizona contractor carries is not liability insurance and protects neither the GC nor third parties the way GL does.
In this guide
Standard insurance requirements for Arizona subcontractors
Apart from workers' comp, these are commercial standards set in the subcontract; your prime contract with the owner often sets the floor you pass down.
| Coverage | Typical minimum | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial General Liability | $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate | Bodily injury and property damage from the sub's operations and completed work |
| Workers' Compensation | Statutory — required by law | Medical costs and lost wages for the sub's injured employees |
| Employer's Liability | $500K–$1M each accident / disease | Employee injury suits outside WC; part of the WC policy |
| Commercial Auto | $1M combined single limit | Vehicles used in the sub's operations |
| Umbrella / Excess | $1M–$5M, by project | Limits above GL, auto and employer's liability |
Workers' compensation — mandatory in Arizona
Arizona requires workers' compensation for employers with one or more employees, full- or part-time. There is no private-employer opt-out of the kind Texas has.
Under A.R.S. §23-902, a contractor who retains control over work that is part of its business can be treated as the statutory employer of a subcontractor's workers — so when a sub has no coverage, an injured worker's claim can land on the GC.
- Require workers' comp at statutory limits in the subcontract, and see it on the certificate.
- Check the named insured on the WC line matches the entity on your subcontract and its ROC license.
- Watch for crews paid as 1099 contractors — misclassification is the usual way a sub ends up with workers nobody covers.
The ROC license bond is not insurance
Every Arizona license requires a license bond, set by the ROC according to the license classification and the contractor's volume. It exists to pay claims for specific violations of license law — work that fails code, abandonment, unpaid suppliers — up to a fixed amount. It does not respond to bodily injury or third-party property damage the way general liability does.
Require GL separately. An active ROC license tells you the bond is in place — the ROC suspends a license whose bond lapses — but says nothing about liability insurance. See the Arizona subcontractor license requirements for the licensing side.
Additional insured and waiver of subrogation
- Additional insured status for your company (and the owner, where required) on the sub's GL and auto, on a primary and non-contributory basis, for ongoing and completed operations — see CG 20 10 vs CG 20 37.
- Waiver of subrogation in your favor on GL, auto and workers' comp.
The endorsements on the policy grant these, not a line in the Description of Operations box. Arizona also limits indemnity in construction contracts for the indemnitee's sole negligence, so have your broker or counsel review the indemnity and insurance exhibit together.
Collecting and tracking certificates of insurance
- Collect a current certificate before work begins, and confirm the WC line and a GL policy separate from the ROC bond.
- Check the ROC license the same day.
- Track each policy's own expiration date — GL, auto and workers' comp rarely renew together.
- Keep certificates where you can retrieve them in an audit or a claim.
How TrackMyVendor automates this
- Every certificate is read on upload — carrier, policy numbers, each coverage row’s limits and its own dates — and measured against the minimums you set, so a missing GL line or WC line shows as short.
- ROC licences are re-checked against the Registrar’s records and shown beside the certificate, so a bond-lapse suspension is visible before the sub mobilizes.
- Per-deadline reminders at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days go to your team and to the sub, with the upload link in the sub’s copy. Starter and above
- The endorsement pages are read too — additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary and non-contributory. Pro
Collecting COIs from Arizona subs?
Everything above is a check you can run by hand. This is what it looks like when it runs itself.
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- Contractor licences checked against the state board’s own records
- A Monday summary of everything expired or expiring
Per-deadline alerts at 90, 60, 30 and 7 days, sent to your team and to the sub, start on Starter. Compare plans
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