Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
Serving Salt Lake City, UT & Nearby Areas
(385) 438-3591
A certificate of insurance proves a policy exists. It does not prove the policy covers the work being done on your house. Roofing policies often carry exclusions that exempt exactly what a roofing crew does. A contractor can hand you a genuine, current certificate while being uncovered for your job. My standing advice: call the broker listed on that certificate and ask what is excluded before you hire anybody for expensive work.
Call the broker named on the certificate and ask what the policy excludes.
The certificate is a summary. The exclusions live in the policy and are where roofing work gets carved out.
Also confirm workers' compensation covers everyone who will be on your roof.
A Utah certificate of insurance only proves a policy exists. Call the broker printed on it and ask what's excluded. That's because roofing is often the thing carved out.
Mattie Tueller, Master Roofing
The document a contractor hands you, usually a one-page form, is a certificate of insurance. It is a summary prepared for third parties. It is really useful for what it does show: that a policy existed on the date it was issued, who the carrier is, the policy number, the limits, and the expiration date.
Here is what it does not show. It does not include the policy's exclusions. It does not confirm the policy is still in force today, only that it was when the certificate was printed. And it does not tell you whether the coverage applies to the work about to happen on your house.
That gap is not a technicality. A certificate is not a contract and carries language saying it confers no rights on the holder. It is a snapshot of a document you have not read, summarizing terms you cannot see.
None of which makes certificates worthless. It makes them the beginning of the check rather than the end of it. That's the opposite of how most homeowners use them.
This is worth knowing because the number moved recently and a lot of paperwork has not caught up.
Utah requires every licensed contractor to carry general liability insurance to keep the license active. In April 2026 the state raised that minimum substantially, to $1 million per occurrence, up from $100,000, with a higher total limit alongside it. That is roughly a tenfold increase. It applies at application and renewal rather than being phased in for existing holders.
Two practical consequences for you:
Verify the current requirement with the state rather than taking anyone's word for the number, including this page. Requirements change, and this one changed this year.
This is the part almost nobody tells homeowners. It is the reason the certificate alone is not enough.
Insurance policies are built from coverage plus exclusions, and in roofing the exclusions often carve out:
A policy can be real, current, correctly summarized on the certificate. Still not respond when a roofing crew damages your house.
The uncomfortable version: the contractor often does not know. They bought a policy, received a certificate, and nobody walked them through the exclusions page. Their broker knows. Nobody asked.
What that means for you is that the question "are you insured?" cannot produce a reliable answer. That's because the person answering may sincerely believe yes. The question has to go to the party who has read the policy.
This is the whole procedure. It is the single most protective thing you can do before work starts.
A professional company expects all of this and is not offended by any of it. Reluctance at this stage is worth exactly the warning it gives you.
Part of my work is serving as an expert witness when roofing jobs end up in court. That's I see what happens after this question got answered badly. It is rarely that a contractor lied about being insured. It is that everybody assumed a certificate meant coverage.
Here is what gets missed. The certificate is a summary, not the policy, and the exclusions live in the policy. Roofing policies often carry exclusions that exempt the exact work being performed. So a roofer can hand you a genuine, current certificate and still not be covered to put a roof on your house. Neither of you finds out until a claim is denied, and by then the damage is done and the argument is about who pays for it.
Here is the fair part: most contractors carrying an excluded policy have no idea. They bought coverage, they got the certificate, and nobody ever walked them through the exclusions page. Their broker knew. Nobody asked.
So Master Roofing expects that call, and any professional outfit in Utah does. Take the certificate, find the broker's number printed on it. Ask one question: does this policy exclude any of the work this contractor does on residential roofs? Five minutes, and it is the most protective thing you can do before anybody climbs a ladder.
Building codes, permit rules, and licensing requirements change over time, and they differ by city and county across Utah. Verify current requirements with your local building department before relying on anything here, and work with a licensed contractor who knows the rules in your jurisdiction.
This article is general information about Utah roofs, not an assessment of yours. Every roof is different, and no article can tell you what is actually happening on your specific house. Have a licensed roofing contractor look at it in person before you act on anything here.
You can ask, and on larger residential projects it is a reasonable request. Being named as an extra insured gives you standing to claim under their policy rather than relying on them to file. Not every contractor will agree and not every policy allows it easily. But the response tells you something about how they handle risk.
That can be a perfectly real arrangement, and it is also where gaps hide. Ask to see the subcontractor's certificate too. Ask the general contractor's broker whether subcontracted work is covered under the main policy. The situation you are avoiding is damage caused by a sub whose own coverage lapsed and whose general contractor's policy excludes them.
It may respond initially, and then your insurer will usually pursue the contractor's carrier to recover. That works cleanly when the contractor is properly covered and becomes a problem when they are not. In the worst case you are left with a claim on your own policy, a possible premium impact, and a contractor with no coverage to pursue.
No, and they solve different problems. A bond is a financial guarantee that pays out in defined failure scenarios, often related to completing work or paying suppliers. Liability insurance responds when property gets damaged. A bonded contractor with excluded liability coverage still leaves you exposed to the thing most likely to go wrong.
This is what workers' compensation exists for. It is why it is a separate check from general liability. If the contractor carries it, their coverage handles the injury. If they do not, an injured worker may have grounds to claim against your homeowners policy. That's a really expensive outcome for a check you could have made in two minutes.
We're here to see what's going on with your roof. A real assessment starts with your history and your attic, not a number from the driveway. You'll get a straight answer about what's up there, what it needs, and what it costs. Sometimes the honest answer is: your roof looks great.