California — Project-Specific Requirements & Policies

• Additional insured, ongoing operationsoften CG 20 10Extends the downstream party’s general liability to the upstream party for work still in progress. It is the form most contracts have in mind when they say "name us as additional insured", and on its own it generally stops responding once the work is finished.
• Additional insured, completed operationsoften CG 20 37Covers the same party for claims arising after the work is complete — which is when a great many construction claims actually surface. A contract asking for both ongoing and completed operations is usually asking for two separate endorsements, not one.
• Primary and non-contributoryoften CG 20 01Commonly decides whether the downstream policy responds first or shares with the upstream party’s own cover. Usually keyed to a written contract requiring it.
• Waiver of subrogationCG 24 04Gives up the insurer’s right to recover from the upstream party after paying a claim. Frequently named alongside additional insured status rather than instead of it.
• Indemnity in the prime contractThe contractual promise the insurance is meant to stand behind. California limits how far indemnity can reach on some construction contracts, so the wording matters as much as the endorsements attached to it.
• Certificate, plus the endorsements behind itA certificate evidences that a policy existed on the day it was issued. It is not proof that any particular endorsement sits on that policy, which is why a requirement is commonly checked against the endorsement itself.

A wrap-up changes this picture. Where the owner or developer places an OCIP or CCIP, much of the enrolled work is covered under that program instead, and what each party still has to carry outside it is set by the wrap-up documents.

• Additional insured, ongoing operationsoften CG 20 10Extends the downstream party’s general liability to the upstream party for work still in progress. It is the form most contracts have in mind when they say "name us as additional insured", and on its own it generally stops responding once the work is finished.
• Additional insured, completed operationsoften CG 20 37Covers the same party for claims arising after the work is complete — which is when a great many construction claims actually surface. A contract asking for both ongoing and completed operations is usually asking for two separate endorsements, not one.
• Primary and non-contributoryoften CG 20 01Commonly decides whether the downstream policy responds first or shares with the upstream party’s own cover. Usually keyed to a written contract requiring it.
• Waiver of subrogationCG 24 04Gives up the insurer’s right to recover from the upstream party after paying a claim. Frequently named alongside additional insured status rather than instead of it.
• Subcontract indemnityUsually mirrors what the general contractor already owes the owner upstream, so a gap between the two agreements tends to land on the general contractor.
• Certificate collection and trackingThe administrative half, and the one most often skipped: certificates expire, policies cancel mid-project, and a subcontractor who was compliant at the start is not necessarily compliant at the time of a loss.

The general contractor is usually both the party enforcing this and the party left exposed when a subcontractor’s endorsement turns out to be missing.