Waiver of Subrogation on a Certificate of Insurance Explained

Last updated August 2026.

A waiver of subrogation on a certificate of insurance is a clause in which the vendor insurer gives up its right to recover, from you, money it paid out on a claim. Contracts require it so that if the vendor insurer pays a loss and then tries to shift the cost, it cannot turn around and sue the client, landlord or general contractor it agreed to protect. On an ACORD 25 it shows up as a note in the description of operations box, backed by an endorsement on the underlying policy.

Waiver of subrogation is one of the three risk transfer requirements that appear on almost every commercial contract, alongside additional insured status and primary and noncontributory wording. It is also the one most people nod at without understanding. Here is what it actually does, why your contract demands it, and how to confirm the vendor really has it.

What is a waiver of subrogation on a certificate of insurance?

A waiver of subrogation is an agreement by an insurer not to pursue the party its policyholder has agreed to hold harmless. In plain terms, if your vendor insurer pays a claim connected to a job at your site, a waiver stops that insurer from coming after you to get the money back. It appears on the certificate as a reference in the description of operations box, tied to a specific endorsement number on the general liability, workers compensation or auto policy.

What is a waiver of subrogation in insurance?

A waiver of subrogation in insurance is an endorsement in which an insurer gives up its right to sue a third party to recover money it paid on a claim. It is added to a policy when the insured has agreed in a contract not to hold that third party responsible. Without it, the insurer can pay its own customer and then pursue the other party anyway.

The waiver lives on the policy, not on the contract. A contract clause where two companies agree to waive claims against each other binds those companies, but their insurers are not parties to that agreement and keep their own recovery rights unless the policy says otherwise. That is what the endorsement fixes. It exists separately on each line of coverage: general liability uses the CG 24 series, business auto uses CA 04 43 or CA 04 44, and workers compensation uses its own form, which in most states is a purchase rather than a free addition. The waiver of subrogation endorsements reference covers each form and its wording.

What is subrogation in insurance?

Subrogation is the right of an insurer, after it pays its policyholder for a loss, to step into that policyholder shoes and recover the payment from whoever actually caused the loss. If a subcontractor insurer pays for fire damage and believes the building owner equipment started the fire, subrogation lets that insurer sue the owner to recoup. A waiver of subrogation switches that right off in advance, for the specific party named in the contract.

Why do contracts require a waiver of subrogation?

Contracts require a waiver of subrogation to keep risk where the parties agreed to put it. When a client hires a contractor and requires the contractor to carry insurance, the whole point is that the contractor insurance absorbs job related losses. Without a waiver, the contractor insurer could pay a claim and then sue the client anyway, dragging the client back into a loss it thought it had transferred. The waiver closes that loop and prevents the parties, and their insurers, from suing each other over risks they already allocated.

Waivers are especially common in construction, commercial leases and any arrangement where multiple parties work in the same space. In a commercial lease, for example, the waiver is usually written directly into the agreement, so teams that manage many properties often pull the insurance and waiver clauses straight out of each contract using lease abstraction software rather than rereading every lease by hand.

Where is the waiver of subrogation on a COI?

On an ACORD 25, a waiver of subrogation is not a checkbox in the coverage grid. It shows up two ways: sometimes a small yes column next to the coverage line, and almost always as text in the description of operations box, worded like a waiver of subrogation applies in favor of the certificate holder as required by written contract. That wording should point to an endorsement on the actual policy, because the certificate itself grants nothing; the endorsement does.

Waiver of subrogation wording on a certificate of insurance

The wording you want to see names the form and the party. Something like "Waiver of Subrogation applies in favor of Owner per form CG 24 04" on general liability, or the workers compensation equivalent WC 00 03 13, is specific enough to check. Wording that just says "waiver of subrogation applies" tells you the agent believes it does, and nothing more.

The distinction matters because the Description of Operations box is free text typed by the producer. It is not a policy provision and it does not amend the policy. Two certificates can carry identical wording while only one has the endorsement actually attached, which is why anything material should be confirmed with the endorsement form itself rather than the sentence describing it.

Waiver of subrogation wording on a COI: examples and what each one proves

These are the phrasings that actually turn up in the Description of Operations box, ranked by how much they are worth. Only the ones that name a form number can be checked against the policy.

What does waiver of subrogation in favor of the certificate holder mean?

It means the insurer has been asked to give up its right to recover from you after paying a claim to its own insured. In favor of the certificate holder identifies you as the protected party. On its own the phrase is a description, not the waiver. The waiver lives in an endorsement, and on the current CG 24 04 12 19 edition it only operates to the extent the insured had already waived its own recovery rights against you before the loss, which normally means before the work started.

Additional insured status works the same way, and the phrasing on a certificate is judged by the same test. The additional insured wording on a certificate of insurance guide runs the equivalent phrases through the same checks.

What does the waiver of subrogation endorsement actually say?

This is the wording that matters, and it is not the sentence on the certificate. Transcribed from an issued commercial general liability policy carrying the current December 2019 edition of CG 24 04, the endorsement adds the following to Paragraph 8, Transfer Of Rights Of Recovery Against Others To Us, of Section IV Conditions:

We waive any right of recovery against the person(s) or organization(s) shown in the Schedule above because of payments we make under this Coverage Part. Such waiver by us applies only to the extent that the insured has waived its right of recovery against such person(s) or organization(s) prior to loss. This endorsement applies only to the person(s) or organization(s) shown in the Schedule above.

Read the second sentence twice. It is the trap in the current edition. The insurer waives only as far as its own insured already waived, in writing, before the loss happened. So the endorsement can be attached, the certificate can say waiver of subrogation applies, and you can still lose the protection because your own contract never required a mutual waiver of claims, or was not signed until after the crew was on site.

The older May 2009 edition read differently. It waived recovery for injury or damage arising out of the vendor's ongoing operations or work done under a contract with you, with no pre-loss waiver condition. Narrower in scope, but it did not depend on your contract wording the way the current one does. Both editions are still in circulation, which is why the four digits after the form number are worth reading. Each coverage line uses its own form, and they are set out side by side on the waiver of subrogation endorsement forms reference page.

Is a waiver of subrogation blanket or scheduled?

A waiver of subrogation is either blanket or scheduled. A blanket waiver automatically applies to any party the insured has agreed in a written contract to waive against, which is convenient because the vendor does not need a new endorsement for each client. A scheduled waiver names specific parties one at a time, so you must confirm your organization is actually listed. When a certificate references a blanket waiver endorsement, you are usually covered; when it references a scheduled one, read it carefully to make sure you are on the schedule.

Does a waiver of subrogation cost extra?

Sometimes. On general liability a blanket waiver is often included or added for a small charge. On workers compensation, a waiver of subrogation frequently carries an additional premium, commonly a small percentage of the workers compensation premium, because the insurer is giving up a recovery right against a third party. That cost is the vendor to bear, not yours, but it is why some vendors push back on a waiver requirement and why you should confirm they actually secured it rather than just promised it.

Waiver of subrogation vs additional insured: what is the difference?

They solve different problems. Additional insured status makes your organization an insured under the vendor policy, so the policy will defend and indemnify you for claims arising from the vendor work. A waiver of subrogation stops the vendor insurer from recovering against you after it pays a claim. One brings you under the coverage; the other stops the coverage from being used against you. Serious contracts require both, plus primary and noncontributory wording. The two requirements, the forms behind each and why holding one does not give you the other are compared in full in waiver of subrogation vs additional insured. The related distinction between being covered and merely receiving the paperwork is covered in additional insured vs certificate holder.

How do you verify a waiver of subrogation is actually in place?

Do not rely on the description of operations text alone. That text is typed by the agent and grants nothing on its own. To verify a waiver, ask for a copy of the endorsement that provides it, confirm it is blanket or that your organization is named on the schedule, and check it applies to the specific policy your contract references. The broader routine for validating everything a certificate claims is in how to verify a certificate of insurance, and the box by box read is in how to read a certificate of insurance.

Tracking waivers across many vendors

A waiver requirement is easy to state in a contract and easy to lose track of across dozens of vendors and annual renewals. Every renewed policy is a new certificate that must be checked again for the waiver, the additional insured endorsement and current limits. Doing that by hand is where compliance quietly breaks. Vendor insurance compliance software reads each incoming certificate, checks it against the exact requirements you set, including waiver of subrogation, and flags any vendor whose new certificate dropped a requirement the old one had. You can upload a certificate at the top of this page to see the extraction, or read how to ensure vendor COI compliance for the full workflow.

The bottom line

A waiver of subrogation stops a vendor insurer from suing you to recover a claim it already paid, and contracts require it to keep risk where the parties agreed to put it. Confirm it with the actual endorsement, not just the certificate text, know whether it is a blanket waiver or a scheduled waiver, and recheck it at every renewal. When you track more than a handful of vendors, let COI tracking software watch the waiver, the additional insured status and the limits on every certificate so a dropped requirement never slips past you. The waiver sits in the same box as every other form number, which our guide to certificate of insurance endorsements lays out side by side.