All general contractors are required to be registered with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) Licensing Unit. As your Liability, Disability and Workers' Compensation insurance expires (typically at the end of each calendar year), your status becomes inactive with the Licensing Unit. No permits will be issued for your company until updated insurance forms are submitted.
To avoid project delays and help accelerate the renewal process, please review the Top 5 Reasons the Licensing Unit will Reject your Insurance:
1. Spelling/Punctuation Errors – All company information must be spelled out and formatted according to the DOB system. All forms must match; this applies to company names and addresses. Street names may not be abbreviated unless abbreviated on all forms.
2. Outdated Insurance Form – Insurance certificates to be provided on most recent version. Brokers cannot use outdated forms. Also, forms must be complete and legible; the version must appear in the bottom left corner.
3. Certificate Holder Incorrect – New York City Department of Buildings to be listed as Certificate Holder. The proper format for this listing is as follows:
New York City Department of Buildings
Attn: Licensing Unit
280 Broadway, 1st Floor
New York, NY 10007
4. Disability and Workers' Compensation on Liability Form - On the Liability Insurance Form, make sure to fill out everything, especially the ‘Unemployment Insurance Employer Registration Number of Insured’ field. No information pertaining to the Disability or Workers' Compensation insurance should be referenced.
5. Electronic Submission Process - Since 2018, license and registration holders have been required to submit their business insurance certificates electronically.
