Just Bought a Roofing Company? Insurance Checklist

A roofing company needs its core policies in force under the right legal name on closing day: general liability that includes completed operations (coverage for damage that shows up after a job is finished), workers' compensation for the crews (required for most employers, though state rules vary), commercial auto for the trucks and a floater (coverage for movable equipment). Many also carry an umbrella above them, depending on contracts and lender requirements. Roofing adds its own pressure points: falls, an open roof in bad weather, hot work fires, and leaks that appear long after the crew has gone. This guide is for the entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) buyer, search fund CEO or Small Business Administration (SBA) borrower who inherited the seller's program and needs to know what to confirm first.

The short answer

Match each exposure to a policy: general liability and completed operations for the work, workers' compensation for crews, auto for trucks, a floater for equipment, an umbrella above.
Falls drive the worst outcomes. BLS counted 83 falls, slips or trips among 104 roofer deaths in 2024, so carriers look hard at crews and safety.
The seller's policies may not protect you. Policy rights generally do not transfer without the insurer's consent, though workers' comp experience usually follows the business.
Read the endorsement list (the pages added to a policy that change its terms). Carve-outs that remove completed roofing can sit in a policy that looks fine on the declarations page, the summary at the front.
A quote or a review request is not coverage. Coverage starts only when a carrier binds it.

What insurance does a roofing company need on closing day?

Start with the exposures a roofing company really carries, then match each to a policy. The table points to the policy to read for each exposure. It is a first-week checklist, not a quote, and what any policy pays depends on its wording, its exclusions and what the carrier agrees to write.

Roofing company exposures, the policy to look at first and what to confirm
Exposure	Policy to look at first	What to confirm in the policy
Water gets into a building through an open roof, a hot work fire, or something falls from the roof	General liability (GL), the policy for injury to other people and damage to other people's property	The limits, any roofing or hot work conditions, and any endorsement that narrows the work covered
A roof leaks or fails months or years after the crew leaves	The products and completed operations part of general liability, which has its own aggregate limit (the most the policy pays in a year)	Whether completed roofing work is carved out, and which year's occurrence policy (the one in force when the damage happens) responds
A roofer falls or is hurt	Workers' compensation, which includes employers liability (the part that answers some lawsuits over a worker's injury)	Class codes, payroll estimate, the mod (the experience rating factor that adjusts workers' comp premium for claims history), who is on the policy, and the employers liability limit
Trucks, dump trailers and flatbeds	Commercial auto	Covered auto symbols, drivers, the weight rating and loaded weight of each truck and trailer combination, and whether any of them is used in interstate commerce
Ladders, lifts, hoists and tools stored in trailers or on job sites	Usually inland marine (a floater for movable equipment), not the building policy	The schedule against the real asset list, theft terms and deductibles, because forms vary
Office, yard, warehouse and stored materials	Commercial property, with business income if you buy it	Replacement cost, coinsurance (a clause that can cut a payout if limits are set too low), and any conditions on materials stored outdoors or in trailers
A claim bigger than the underlying limits	Commercial umbrella or excess liability	That it sits over the general liability, auto and employers liability limits and not over professional or cyber claims, and whether it follows the underlying policy's roofing carve-outs or has its own

Our guide to general liability and the new owner review of general liability explain the basics. The table leaves out professional liability for design or inspection work and crime coverage for payment fraud, which the gaps guide covers, and one more thing on purpose: a liability policy generally does not pay to redo your own defective roof. It may respond to the resulting damage to the interior or contents, depending on the policy, the facts and state law.

Why do falls and open roofs shape a roofer's program?

Underwriters read the work as well as the payroll, and for roofing the work is falls, weather and fire. In 2024 the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counted 104 fatal injuries to roofers, and 83 of them were falls, slips or trips. Its fatality rate for roofers was 48.7 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, against 3.3 for all workers. Roofing is a small occupation, so treat the rate as approximate.

The picture for everyday injuries is less dramatic. For roofing contractors, the 2024 nonfatal recordable rate was 2.4 cases per 100 full-time workers, against 2.3 for all private industry. So the sharp point is the severe injury, not the number of small ones. That shapes who will quote your workers' compensation and how they price it, which our guide to workers' comp, payroll and class codes for a roofing company covers.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets a 6 foot trigger for fall protection on roofs in construction, and for low-slope roofs it allows guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems, among other options. Ask the seller for the written fall protection plan, training records and injury logs. They show you what you bought, and those records also show a carrier how the crews actually work.

What happens to the seller's policies, open jobs and finished roofs at closing?

It depends on the deal, and the seller's policies do not simply move to you with the company. Policies are contracts with the named insured, and standard conditions say rights and duties cannot be transferred without the insurer's written consent. In general, an asset buyer needs new policies from closing day, and a stock or membership interest buyer keeps the entity's policies but should tell the carriers and check what each policy requires. For a roofing company the details sit in four places.

Open jobs. Customer contracts name the seller's entity and its certificates. Before the next crew goes up, the new entity needs its own policies and certificates, and any additional insured endorsement a contract relies on has to exist on the new policy, not only on a certificate.
Crews on closing day. Roofers who work the first morning after closing need workers' compensation in force from that morning, in the name of the entity that employs them.
Finished roofs. A roof the seller's crew finished last year can leak next year. An old occurrence policy responds only to damage that happened while it was in force, and access to it can depend on the deal structure and state law. Damage that starts after closing falls to whichever policy is in force then, which may carry a carve-out, and your own policy may not treat a predecessor's finished jobs as your work. Ask deal counsel whether the seller keeps discontinued operations coverage (liability coverage for work the company no longer does) or buys a tail (an extended reporting period on any claims-made policy, such as professional liability), and how indemnity and escrow treat old jobs.
Workers' comp experience. The seller's payroll and claims history usually follows the business in either deal type. Under National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) rules the policy asks you to report an ownership change within 90 days, and other states and bureaus set their own timing.

Read keep the seller's insurance or start over for the decision, and liability for work the seller did for the old-jobs question.

Holding companies should not lean on the standard newly acquired organization provision, which is short, excludes limited liability companies (LLCs) and does not reach damage before the acquisition. See adding a newly acquired company to your existing policies.

A hypothetical example. A buyer closes an asset purchase on a Thursday. The crew tears the membrane off half of a flat commercial roof on Friday, and a tarp fails in an overnight storm. Water reaches inventory worth $150,000 on the floor below. The first questions are whether the buyer's general liability was in force and in the right name on Friday, whether the customer's contract shifts the loss with a waiver or indemnity clause, what deductible the company pays, and how the claim will look on loss runs (the carrier's report of your claims history) at the next renewal. In an asset deal, the seller's policies insure the seller, not the buyer's new entity or its crew, so they could not answer any of these questions for Friday's loss. A buyer who assumed they carried over would learn otherwise after the water was already on the floor, not at renewal.

What should I confirm in the first 30 days?

Work through this list with the declarations pages, the endorsement lists and the open job schedule in hand.

Confirm the named insured, the effective dates and the renewal date on every policy, and match them to the legal entity that now owns the company.
Ask for the full form and endorsement list on the general liability policy, not only the declarations page. Look for a designated work exclusion that removes completed roofing, a change to the subcontractor exception, and a professional services exclusion. Gaps new roofing company owners find shows how.
Confirm that workers' compensation is in force from closing day, which class codes the payroll sits in, and that the ownership change is reported to the insurer.
Collect the seller's certificate file for every subcontractor crew and check the dates. See whether your subcontractors carry the required coverage.
Match the auto schedule to the titles, drivers and weight ratings of the trucks and trailers, and the equipment schedule to the real list of lifts, ladders and tools.
List the open jobs and read each customer contract's insurance clause, then compare it with what the policy actually provides. Use check customer contracts against your policies.
Confirm the license, and who qualifies it. See contracts, licenses and bonds for a roofing company.
If an SBA lender is involved, give your broker the lender's loss payable and mortgagee wording and send the lender evidence of insurance. See SBA lender insurance requirements.

If you want a second set of eyes, Morrow can review your declarations pages and endorsement lists against this list and request quotes where it makes sense. Any new terms depend on carrier underwriting, and a request is not coverage. The wider timeline is in the first 90 days of insurance after buying a business and the pre-closing checklist.

Many gaps sit in the endorsements rather than on the declarations page, and coverage gaps new owners of roofing companies find walks through each one. Business income coverage responds to direct physical loss to property, not to a slow storm season or a lost referral channel. Pricing questions are in what drives insurance cost for a roofing company, and how to choose a broker for a roofing company covers who should run this review. For exposures a roofer may share with other trades, see insurance for roofers.

Which policies does the law, my lender or my contracts require?

Not every policy on the list comes from the same source. Sorting them shows which ones you cannot skip and which ones you can negotiate.

By law. Workers' comp rules differ by state, including state funds in four states and a choice not to carry it for most Texas private employers. Workers' comp, payroll and class codes for a roofing company lines them up. Auto liability has its own state rules.
By your lender. An SBA lender generally requires property insurance on collateral with its loss payable or mortgagee wording, and sets its own liability and workers' comp expectations. Ask for the requirements in writing.
By your contracts. Commercial owners and upstream contractors can require additional insured status, waivers, set limits and even workers' comp where the state does not. Contracts, licenses and bonds for a roofing company lines each ask up with the policy piece that delivers it.

Keep reading

Frequently asked questions

Do I need new insurance if I bought the roofing company's stock?

You may keep the company's existing policies, because the same legal entity owns them. You still need to tell each carrier about the ownership change, check that the named insured and renewal dates are right, and confirm the coverage fits your plans. Under National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) rules the workers' comp policy also asks you to report an ownership change within 90 days, and other states and bureaus set their own timing.

What is the most important policy for a roofing company?

Roofing needs several at once. Workers' compensation and the completed operations part of general liability usually get the closest look, because falls are the leading cause of roofer deaths in the BLS data and roofs can fail after the crew leaves. Auto, equipment and umbrella coverage matter too.

Will the seller's general liability cover a roof the crew finished before closing?

It may, but only for damage that happens while that occurrence policy is in force and no carve-out applies, and access to an old policy can depend on the deal structure and state law. Damage that starts after closing falls to the policy then in force. Your own policy may not treat a predecessor's finished jobs as your work, so ask your broker and your deal counsel how the purchase agreement handles old jobs.

Does general liability pay to redo a leaking roof?

Generally no. A standard liability policy responds to injury to people and damage to other property, not to the cost of redoing your own defective work. Damage to the interior or contents may be a covered claim, depending on the policy, the facts and state law.

What documents should I send a broker to review the inherited insurance?

Send the declarations pages, the full policy forms and endorsement lists, loss runs, the workers' comp audit and experience mod worksheet, the vehicle and equipment lists, the open job list and the insurance clauses in key customer contracts.

References

Just bought a business? Get your insurance reviewed.

Send Morrow the declarations pages, loss runs and key contracts you inherited. Morrow can review them against the business you bought, flag gaps and request quotes where it makes sense. Any new terms depend on carrier underwriting.

Request a review Check a contract

Morrow · 25 New Chardon Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02114

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a coverage determination. Coverage depends on the actual policy wording, carrier underwriting, your purchase agreement and your contracts. Ask your attorney and accountant about deal and legal questions.

Just Bought a Roofing Company? Your First 30 Days of Insurance