Do You Provide COIs for Commercial Buildings?

Do You Provide COIs for Commercial Buildings?

Last updated: October 2026

Yes. For the building you're leaving and the building you're moving into, delivered before move day.

If you're the office manager planning a move, the COI is one of those tasks that seems small until the building says no crew gets in without it. Here's how to get it handled early, and what to ask your property manager for.

What a COI is

A certificate of insurance, or COI, is a one-page document that proves a moving company carries insurance. Commercial buildings ask for it before a moving crew works on their property. The building wants to know that if a crew damages a lobby wall or an elevator, there's insurance to cover it.

Ours shows three kinds of coverage. Commercial general liability. Commercial auto liability. And transportation coverage for the goods we carry, which includes loading and unloading. If you want to know more about each, our post on whether we're licensed and insured explains them.

Two buildings, two COIs

An office move touches two buildings, and both usually have their own requirements. We provide a COI for each one. Your old landlord gets theirs, and your new landlord gets theirs, both before move day.

Additional insured

Many commercial buildings want more than proof. They want to be named on the certificate as additional insured. Sometimes it's the building owner. Sometimes it's the management company. Sometimes it's both.

We can do that. Just send us the exact names the building wants listed, spelled the way their requirements spell them.

What to ask your property manager for

The fastest COIs start with complete requirements. Ask each building for its written COI requirements, and send them to us. They'll usually tell you who should be listed as the certificate holder and who should be named as additional insured. They may also include the building's address and any specific coverage the building requires.

If you only have the building's address, send that. We'll start there.

How fast it comes

COIs are always free, and we usually turn them around the same day the building sends its requirements. Even so, ask the building early. You don't want a missing requirement to hold up a weekend move.

Our post on when you'll receive the COI covers timing for residential moves too.

When COIs come up most

You'll run into COI requirements most in managed buildings, like downtown high-rises and suburban office parks. In Oak Brook, we file COIs for both ends of the move with property management before move day. Downtown, our Chicago movers page talks about high-rise moves in more detail.

The rest of the move

The COI gets you in the door. The rest of the plan covers the move itself, like taking apart workstations and timing it so you don't lose a business day. If that's where you are, read can you move our office over a weekend.

COIs are part of every job under our office and commercial moving service, which is one of our moving services.

Have your building's requirements in hand? Send them to info@wcmoving.com, or call (773) 275-4100 and we'll get started.