Insurance glossary · Contracts and certificates
primary and noncontributory.
Primary and noncontributory wording means your policy pays first for a covered claim and doesn’t ask the additional insured’s own insurance to share the cost.
Why do contracts ask for primary and noncontributory coverage?
So the general contractor’s or owner’s own insurance stays out of claims that come from your work. Without it, their policy and yours might split a claim against them. With it, your policy answers first and doesn’t ask theirs to chip in, which keeps the claim off their loss history.
What does primary mean?
Primary means your policy responds first, before any other policy covering the same claim, up to its limits. Most general liability policies are already primary for your own claims. The question is how they treat an additional insured who has insurance of their own.
What does noncontributory mean?
Noncontributory means your insurer won’t ask the additional insured’s own insurer to share the cost. Standard policies have an “other insurance” clause that can split a loss between policies, and noncontributory wording switches that off for the additional insured.
How is primary and noncontributory added to a policy?
By endorsement, commonly CG 20 01 on general liability, or through wording built into a blanket additional insured endorsement. It only applies to parties who are additional insureds, and usually only where a written contract requires it. Umbrellas need their own matching wording to follow.
Is primary and noncontributory the same as additional insured?
No. Additional insured puts the other party on your policy. Primary and noncontributory sets the order in which your policy and theirs pay. A contract that asks for primary and noncontributory is almost always also asking for additional insured status, and each needs its own wording on the policy.
Does primary and noncontributory cost extra?
Sometimes. It’s often included in blanket additional insured endorsements on contractor policies, while some insurers add a charge when it’s requested on its own. At Riza we show you what it costs before it goes on the policy.
Does the contract or the policy decide which insurance pays first?
The policies do. Courts generally decide the order of coverage from the policies’ own wording, not from the contract between the companies, unless the policy points back to the contract. That’s why the contract saying “primary and noncontributory” isn’t enough; the endorsement has to say it too.
Does primary and noncontributory work differently by state?
No state we found regulates the wording itself. Where state law matters is the coverage underneath it: in states like Texas that limit additional insured coverage for the other party’s own negligence, primary wording can’t stretch coverage past that limit. New York has the most case law on how primary wording is read.
in the states where Riza is licensed.
Riza is a licensed insurance agency in New York, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey and Georgia. Notes below cite the law they come from. Detailed write-ups cover Arizona, Nevada, Texas, North Carolina and New York. One-line notes for other licensed states appear with them when this term has one.
- ArizonaArizona has no statute or notable appellate decision on primary and noncontributory wording, so the order of coverage follows the policies’ own other-insurance clauses. On private contracts involving a dwelling, state law caps what an additional insured endorsement has to pay for the additional insured’s own share of fault, whatever the primary wording says.A.R.S. § 32-1159.01contractors in Arizona →
- NevadaNevada has no statute or notable appellate decision on primary and noncontributory wording; the order of coverage follows the policies’ own other-insurance clauses.NRS 40.693contractors in Nevada →
- TexasTexas has no statute on primary and noncontributory wording, but its Anti-Indemnity Act reaches any coverage endorsement, so primary wording can’t extend additional insured coverage past what the Act allows on construction contracts. The Texas Supreme Court has also held that when a policy grants additional insured status by reference to the contract, the contract’s terms set the coverage.Tex. Ins. Code § 151.104 · In re Deepwater Horizon (Tex. 2015) · Mid-Continent Ins. Co. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. (Tex. 2007)contractors in Texas →
- North CarolinaNorth Carolina has no statute or notable appellate decision on primary and noncontributory wording; the order of coverage follows the policies’ own other-insurance clauses. The state’s anti-indemnity law doesn’t apply to insurance contracts.N.C.G.S. § 22B-1contractors in North Carolina →
- New YorkNew York courts have ruled on this wording more than any other state’s. They decide the order of coverage from the policies, not the trade contract, unless the policy itself says the contract controls. In a 2024 case, primary wording that depended on a written contract was read against the actual subcontract, and the other policy was held to be excess.Hudson Excess Ins. Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s (N.Y. App. Div. 2024)contractors in New York →
by trade.
- General contractorsOwners ask you for it, and you ask your subs for it, so claims from a sub’s work land on the sub’s policy first.
- PlumbingCommercial subcontracts usually list it right after additional insured, for general liability and often the umbrella.
- HVACNew-construction subcontracts and larger service agreements commonly ask for it on general liability and auto.
- ElectricalTenant improvement contracts often ask for it in favor of the general contractor, the owner and the landlord.
- RoofingCommercial roofing contracts often ask for it on every liability layer, including the umbrella.
where you’ll see it.
- Subcontract insurance sections“Such insurance shall be primary and noncontributory with any insurance carried by Owner or Contractor.”
- Certificate requests“Coverage is primary and noncontributory” in the list of what the description box has to show.
- Umbrella requirements“Excess policies shall follow form and be primary and noncontributory” to the additional insured’s own coverage.
the wording has to be on the policy.
Send Riza the contract. We check whether each policy it names, including the umbrella, carries primary and noncontributory wording for the right parties, and add it with your insurers before the certificate says so.
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Coverage it touches: General liability · Umbrella and excess