What does primary and noncontributory mean on our certificate?

The other insurance condition in a standard liability policy says that where more than one policy covers the same loss, the policies share on some basis. Primary wording overrides that so your policy responds in full before the other party policy is called on at all.

Noncontributory goes one step further and removes your insurer right to seek contribution afterward. Without it, your carrier can pay first and then pursue the landlord carrier for a share, which technically satisfies the primary promise while defeating the commercial purpose of it.

The two are asked for together because either alone leaves the other party partly exposed. They are granted together by a single endorsement in most forms, but the endorsement has to be there.

A REIT lease or management agreement requires additional insured status on a primary and noncontributory basis. The operator forwards the requirement to the broker, the certificate is issued with the words in the description box, and nobody confirms an endorsement was added to the policy.

A certificate description box is not coverage. When the claim arrives and the landlord tenders, the operator carrier applies the ordinary other insurance clause, the landlord carrier disputes it, and the operator finds itself in breach of the lease insurance covenant, which is a default under most leases regardless of how the coverage argument resolves.

Additional insured endorsements and primary and noncontributory wording are standard products on general liability. They are much less standard on professional liability, and in senior care the exposure the landlord actually cares about is the professional one.

Where a lease requires primary and noncontributory additional insured status on the professional liability policy, confirm whether the market will grant it before signing the lease. Some will, some will not, and discovering the answer after signing means either a lease amendment or a program change.

Ask the broker for the endorsement, by number, and read it. Confirm it names the specific party or uses a blanket-where-required-by-written-contract form, and confirm the written contract in question was executed before the loss, since blanket forms almost always require that.

Then keep the endorsement with the lease, not with the policy. The person who will need it is the one handling the landlord tender, and they will be looking in the lease file.