Estate Sale Company Insurance: What to Ask and How to Check

Why the question matters

An estate sale puts strangers in a house for two or three days, with a crew moving furniture, buyers carrying glassware down stairs, and the most valuable small items in the house sitting in a case by the door. Things get broken. Occasionally someone falls. Occasionally something leaves in a pocket. When any of that happens, the question of who pays is answered by the insurance in place, and if there is none, it is answered by the homeowner's policy, by the estate, or by nobody.

"Fully insured" on a website is a claim, not a policy. On this site a company's profile can state that it carries insurance, and that statement is the company's own, attributed to it; the site does not check it, because checking would mean a manual lookup per company forever, and an unchecked badge is worse than an honest quotation. So the work of confirming it falls to you, and it is smaller than it sounds: ask for one document and make one call. The guide to questions to ask an estate sale company puts insurance in its place among the other things to ask; this guide is the detail.

What insurance an estate sale company should carry

There is no single policy called estate sale insurance. A properly insured company usually carries a few ordinary business policies, each covering a different kind of loss, and the names below are the ones you will see on a certificate. Which of them a company has depends on its size and its state; a one-person company has different obligations from one with a crew of eight. Rules vary by state, and this is general guidance rather than legal advice.

• General liability. The one that matters most. It covers injury to a member of the public and damage to property the company does not own, which is the house and its contents. A buyer who trips on a step, a dresser that goes through a window, a stained carpet. Ask for the limit per occurrence and the aggregate; the figures on a certificate are commonly in the hundreds of thousands to low millions of dollars, but what is typical varies by region and by insurer.
• Workers' compensation. Covers the company's own staff if one of them is hurt in your house. Most states require it once a business has employees, with exemptions that vary. Without it, an injured crew member's claim can come to the property owner. If the company uses day labor or "independent contractors" for sale days, ask how they are covered.
• Theft, or a fidelity bond. General liability does not usually cover the company's own staff stealing from the house. Some companies carry a crime policy or a fidelity bond for that; many do not. Ask directly. A company that says "our people would never" has answered a different question.
• Care, custody and control. A common exclusion in general liability is damage to property in the company's care, which during set-up is everything in the house. Some policies add this back; some do not. It is worth asking the agent about specifically, because it is exactly the gap a breakage claim falls into.
• Commercial auto. Relevant if the company moves items in its own vehicles, for a clean-out or a delivery. A personal auto policy generally does not cover business use.

A company that carries all five is well run. A company that carries the first two and can explain plainly how it handles the third is normal. A company that carries none and is running sales in people's homes is exposing every client to its own risk, and a company that carries none and says it is "fully insured" is worse.

How to ask for a certificate of insurance

Say: "Could you send me a certificate of insurance before we sign?" Every insured business knows what that is, because realtors, landlords and commercial clients ask for one constantly. The company calls or emails its insurance agent, and the agent issues a one-page certificate, usually the same day and at no cost. It lists the insurer, the policy numbers, the policy period, the types of cover and the limits, and the agent's contact details. Some companies keep a current one on file and send it within the hour.

You can also ask to be named as a certificate holder, which means the certificate is addressed to you and the agent has your details on file. Larger clients sometimes ask to be an additional insured, which extends the company's policy to protect the client directly; that is a stronger position and some insurers charge the company a small fee for it. For a single estate sale it is not unreasonable to ask, and a company that has done commercial work will not be surprised, but do not make it a condition unless the estate is large or the contents are unusually valuable.

How to read the certificate

Certificates follow a standard layout and are not hard to read once you know where to look. Check five things.

The certificate itself says, in its small print, that it is issued as a matter of information and confers no rights on the holder. That is true, and it is why the next step exists: the certificate tells you what to check, and the call checks it.

The one phone call that confirms it

Call the agent's number on the certificate, or the insurer's general line. Say that you are about to hire the company named on a certificate you have been sent, read them the policy number, and ask whether the policy is in force and whether the limits shown match their records. The agent will confirm it in a minute. That call catches the two failures that matter: a certificate from a policy that has since lapsed for non-payment, and a certificate that has been altered. Both happen, and neither is detectable from the document alone.

Do not use a phone number the company gives you separately; use the one printed on the certificate, and if you have any doubt, look the insurer up yourself. Do not accept a photograph of an insurance card or a screenshot of a premium payment in place of a certificate. And do not feel awkward about making the call. Agents field these calls all day, and a company that objects to your making one has told you something you needed to know.

What the company's insurance does not cover

Even a well-insured company's policies leave gaps that fall to the house's own insurance or to the estate, and it is better to know them before the sale than after.

Theft by the public. Somebody walks out with a ring. The company's liability policy does not cover it, a crime policy usually covers only the company's own staff, and the homeowner's policy may or may not respond and may carry a deductible larger than the ring. The practical answer is prevention: locked cases for small valuables, staff in every room that holds them, and a decision, before the sale, to sell the most valuable jewelry and coins through a jeweler or an auction rather than off a table. Our guide to estate sale security covers what a careful company does.

The house itself. The building's own coverage is the homeowner's policy, and if the owner has died, that policy may have conditions about the house being unoccupied or may need the estate's name on it. Some policies restrict cover after a period of vacancy. Call the insurer and tell them a sale is being held; it is a short conversation, and an undisclosed public event in a vacant house is the kind of thing an insurer uses to decline a claim. This is not legal or insurance advice, and an attorney or the estate's own agent is the person to ask.

Items the company sends elsewhere. A piece sent to an auction house or a specialist dealer is usually covered by that business's insurance from the moment it leaves the house, and by nobody's during the drive if the company carries no commercial auto or inland marine cover. Ask, for anything valuable that leaves the property before the sale.

What a well-insured company sounds like

The tone of the answer tells you most of what the certificate will confirm. Ask "What happens if something gets broken during set-up?" and listen. A company that has thought about it describes a process: it photographs the house before the crew starts, it moves the fragile pieces first, it tells you the same day if something is damaged, it knows its policy's deductible and whether care, custody and control is included, and it has a story about the last time it happened. A company that says "that never happens" has either been very lucky or is not telling you about the times it did.

The same is true of theft. A good answer names the cases, the staffing, the sold-items area and the door count, and admits that every sale loses something small. A good answer about workers' compensation is a plain yes or an explanation of a state exemption you can look up. None of this requires a large company. A two-person operation can be properly insured and a twenty-person one can be uninsured, and the certificate is the only way to tell which is which. What our guide to warning signs calls a red flag is not a small company; it is a company that answers every one of these questions with reassurance instead of paper.

Licensing is a separate question

Insurance and licensing get run together in marketing copy, and they are different things. Insurance is a private contract with an insurer, and the certificate is the proof. Licensing is a matter of state and local law, and in most states there is no license specific to estate sale companies at all; ordinary business registration applies, and some states require an auctioneer's license for certain kinds of sale. Our state licensing pages say what is known for each state and link to the business register where you can check a company's registration yourself. A company being registered tells you it exists as a legal business; it tells you nothing about whether it is insured. Check both, separately, and keep both documents with the contract, which our contract checklist says should also state in writing that the company carries liability insurance for the sale.

What to do next

Add "send me a certificate of insurance" to the list of things you ask every company, alongside the other 24 questions, and make the call before you sign. When you are ready to hear from companies, describe the estate once and local companies will reach out to you, free; each company's profile in the directory shows what the company says about its own insurance, attributed to the company, and this guide is how you check it. Our guide to choosing an estate sale company covers everything that is not insurance.

Frequently asked questions