NY Building Permit Insurance Requirements by Town

Know exactly which insurance paperwork a New York town, village or city wants before it issues a building permit, without phoning the building department. One record per municipality, read from its own official website:

• Certificate holder wording: the department name and mailing address to put on the certificate ("entity requesting proof of coverage"), and whether the town states that wording itself
• Workers' comp proof accepted: C-105.2, U-26.3, SI-12, GSI-105.2, CE-200, and whether a CE-200 must be job-specific
• Disability proof accepted: DB-120.1, DB-155, CE-200
• ACORD certificates: whether the town says ACORD certificates don't count for workers' comp/disability, and whether ACORD 25 is the liability form
• General liability: required or not, minimum amounts, town as certificate holder or additional insured
• Job-specific certificates (one per permit), homeowner exemption route (BP-1 or CE-200)
• How to submit: in person, mail, email (department mailbox), fax, online portal links
• Evidence for every value: a short quote and the official page or PDF it came from, plus sourceUrls, lastChecked and a confidence level
• NY statewide baseline on every record (Workers' Compensation Law §57 and §220(8), from wcb.ny.gov), so you always know the minimum even where a town's site says nothing

Where a town's own pages say nothing, the field says "not stated". Nothing is guessed or filled in from other towns.

Price: $0.02 per municipality record. The prefilled example (Dutchess County, 9 municipalities, live-verified) finishes in about 35 seconds.

Confirm with the building department before applying; this is not legal advice.

Use this when…

• you install sheds, fences, decks, pools or solar in New York and need the right forms, worded right, for every town you work in
• you're an insurance agent or broker issuing C-105.2 / DB-120.1 certificates and want the exact certificate-holder name and address for each town
• you're a homeowner pulling your own permit and want to know whether a BP-1 or CE-200 is accepted
• you're a permit expediter or office manager keeping a requirements sheet for every town you file in
• you want to be alerted when a town changes its rules (schedule it with "only changed")

For AI agents

• Run signalloom/ny-permit-insurance-requirements (Apify MCP server call-actor, or the Apify API) with input like {"municipalities": ["Pittsford", "Yonkers"], "refreshMode": "snapshot"}
• Returns one JSON row per municipality in the default dataset: workersCompFormsAccepted, disabilityFormsAccepted, certificateHolder, acordAcceptedForLiability, generalLiabilityMinimums, homeownerExemption, submissionMethods, with evidence quotes and sourceUrls.
• Typical cost: 2 municipalities = $0.04 ($0.02 per municipality).

How to use it

1. Enter municipalities by name ("Pittsford", "Town of Perinton", "Village of Scarsdale"), or pick counties and/or types (town, village, city). Leave all empty to list the covered municipalities, largest first.
2. Choose a refresh mode:
   • verify (default): starts from the built-in reviewed snapshot and re-reads each municipality's source pages live, then re-extracts the rules. If anything changed, the record shows the new values and says so. Sites that ask crawlers to go slowly get about 30 seconds each; pages not re-read in that time (or unreachable today) use the copy stored in the snapshot, and liveCheck says how many were re-read. Live checks stop after about 150 seconds per run; any remaining municipalities show snapshot values, marked as such.
   • snapshot: no web requests at all; fastest.
   • recrawl: crawls each official site again from its homepage (about 15 seconds per municipality; up to about 2–3 minutes for sites that ask crawlers to wait 10–30 seconds between requests). Use it for a few municipalities at a time.
3. For monitoring, turn on Only changed requirements, give the task a Monitor ID and schedule it (weekly or monthly). The first run is a baseline.

Output

One record per municipality. Real examples from a run with the prefilled input (evidence shortened, stateBaseline shown once):

A town that states its rules (Town of East Fishkill, from its building permit application PDF):

{
  "id": "town:east-fishkill:dutchess",
  "jurisdiction": "Town of East Fishkill",
  "municipality": "East Fishkill",
  "type": "town",
  "county": "Dutchess",
  "population2020": 29707,
  "website": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/",
  "departmentName": "Building Department",
  "departmentAddress": "392 Creek Road, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601",
  "departmentPhone": "(845) 221-2427",
  "departmentEmail": "buildingapplications@eastfishkillny.gov",
  "departmentPageUrl": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/permit-applications/",
  "certificateHolder": "Town of East Fishkill, 392 Creek Road, Poughkeepsie, New York 12601",
  "certificateHolderBasis": "name stated on official page; address from the department's official page",
  "workersCompFormsAccepted": [
    "C-105.2",
    "CE-200"
  ],
  "ce200Accepted": true,
  "ce200JobSpecific": true,
  "disabilityFormsAccepted": "not stated",
  "acordAcceptedForWorkersCompOrDisability": "not stated",
  "acordAcceptedForLiability": true,
  "generalLiabilityRequired": true,
  "generalLiabilityMinimums": "not stated",
  "municipalityAsCertificateHolder": true,
  "municipalityAsAdditionalInsured": "not stated",
  "jobSpecificCertificates": "not stated",
  "homeownerExemption": "stated; form(s): CE-200",
  "submissionMethods": "not stated",
  "submissionEmail": "not stated",
  "onlinePortalUrls": [
    "https://eastfishkillny.portal.opengov.com/"
  ],
  "certificatesSentByInsurer": "not stated",
  "evidence": {
    "generalLiabilityRequired": {
      "quote": "INSURANCE PROOF REQUIREMENTS: PROOF OF LIABILITY INSURANCE AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND/OR WORKERS' COMPENSATION EXEMPTION IS REQUIRED FRO…",
      "url": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf"
    },
    "homeownerExemption": {
      "quote": "INSURANCE PROOF REQUIREMENTS: PROOF OF LIABILITY INSURANCE AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND/OR WORKERS' COMPENSATION EXEMPTION IS REQUIRED FRO…",
      "url": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf"
    },
    "acordAcceptedForLiability": {
      "quote": "LIABILITY INSURANCE CAN BE ON ACORD FORMS.",
      "url": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf"
    },
    "workersCompFormsAccepted": {
      "quote": "WORKERS' COMPENSATION INSURANCE MUST BE ON NEW YORK STATE FORMS (AS STATED IN GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW SECTION 125) (FORM C105.2).",
      "url": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf"
    },
    "ce200JobSpecific": {
      "quote": "ALTHOUGH FORM WC/DB-100 WAS VALID FOR MULTIPLE PERMITS, THE NEW FORM CE-200 WILL NOT BE.",
      "url": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf"
    },
    "certificateHolder": {
      "quote": "FORMS MUST NAME TOWN OF EAST FISHKILL AS CERTIFICATE HOLDER AND NOTE TOWN ADDRESS.",
      "url": "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf"
    }
  },
  "stateBaseline": {
    "law": "NY Workers' Compensation Law §57 (workers' compensation) and §220(8) (disability and Paid Family Leave): before issuing a permit, a municipality must get proof that the business applying has coverage, or is exempt.",
    "workersCompFormsAccepted": [
      "C-105.2",
      "U-26.3",
      "SI-12",
      "GSI-105.2",
      "CE-200"
    ],
    "workersCompFormsNote": "C-105.2 from a private carrier; U-26.3 from the State Insurance Fund; SI-12 if self-insured; SIG/GSI-105.2 for group self-insurance; CE-200 if exempt (no employees). The carrier sends the certificate to the government entity on the business's request.",
    "disabilityFormsAccepted": [
      "DB-120.1",
      "DB-155",
      "CE-200"
    ],
    "acordAcceptedForWorkersCompOrDisability": false,
    "acordNote": "ACORD forms are NOT acceptable proof of NYS workers' compensation or disability coverage (WCB).",
    "nameMustMatch": "The information on the form must exactly match the name and federal ID number of the business applying for the permit (WCB).",
    "homeownerRoute": "Many NY municipalities accept Form BP-1 (Affidavit of Exemption) from homeowners doing their own work on a 1-4 family owner-occupied residence; the form is handed out by building departments, not listed on wcb.ny.gov's permit page. Ask the department.",
    "generalLiability": "Not required by state law; each municipality sets its own rule.",
    "sources": [
      "https://www.wcb.ny.gov/content/main/coverage-requirements-wc/permits-licenses-contracts.jsp",
      "https://www.wcb.ny.gov/content/main/coverage-requirements-db/permits-licenses-contracts.jsp",
      "https://www.wcb.ny.gov/content/main/Employers/requirements-businesses-applying-government-permits-licenses-contracts.pdf"
    ]
  },
  "coverage": "town-specific",
  "statedRuleCount": 6,
  "confidence": "high",
  "siteAccess": "open",
  "crawlStatus": "ok",
  "sourceUrls": [
    "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/BUILDING-DEPARTMENT-GENERAL-PERMIT-APPLICATION-26-07-10.pdf",
    "https://eastfishkillny.gov/permit-applications/",
    "https://eastfishkillny.gov/new-east-fishkill-on-line-permit-portal/",
    "https://eastfishkillny.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Commercial-Buildings-Additions-Application-Requirements-1.pdf"
  ],
  "lastChecked": "2026-11-12",
  "note": "Confirm with the building department before applying; not legal advice.",
  "requirementsHash": "63a98c3054ecb3d5",
  "liveCheck": "verified live: unchanged",
  "changeType": "CHANGED"
}

A town whose site lists the department but not the insurance rules (shortened; all rule fields are "not stated" and stateBaseline applies):

{
  "jurisdiction": "Town of Wappinger",
  "county": "Dutchess",
  "website": "https://townofwappingerny.gov/",
  "departmentName": "Building Department",
  "departmentAddress": "20 Middlebush Road Wappingers Falls, NY 12590",
  "departmentPhone": "(845) 297-6256",
  "departmentPageUrl": "https://townofwappingerny.gov/building-department/",
  "certificateHolder": "Town of Wappinger Building Department, 20 Middlebush Road Wappingers Falls, NY 12590",
  "certificateHolderBasis": "composed from the department name and address on the official site; the site does not state holder wording",
  "workersCompFormsAccepted": "not stated",
  "generalLiabilityRequired": "not stated",
  "coverage": "department-only",
  "confidence": "low",
  "liveCheck": "verified live: unchanged",
  "note": "Confirm with the building department before applying; not legal advice."
}

A city where nothing usable was found on the pages read (shortened):

{
  "jurisdiction": "City of Poughkeepsie",
  "county": "Dutchess",
  "website": "https://www.cityofpoughkeepsie.gov/",
  "certificateHolder": "not stated",
  "workersCompFormsAccepted": "not stated",
  "coverage": "baseline-only",
  "confidence": "baseline-only",
  "liveCheck": "snapshot (no town pages to re-check; checked 2026-11-12)",
  "note": "Confirm with the building department before applying; not legal advice."
}

Key fields:

Field	Meaning
certificateHolder / certificateHolderBasis	What to put as certificate holder. Basis is stated on official page, or composed from the department name and address on the official site… when the town gives its address but no holder wording
workersCompFormsAccepted, disabilityFormsAccepted	Forms the town's pages list, or not stated
ce200Accepted, ce200JobSpecific	Whether the CE-200 exemption is mentioned, and whether it must be specific to the job/project
acordAcceptedForWorkersCompOrDisability	false when the town says ACORD certificates don't count (statewide, ACORD is never valid proof for these)
generalLiabilityRequired, generalLiabilityMinimums, acordAcceptedForLiability, municipalityAsCertificateHolder, municipalityAsAdditionalInsured	Liability rules as stated
jobSpecificCertificates, homeownerExemption, submissionMethods, submissionEmail, onlinePortalUrls, certificatesSentByInsurer	Paperwork logistics
evidence	{ field: { quote, url } } for every extracted value
coverage	town-specific (the town states at least one rule), department-only (department contact found, rules not stated), baseline-only
confidence	high (5+ rules stated and an address), medium (2+), low (1, or department only), baseline-only
liveCheck	What happened this run: verified unchanged, changed since snapshot, source unreachable (snapshot values shown), skipped (site blocks automated access)
stateBaseline	NY statewide rules with wcb.ny.gov sources
changeType	NEW / CHANGED in monitoring runs

The run's OUTPUT record summarizes coverage and live-check results.

Coverage and how the data is built (honest version)

• Which municipalities: the 180 most populous New York cities, towns and villages (2020 Census, from the official data.ny.gov population dataset), with official websites from data.ny.gov's "Locality Hierarchy with Websites". Websites that had moved or lapsed were checked and corrected by hand. Smaller municipalities aren't covered yet.
• Approach: a reviewed snapshot ships with the tool. It was built on 2026-11-12 by this tool's own crawler: for each municipality it reads the homepage, follows links to the building/code department, then to insurance and permit pages and their PDFs (at most 16 requests per site), and applies fixed keyword rules (no AI). About 40 records (all of Monroe and Dutchess counties plus the larger town-specific ones) were spot-checked by hand against their source pages, and every evidence quote was screened for personal names. Each run then re-reads the source pages live (verify mode) or re-crawls (recrawl mode).
• Today's coverage: of 180 municipalities, 62 (34%) have town-specific rules read from their own pages (21 high, 30 medium and 11 low confidence), 71 (39%) have the building department's name and contact but no stated insurance rules, and 47 (26%) are statewide baseline only (24 sites behind bot checks, 4 whose robots.txt disallows or can't be read, 19 where nothing was found). Certificate-holder wording is stated by the town for 28 municipalities and composed from the department's own name and address for 85.
• Sites we don't read: 24 municipalities put their whole site behind a bot check (Cloudflare and similar). The tool never tries to get around that; those records carry the official website and the statewide baseline only. Municipal code libraries (eCode360/General Code, Municode and similar) and third-party permit portals are never crawled; portal links are only reported.

Limitations

• Towns word things differently; keyword rules miss some phrasing. A value is only filled when the page states it, so "not stated" means "not found on the pages read", not "not required".
• Many towns keep their insurance rules inside a permit application PDF or in the office. Scanned (image-only) PDFs can't be read.
• A composed certificate holder (certificateHolderBasis says "composed…") is the department's own name and address from its site, not wording the town prescribed. Ask the department if the exact wording matters.
• Some sites block cloud servers but not home connections (or the reverse), so a live check can report a source as unreachable; the record then shows snapshot values and says so in liveCheck.
• Rules change. Check lastChecked and use verify mode or a schedule.
• New York only. Not legal advice: confirm with the building department before applying.

Legitimacy review

• Public, official sources, no login: the municipalities' own websites (and the file hosts their sites use for PDFs), data.ny.gov (official NY open-data API) for the municipality list, and wcb.ny.gov for the statewide baseline. Every non-.gov website in the list was opened and checked by hand; lapsed domains now serving unrelated content were replaced with the municipality's current site.
• robots.txt and terms: the crawler reads robots.txt on every host and obeys it, including Crawl-delay up to 30 seconds (sites asking for more are skipped). If robots.txt can't be read, the site is treated as off limits. A scan of the terms-of-use, disclaimer and policy pages linked from the 156 crawlable homepages found no clause forbidding automated access.
• No bypassing: no logins, forms, CAPTCHAs or bot checks. Sites behind a bot check are not crawled at all.
• Not crawled by design: municipal code libraries (eCode360/General Code, Municode, American Legal and similar) and third-party permit portals.
• Politeness: at least 1 second between requests to the same site (more if the site asks), at most 16 requests per site per crawl, an honest client name, and backoff on errors.
• No personal data: the tool describes government requirements, not people. Officials' names are never output; evidence quotes are screened and names (with any phone numbers in the same quote) are replaced by "[name removed]". Only department mailboxes (building@, codes@…) on the municipality's own domain are kept.
• Copyright: records hold facts plus short quotes with links to the official source.

Issues and corrections: use the Issues tab.

FAQ

What insurance certificates does a NY town need for a building permit?

Run the town's name: you get the accepted workers' comp and disability forms (C-105.2, U-26.3, CE-200, DB-120.1…), certificate-holder wording, liability rules and how to submit, each with a quote from the town's own page.

Can a contractor use an ACORD certificate for workers' comp in New York?

New York generally requires the state forms rather than ACORD for workers' comp and disability proof. acordAcceptedForWorkersCompOrDisability shows what each town states.

How do I track changes to a town's permit requirements?

Turn on Only changed with a Monitor ID and schedule monthly; only municipalities whose rules changed are returned.

Is this legal advice?

No. It collects what each municipality publishes, with source links. Confirm with the building department before applying.