COIOps Risk Desk · Brief 02 · September 2026
Ninety Days to Tender: The April 2026 AVOID Act and the COI File You Cannot Rebuild After a Loss
New York’s AVOID Act starts a 90-day clock on third-party claims. A 2025 failure-to-procure ruling shows what happens when the additional-insured policy is not in the file. Expired certificates do not become evidence because counsel asks nicely.
- 90 days
- AVOID Act window for many third-party claims
- Apr 2026
- New York AVOID Act effective date
- Exhibit E
- The pages a certificate only promises
Title page · 12 minute read · Document score ≠ coverage opinion
The Baldwin Group’s 2026 mid-year construction briefing describes New York’s AVOID Act, effective April 2026, as an amendment to CPLR §1007: contract-based third-party claims generally must be filed within 90 days after the answer, and other claims within 90 days of learning another party may share liability. Miss the window and the sub you meant to tender may have to be sued separately.
That clock is useless if the file is a stale PDF. In De Jesus v. 627 Greenwich Owner, LLC, 2025 NY Slip Op 51835(U), the court granted summary judgment on a failure-to-procure-insurance claim where the subcontractor could not produce a policy in force at the time of the accident naming the upstream parties as additional insureds.
Evergreen pain, new deadline. An expired certificate on site delays the job today and, after a loss, leaves the GC reconstructing additional-insured status from memory.
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