Construction Risk, Insurance & Indemnity Attorneys in Northern Virginia
Put the Risk Where You Meant It
The indemnity paragraph everyone skips and the insurance exhibit nobody reads decide who pays when a project goes wrong. Virginia voids some of those clauses outright. We draft and review the risk transfer terms for Northern Virginia projects.
✓ Owners, GCs & Subs
✓ Leesburg & Fairfax
✓ Contract & Coverage Aligned
How Virginia Polices Risk Transfer
Three Rules Behind Every Risk Clause
Void
What Virginia calls a clause making a contractor indemnify another party for damage caused solely by that party’s own negligence
Insurance Survives
The anti indemnity statute expressly spares insurance contracts, which is why real risk transfer in Virginia runs through coverage, not promises
5 Years
The statute of repose measured from completion, the horizon every warranty and every policy has to be read against
Sources: Code of Virginia § 11-4.1 (certain indemnification provisions in construction contracts void as against public policy, with an express carve out for insurance contracts, applied by the Supreme Court of Virginia to clauses requiring indemnity regardless of the indemnitor’s fault); § 11-4.4 (the parallel rule for design professionals); § 8.01-250 (five year statute of repose); Virginia decisions reading the subcontractor exception to the commercial general liability “your work” exclusion narrowly.
Risk clauses fail quietly. The indemnity paragraph reads fierce but turns out void, the certificate of insurance proves nothing, and the liability policy everyone assumed would cover bad workmanship excludes it. None of that surfaces until a loss happens, which is precisely why these terms deserve a lawyer’s eyes before signing rather than after the crane comes down.
Risk Moves Through Three Channels, and They Have to Agree
Construction contracts move risk three ways: indemnity clauses shift liability between the parties, insurance requirements put policies behind the promises, and warranty terms define what must be fixed after completion. Each channel has its own rules in Virginia, and they only work when they line up. An indemnity clause drafted past what the statute allows protects no one. An insurance exhibit that demands a certificate instead of an endorsement collects paper instead of coverage. A warranty that ignores the repose period promises more than the law will enforce.
We draft and review these terms across the whole contract set, so the prime contract, the subcontracts, and the design agreements allocate risk the same way instead of pointing at each other. And when a loss outruns the coverage, our litigation side pursues bond and surety claims and the disputes that follow, which is how we know where these clauses actually get tested.
Schedule a ConsultationWhere We Come In
- ✓ The contract’s indemnity paragraph is dense and nobody can say what it does
- ✓ You are an owner setting the insurance requirements for a project
- ✓ You are a subcontractor asked to indemnify everyone for everything
- ✓ Nobody is sure who is supposed to carry builder’s risk on the job
- ✓ Your warranty terms need to match what the law will actually enforce
- ✓ You want the whole contract set allocating risk one consistent way
What We Handle
Risk, Insurance & Indemnity Services
The clauses that decide who pays for a loss, drafted so they hold when tested.
Indemnity Clause Drafting & Review
Writing indemnity that survives the statute, and flagging the broad form language Virginia refuses to enforce before you rely on it.
Insurance Requirement Terms
Setting the coverage types, limits, and duration a project actually needs, written as obligations the other side has to prove, not just certify.
Additional Insured & Subrogation Terms
The endorsements and waivers that move risk onto policies, drafted so the coverage exists in the policy and not just in the contract.
Builder’s Risk & CGL Coordination
Assigning who insures the project itself and who insures the operations, so the two policies meet instead of leaving a gap between them.
Warranty & Repair Obligations
Drafting express warranty and correction terms against the five year repose horizon, because defective work itself is often the uninsured risk.
Risk Review Across the Contract Set
Reading the prime contract, subcontracts, and design agreements together, so indemnity, insurance, and warranties point one direction.
What Virginia law does to risk transfer clauses
Virginia polices the indemnity channel directly. A provision in a construction contract that makes the contractor indemnify another party for bodily injury or property damage caused solely by that other party’s own negligence is against public policy, void, and unenforceable, on private and public projects alike, and the Supreme Court of Virginia has applied the rule to language obligating indemnity regardless of whose fault caused the loss. A parallel statute voids comparable provisions involving design professionals. The statute expressly spares insurance contracts, and that carve out explains how sophisticated projects actually move risk: through additional insured endorsements, waivers of subrogation, and coverage requirements that put an insurer’s balance sheet behind the obligation instead of a bare promise the statute may erase. The insurance itself needs honest reading too. A commercial general liability policy is not a warranty of the work, and Virginia courts have read the subcontractor exception to the “your work” exclusion narrowly, so the cost of repairing or replacing defective work is often outside coverage entirely, which is exactly the weight the contract’s warranty and correction terms have to carry. Builder’s risk insurance covers the project property while it is being built, general liability covers the operations, and the contract should say plainly who buys each and how the deductibles fall. All of it sits under the five year statute of repose measured from completion, the outer horizon against which every warranty promise and every coverage decision should be read.
Attorney Insight
“After a loss, the first thing everyone does is open the contract to the indemnity clause, and that is usually the moment they learn what it actually says. I have seen parties discover their fiercest looking clause was void under the statute, and I have seen certificates of insurance stacked in a file for coverage that never existed on the policy. Risk transfer only works when the contract, the endorsements, and the warranties were built to fit together before the job started. That review takes hours. Finding out the hard way takes years.”
Anthony I. Shin, Esq.
Founder, Shin Law Office
Common Questions
Answers Before You Call
Our contract makes the sub indemnify us for everything. Is that enforceable?
Not all of it. Virginia voids a clause requiring the sub to cover damage caused solely by your own negligence, and courts have refused to enforce sweeping language that ignores fault. The fix is drafting: an indemnity tied to the sub’s own negligence and scope, backed by additional insured coverage, protects you far better than a broad clause a court will strike.
Is a certificate of insurance enough proof of coverage?
No. A certificate is an informational snapshot issued by a broker; it does not change the policy or make anyone an additional insured. If the contract entitles you to additional insured status or a waiver of subrogation, require the endorsement itself, because the protection lives in the policy language, not the certificate stapled to the file.
Does the contractor’s liability insurance cover bad workmanship?
Often not. General liability policies exclude the cost of repairing the insured’s own defective work, and Virginia courts have read the subcontractor exception to that exclusion narrowly. Damage the defect causes to other property may be covered, but the fix itself frequently is not, which is why the warranty and correction terms in the contract matter as much as the insurance exhibit.
What is builder’s risk insurance, and who should carry it?
Builder’s risk covers the project property itself during construction: the structure, materials, and often items in transit or storage, against fire, storm, theft, and similar perils. Either the owner or the contractor can buy it, and both arrangements work, but the contract has to say who carries it, who pays the deductible, and how the proceeds flow, or the gap surfaces at the worst possible time.
What is a waiver of subrogation and do we want one?
It stops an insurer that pays a loss from turning around and suing the other project participants to recover what it paid. Mutual waivers are standard on well run projects because they keep insured losses with the insurers instead of spawning lawsuits among the team. The clause has to match the policies, though, so we confirm the coverage permits the waiver before it goes in the contract.
Related Construction Services
Test the Risk Clauses Before a Loss Does
An afternoon of review tells you whether the indemnity holds, the coverage exists, and the warranties match the law. Send us the contract set. Serving Leesburg, Fairfax, and all of Northern Virginia.
Prefer to talk now? Reach Anthony I. Shin, Esq. at 571-445-6565.
Based in Loudoun County and serving clients across Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland, we know that when everything’s on the line, the right attorney doesn’t just make a difference, they determine the outcome.
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Copyright © 2026 Shin Law Office, PLC. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2026 Shin Law Office, PLC. All rights reserved.
Reproduction of any content on this site is prohibited except for individual, non-commercial, informational use. This limited permission does not allow modification, distribution, or incorporation of any content into other works or publications in any medium. You may not reproduce or distribute content from this site to any third party.