Anthony Ruggiero spent six years running crews for a citywide moving outfit before he started Brooklyn Best Movers, and the same problem kept showing up: a truck double-parked outside a Brooklyn building, a doorman with his arms crossed, and nobody in the office who’d called ahead about a certificate of insurance. By the time anyone asked, the crew was already standing on the sidewalk burning billable time. That’s a big part of why Brooklyn Best Movers exists, and it’s why the COI gets handled before your move is even confirmed on the calendar.
What a COI Actually Is
A certificate of insurance is a one-page document from a moving company’s insurer proving the company carries general liability and workers’ compensation coverage, usually naming the building or its management company as an “additional insured.” It isn’t paperwork we invented — it’s what a building’s management office asks for to protect itself if a hallway gets scuffed or an elevator gets dinged during a move.
Which Brooklyn Buildings Usually Ask for One
- Co-ops and condos with a managing agent
- Doorman buildings and anything with a staffed lobby
- Buildings with a freight elevator, since the reservation and the COI are usually handled by the same office
- Newer construction with a property management company on file
- Some commercial office buildings for business relocations
Plenty of Brooklyn walk-ups and smaller brownstones never ask for one at all. The problem isn’t that COIs are common — it’s that you can’t always tell which buildings will want one until the move is already booked.
“Nobody called the building management office until move-day morning — that’s the part I couldn’t stand watching happen over and over.” — Anthony Ruggiero, Owner
How Brooklyn Best Movers Handles It Before You’re Booked
The COI and the freight elevator reservation get worked in parallel with your quote, not after you’ve already paid a deposit.
- We ask for the building name and management company when you first call, not the week of the move.
- Our office contacts the management company directly to confirm exactly what their COI requires — coverage minimums, additional-insured wording, anything specific to that building.
- We generate the COI with the exact language the building asked for and send it to the management office ourselves.
- If a freight elevator is involved, we reserve the window that matches your crew’s arrival time, not a generic morning slot.
- We confirm the parking or loading-dock plan with the building or the block, so the truck isn’t circling when the crew should be working.
- Everything gets confirmed in writing with the super or doorman before move day, so there’s no version of the story where they’ve never heard of you.
What This Actually Saves You
On an hourly job, an unreserved freight elevator or a missing COI doesn’t just cause an awkward conversation with a doorman — it burns billable hours while the crew waits in the lobby with a full truck outside. Handling it at booking instead of at the curb is the difference between a move that starts on time and one that starts with an apology to a building super.
Booking a move into a doorman or elevator building? Tell us the building name when you call (718) 502-7431, and we’ll find out what they need before your crew shows up with nowhere to park and no paperwork in hand.