Skip to the content

Home > Forms library > ACORD 126 · Leer en español

What does the ACORD 126 ask a Central Valley business to report?

Published 2026-10-05 by Insurance City Agency, LLC, CA License #6003045. Reviewed by Santo Militello, California-licensed Property & Casualty agent (CA License #1737723). Our licensed team brings more than 70 years of combined insurance experience.

The ACORD 126 (2025/03) is the Commercial General Liability Section. It is the schedule a Stockton roofer, a San Jose cleaning crew, or a Central Valley landscaper uses so an underwriter can see each hazard, the class code, and the exposure basis — payroll, gross sales, area, or another basis the form prints — split between premises and operations and products and completed work. It attaches to the ACORD 125 applicant section. It does not replace that application. The owner supplies the facts, the producer writes them on the section, and the applicant signs. ACORD's forms index, checked 10/5/2026, lists edition 2025/03. The March 2025 forms bulletin says that edition replaced 2016/09 and is for use on or after March 2025. Call (209) 670-1556. The Stockton office is 956 W Robinhood Dr.

What the hazard rows collect

A public copy of ACORD 126 (2014/04), in a City of Longview filing, prints “Attach to ACORD 125” and a schedule of hazards. Each row has a location, a hazard number, a classification, a class code, an exposure, and a rating basis, plus a column for premises and operations and a column for products. The March 2025 bulletin moved the edition from 2016/09 to 2025/03 and listed the logo, the edition date, the copyright line, and fraud-warning text. The April 2025 bulletin says the filings were done and that nothing else changed. The 2014/04 copy prints the rating-basis key: payroll, total cost, unit, gross sales, area, admissions, or other. That key is the exposure basis. A payroll class wants payroll. A sales class wants sales.

Above the rows, the coverage block asks whether liability is claims-made or occurrence. It has lines for the general aggregate, the products and completed-operations aggregate, personal and advertising injury, each occurrence, damage to rented premises, and medical expense, plus owner's and contractor's protective. Those are limits, not a price. The contractors block asks whether subcontractors carry lower limits, whether they may work without a certificate, and how much of the work is subbed. The products block asks about warranties and hold-harmless agreements. Prior coverage on this section is the claims-made block: the proposed retroactive date, the date of uninterrupted claims-made coverage, whether any product, work, accident, or location was left off previous coverage, and whether tail coverage was bought. The prior-carrier names sit on the ACORD 125.

Who puts the numbers on the page

The section names the first named insured. The 2014/04 copy prints an applicant signature and a producer signature. On that copy the producer line is marked required in Florida. The 2025/03 notice did not remove the signature block. The owner knows the work, the payroll or the sales, the subs, and which contracts require a hold-harmless. We write that on the section. The owner reads it and signs. California Insurance Code §332 says each party must communicate, in good faith, material facts the other side cannot learn on its own. §331 says concealment, intentional or not, lets the injured party rescind. A blank row is that kind of miss.

How an underwriter reads a Stockton roof

The underwriter starts at the rows. The classification and the class code say what the operation is. The basis letter says what the number means. Premises and operations is the crew on site. Products is the work that stays. A roof left on a house in Weston Ranch is completed operations. A row with only the premises column filled describes a crew that never finishes a roof. A landscaper who subs out irrigation, or a roofer who subs the tear-off, and who marks that subs may work with no certificate, has said the certificate file is empty. If the expiring policy was claims-made, a missing retroactive date is part of the prior-coverage story. This is how the page is read. It is not a promise that a policy will be offered.

A C-39 roofer in Stockton is the first check. The Contractors State License Board describes C-39 as installing and repairing surfaces that seal and weatherproof a structure. The classification has to say roofing, not a handyman label. A C-27 landscaper in the Central Valley is the second. CSLB's C-27 description is landscape systems that improve the grounds around a structure or a tract. If that owner also tears off roofs, the landscape row does not describe the roof. Contractor general liability is the coverage conversation. This page is the form. A cleaning crew in San Jose is the third. The hazard is often the customer's building. If that class rates on payroll, the number is payroll, not the monthly invoices. A hold-harmless clause in the building contract belongs in that answer. The certificate the building asks for later is a different form. The edition is on the ACORD 25 page, and the request itself is on our certificate of insurance request page.

Three boxes we send back

These are the three boxes we send back most often on applications from Stockton, San Jose, and Central Valley trades. This is what we see at this office. It is not a published study.

The first is the exposure basis and the number. Owners paste gross receipts into a payroll row, or they leave the basis letter blank. The number has to match the letter: payroll, total cost, unit, gross sales, area, admissions, or other. The second is a classification that does not match the license. “General contractor” or “handyman” on a C-39 or C-27 account sends the underwriter to the wrong class code. The words should be the work. We do not print a sample class code here, because the code has to fit the operation. The third is a blank products and completed-operations column, and a “no” on hold-harmless agreements when the subcontract already says the applicant will cover the general contractor. General liability is what that column describes. How that differs from a business owner's policy is on our BOP and general liability note.

The section does not stand alone

The 2014/04 copy prints “Attach to ACORD 125.” The forms index lists ACORD 125 (2025/03) as the Commercial Insurance Application, Applicant Information Section, and the March 2025 bulletin revised that form in the same release. The 126 is the liability section. The 125 is who the insured is, the business, and the prior-carrier grid. Our note on that section is the ACORD 125 page, in the forms library. The index also lists ACORD 125 CA (2023/01), the California commercial application. A California file can include that state form with the countrywide 125 and the 126. The same section in Spanish is on the Spanish page, with the Spanish library and the Spanish ACORD 125 note.

Questions we hear at the counter

What is the ACORD 126?

The ACORD 126 (2025/03) is the Commercial General Liability Section. It lists each hazard, the class code, and the exposure basis, and it attaches to the ACORD 125 applicant section. ACORD's forms index lists that edition, and the March 2025 forms bulletin says it replaced the 2016/09 edition.

Who fills out the ACORD 126?

The first named insured supplies the operations, the exposure, and the subcontract facts. The producer prepares the section. A 2014/04 public copy of the form prints a line for the applicant's signature, and ACORD's 2025/03 revision notice did not remove the signature block.

What exposure basis does the hazard schedule use?

The 2014/04 copy prints a rating-basis key for payroll, total cost, unit, gross sales, area, admissions, and other. ACORD's March 2025 bulletin did not list a change to that key when it moved the edition from 2016/09 to 2025/03.

Does the ACORD 126 replace the ACORD 125?

No. The 2014/04 copy prints Attach to ACORD 125. The current applicant section in ACORD's forms index is ACORD 125 (2025/03). California files may also include ACORD 125 CA (2023/01), listed in that same index.

Which three boxes do Central Valley applications miss?

The exposure basis and the number that goes with it, the classification that does not match the work on the license, and the products and completed-operations column, including hold-harmless agreements the applicant has already signed.

Sources

Reviewed by Santo Militello, California-licensed Property & Casualty agent (CA License #1737723). Insurance City Agency, LLC, CA License #6003045. Our licensed team brings more than 70 years of combined insurance experience. Phone (209) 670-1556. Insurance City, 956 W Robinhood Dr, Stockton, CA 95207.

Ask Enza
CallQuoteWhatsApp