Professional Indemnity Insurance

Anyone who provides professional advice, design, or certification services for a fee, including architects, engineers, building certifiers, quantity surveyors, project managers, and building designers.

Claims can be brought years after a project reaches completion, particularly where a defect or design issue only becomes apparent later. This is why continuous, uninterrupted cover matters more than a single project's policy term.

In some jurisdictions, courts have found that individuals with substantive control over building work can owe a personal duty of care, separate from the liability of the company they work for. This has been most clearly tested in NSW under the Design and Building Practitioners Act.

Professional indemnity covers claims arising from your advice, design, or professional services. Public liability covers third-party injury or property damage arising from physical business activity. Most professional firms need both.

Yes, typically. Cover can extend to the cost of defending an inquiry by a regulatory or disciplinary body into your professional conduct, separate from a civil claim.

Professional indemnity is generally a claims-made policy, meaning cover needs to be in place at the time a claim is made, not just when the work was carried out. This makes run-off cover an important consideration when a firm changes structure or ceases trading.