Architects Professional Indemnity Insurance
From PIA
Monday, 22nd November 2010 5:17 pm
A typical policy issued for an Architect or Engineers would have a wording such as the following:
This policy although issued by one company, will generally be very similar to that issued by most insurers from an Architects & Engineers with respect to Architects the following must apply to all policies purchased by the insured and in particular where if includes a Professional Indemnity (PII) Cover.
The ARB (Architects Act 1997) was given the authority to lay out their expected standards for Architects professional conduct, this involved Architects to arrange and hold Professional Indemnity PII, this was to going to give both the Architect and its clients protection against possible errors and neglect in the architects work, or indeed the legal cost and damages that maybe needed to defend an allegation or pay a claim for damages.
The ARB tends to recommend that its members seek advice from an independent broker who should be able to help you with defying the type of levels they may require although the minimum start level is £250,000 and the ARB would not normally accept anything below that figure most professional indemnity insurance policies would have really good cover for architects such as any one claim cover for excess and the level of indemnity together with a plus costs and expenses or costs in addition type cover.
Clearly with the very different areas of work Architects get into they also need to check that the policy they purchase adequately covers them for their activity. PII will also be required to be continued after the architect retires or stops practising, which is known as ‘Run Off’ cover, this can now be purchased for a 6 year period or renewed each year for a period of 6 years.
The architects also have to be aware of committing to contracts/collateral warranties (deeds) can mean that you need to carry your professional indemnity insurance on for a period of 12 years at a set level so it is important to consider this if you are coming up to retirement and stopping trading.
