We specialise in professional indemnity insurance for builders and the construction industry. In this post we address a number of the reasons that contractors and sub-contractors in the construction industry may feel they don’t need PI insurance.
“Professional indemnity is a waste of money why should I bother with it?”
Often construction clients may feel this is the case. However, they may not know that professional indemnity insurance provides cover where a client claims a builder carried out an inadequate service or gave negligent advice.
In addition to physical construction builders can 0prepare designs, give advice and calculate specifications. They may not even realise they are doing it! These are professional exposures. Get them wrong and professional indemnity is there to protect them!
“I’m a pro I don’t make mistakes”
We all know that humans make mistakes! They may forget something, breach a regulation or just have a bad day.
With these mistakes comes financial losses, personal injury or in extreme cases death. The result of this could be detrimental to their business and involve substantial compensation claims. All of this can be easily avoidable by a simple professional indemnity policy.
Even if this was the case then can you be sure that your employees never ever make any mistakes?
“I get an architect to do the designs so it’s not my responsibility”
Not quite…. A construction client may think that because they are not explicitly providing the designs themselves they are off the hook if there is a mistake. Think again! If they appoint the architect directly then they are the first point of call for a claim.
“No one has asked me to have professional indemnity in the past so why does it matter?”
Often bigger or more sophisticated contractors want to know their builders have professional indemnity in place. If they wait to buy it until required this shows they did not have it before. Not only will this look unprofessional but it will also give them less time to find the right policy and get the best out of their money!
“I buy public liability – that’ll do!”
The short answer is it won’t! Only having employers or public liability insurance in place means your client’s cover is limited.
Yes they may be covered if they cause damage to the public, but not if they were asked to design a wall and it turned out to be faulty or if they adapted a plan they were working on. Only professional indemnity will cover this type of problem!
“If there is a claim it wont be against me I’m just the builder”
The truth is when things go wrong people will look for someone (anyone!) to blame. The builder will more than likely be dragged into a dispute the builder even if it was not explicitly their fault. This results in them having to spend time and money defending a claim…unless they have a suitable professional indemnity policy in place.
“If I have a problem I’ll hire a lawyer”
It’s not as simple as that. First they will need to find one, pay their exorbitant fees, then pay any settlement costs, court costs… the list goes on. Professional indemnity covers legal costs and a good policy comes with a professional experienced lawyer ready to protect them. The client will know exactly what they have to pay from the outset.
Get in contact
If you have any questions about professional indemnity insurance for builders or the construction industry, we’d love to hear from you. If you would like to find out more regarding our policy or anything mentioned in this article then please do not hesitate to get in contact! Just contact info@custodianinsurance.co.uk or call 0207 648 4343.
