Checking a consultant's professional indemnity cover

Professional indemnity insurance is written on a claims made basis, which means the policy that responds to a claim is the one in force on the day the claim is notified, not the one in force when the report was written. A flood risk assessment prepared in 2024 by a firm that let its cover lapse in 2026 is, for practical purposes, uninsured. That single feature of the market is why checking cover at appointment matters more than checking it at completion, and why the appointment needs an obligation to keep the cover in place for years afterwards.

Ask for the certificate. Read the limit, the basis and the exclusions. Then write the maintenance obligation into the contract.

Why claims made policies matter after completion

Latent defects surface slowly. A drainage design that undersizes attenuation shows up the first time a storm of the design return period arrives, which might be eight years after practical completion. A contaminated land assessment that missed a plume shows up when a purchaser's solicitor commissions their own search.

By then the insurance position has usually changed. Premiums have risen, the firm has restructured, a partner has retired, or the insurer has added an exclusion at renewal. None of those events is visible to you unless you have asked for annual confirmation.

So the obligation you want in the appointment is specific: the consultant will maintain professional indemnity insurance of not less than a stated amount, on an each and every claim basis, for a stated number of years from completion of the services, and will produce evidence of it on request once a year.

Twelve years is the conventional period where the appointment is executed as a deed, six where it is a simple contract, because those match the limitation periods for bringing a claim.

The level of cover to ask for

Fee level is the wrong yardstick. The right one is the loss that an error in that document could cause.

A planning statement that misstates a policy position costs you a refusal and a resubmission. A transport assessment that understates trip generation costs you a junction redesign. A land contamination report that misses a gas risk costs you a remediation scheme, a redesign of the ground floor, and possibly a year. The cover should be proportionate to the second category, not the first.

Two mechanics change the real value of a stated limit.

The first is whether cover is "each and every claim" or "in the aggregate". Aggregate cover is a single pot for the whole policy year, shared with every other client who claims. On a firm with a large workload, an aggregate limit can be exhausted before your claim is settled.

The second is the excess, and whether it is per claim or per claim series. A high excess on a small firm can mean the firm cannot fund its own deductible, which stops a claim from progressing even where the insurer accepts it.

Ask for the limit, the basis, the excess and the insurer's name. A broker's letter confirming all four is a reasonable request and most firms produce one without fuss.

Run-off cover when a firm closes

This is the gap that catches developers most often. When a firm stops trading, the claims made basis means there is no live policy to respond, so cover has to be bought specifically for the tail.

Regulated firms are usually required to arrange it. Firms regulated by RICS must hold insurance meeting the RICS minimum terms and must put run-off cover in place when they cease to practise, for the period set out in the current RICS rules. Architects are required by the Architects Registration Board's code to hold adequate and appropriate insurance, including after they stop practising. Other disciplines, including many ecology, acoustics and arboriculture practices, operate under institute codes that encourage rather than compel it.

Run-off cover is expensive and sold annually, so a dissolved company with no funds has nobody paying the premium. If your consultant is a one-person limited company, the realistic outcome of a claim after dissolution is nothing.

Where the author's competence is the issue rather than their solvency, the separate question of appeal track record is often more informative than the insurance certificate.

Exclusions that affect planning reports

Exclusions have widened considerably in the last few years, and the ones that matter for planning documents are predictable.

• Fire safety and cladding exclusions, now near-universal, which bite on fire statements and fire strategies
• Pollution and contamination exclusions, which can carve out exactly the liability you are insuring against on a brownfield site
• Asbestos exclusions, relevant to pre-redevelopment audits and demolition-stage work
• Exclusions for fitness for purpose or performance warranties, which is why a consultant will resist any clause promising a particular planning outcome
• Cyber and data exclusions, which matter less for reports and more for digital survey data

Read the pollution exclusion carefully where you are commissioning ground investigation work. Land contamination reporting needs a suitably qualified and experienced author working to BS 10175, and a contaminated land assessment is one of the report types where a competent professional is legally expected rather than merely advisable. An AI-assisted draft is a starting point for that professional, never a substitute.

Where an exclusion removes the risk you care about, the answer is usually a different consultant rather than a renegotiated clause.

Checking the certificate rather than the claim

A statement on a website that a firm is "fully insured" tells you nothing. Nor does a certificate from two renewals ago.

What to do, in order:

1. Ask for the current certificate of insurance, and check the period of cover includes today
2. Check the insured entity named on the certificate is the same legal entity you are contracting with, including the company number
3. Check the limit of indemnity and whether it is each and every claim or aggregate
4. Check the retroactive date, if any, because a policy with a recent retroactive date will not respond to older work
5. Where the sum at risk is material, ask the broker to confirm the position in writing directly

Point two catches more problems than the rest combined. Consultants often trade through a trading name, invoice from a service company and insure a third entity. Your contract has to name the insured entity.

Sole practitioners and limited companies

A sole practitioner has unlimited personal liability, which sounds reassuring and usually is not, because personal assets are rarely available and insurance is the only realistic source of recovery.

A limited company caps your recovery at the company's assets plus its insurance. Many specialist consultancies are small companies with modest reserves, so the insurance is effectively the whole of your security. That is not an argument against using them. Specialist work is often done best by small practices, and the drainage, ecology and acoustics fields in particular are dominated by them, as the piece on drainage strategy engineer competence sets out.

It is an argument for matching the cover to the risk, and for getting a parent company guarantee or a direct warranty where a small entity is producing a document a funder will rely on.

What to record in the appointment

Six items, and they fit on two pages.

The scope of services, described by output document rather than by activity. The standard of care, which should be reasonable skill and care rather than fitness for purpose. The insurance obligation, with amount, basis and period. Any liability cap, with the number stated rather than expressed as a multiple of fees. Whether a net contribution clause applies, which limits the consultant's share where several parties contributed to a loss. And the reliance position, meaning who besides you may rely on the report.

Record the cover position at the date of appointment in the file, with a copy of the certificate. Three years later, when a claim is being considered, that document is what tells your solicitor whether there is anything worth pursuing.

Honest uncertainty: insurers have been tightening terms across construction-related professions, and a certificate that looks adequate this year can carry a new exclusion at the next renewal. Annual confirmation is the only way to see it.

The professional directory on PlanScope is the route to a reviewer who can check and sign off a draft report, and for specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.

Browse the report types to see which of your documents need a qualified author.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.