The PI insurance crisis – Is your consultant sufficiently covered?

It’s no secret that surging Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance costs have impacted the construction industry in recent years. Because of this, more and more self-employed engineers and smaller firms are finding themselves unable to secure suitable cover. Something that is putting their clients at risk of ruin, say consulting engineers JMS

“Unfortunately, the halcyon days where PI was once standard issue for all civil and structural engineers have long gone. So if you’re looking to secure an engineer for your construction project, it’s best to stop and think before contracts are signed” a JMS representative from the Suffolk office explained, “You should ask your contractor whether they have the appropriate insurance in place to cover the specific work they’re doing for you”.

One concern is that many ‘one man band’ engineers can no longer access comprehensive cover for things like basement design projects. This means it’s all fun and games while everything is going well, but should a problem or error be uncovered… suddenly there’s no easy way to recover your legal costs or awarded damages.

According to JMS, “It’s a great way to make your grand plans grind to an expensive halt. We’ve seen this happen with our own eyes recently, and it’s only going to become more common in the future”.

How can you protect yourself from uninsured contractors?

“The short answer? Give JMS a call”.

“We’ll answer the phone for a start, after all, we’re a large company, and we have plenty of experts on hand who will be happy to talk to you about whatever you need”.

Over the past few decades JMS have built a solid reputation as a client-first company, working on a huge variety of civil and structural projects all over the UK.

“It’s something that has stood us in good stead in recent years. Because our history of successful projects also counts for something with our insurers. They trust that the scale and longevity of our business means we’re resilient to financial uncertainties. They see that our hard-won reputation for getting things right, on time, and first time, means we’re not a risky proposition. They recognise the work we do behind the scenes, to continually strengthen our internal risk management controls, train our people to the highest levels, and only work with supply chain partners who uphold the same values, means we’re a good bet when it comes to insurance”.

“This is why we can continue to provide substantial cover for every project we’re involved with – big, small, complex or simple. And, yes, we’re covered to design your basement!”.

“And yes, we’ll still be in business next year, in fact we’ll be celebrating a quarter of a century of success”.

Could your self-employed engineering contractor say the same? If you’re not 100% sure, don’t risk your big project, call JMS today.