Winter 2023/24 Bulletin: The Year In A Nutshell – PI Insurance for CAAV Members

As we approach the end of 2023, we felt it quite timely to highlight here those areas which might have had or indeed may yet have, some impact on a Practice’s Professional Indemnity Insurance arrangements.

A Softening PII Market?

A mixed bag here perhaps. Many PI Insurers, in periods of economic downturn, pull out of the RICS PII sector and then look to come back in when they see an improved economic outlook. We appear to be entering one of those periods now with a softening of the PII market for Surveyors generally. We’d stress however that the CAAV Members’ facility has remained consistent throughout the recent ’hard market’ period and has enable Members’ Practices to avoid those peaks and troughs which make budgeting difficult.

Stability remains key.

Lending Valuation Work

This has not been and is not, an issue for Practices insured on this facility, where the availability of suitable, competitive, PII cover remains, where the focus of those valuations centres on the agricultural/rural sector and for mainstream, specialist lenders. See our previous bulletins this year for more detailed comment here.

CAAV’s Risk Management Guidance

Quality management processes play an important part in enabling the maximum discounts possible to be offered by Insurers when calculating their premiums.

Aside from the usual risk management procedures you’d detail within your PII renewal submission, please do talk to us about any specific area of your Practice where you might follow guidance offered by the CAAV. By way of example, we have been able to secure additional discounts over recent months when the Practice has highlighted how they might adopt the CAAV’s suggested caveats within their terms of engagement around ‘Unrecognised Environmental Potential’.

It could be almost any other area of your professional service  – please do tell us. This facility is geared up towards your own specialist sector.

Building Safety Act 2022

One here for those Practices who might engage in Construction services, whether Architectural, Project Co-Ordination, Project Management etc. where you’ll be aware of the new Regulations under this Act.

These Regulations impose a number of new roles, requirements, and obligations of the duty holders together with a new framework for dealing with building projects and the ‘golden thread’. Given that these roles have been based, in part, on the roles under the Construction Design and Management Regulations, the majority of construction professionals may already be well placed to adopt the new roles. However, we’ll shortly issue a more specific bulletin looking at what a Practice might do to manage those exposures created by the new Act.