Professional indemnity insurance for engineering consultants

Professional indemnity insurance

In case you make an error while consulting, or your services don’t meet the expected standards.

What’s typically covered by professional indemnity insurance for engineers?

Claims against your business for:

• professional negligence or breach of contract, causing your client to suffer a financial loss, such as:
• advice you’ve given which turns out to be incorrect
• other errors in your engineering which end up costing your client money

For example:

• you make an incorrect measurement so the wrong-sized steel beam arrives on site, delaying the project
• after making a miscalculation, you’re sued by your client for problems with their heating system

Read more about professional indemnity insurance

Public liability insurance for engineers

In case someone is injured or their property gets damaged, because of your consulting business.

What’s typically covered by public liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• damage to someone’s property, because of your work
• an injury caused by your business activities
• accidental damage or injury caused by your employees

If you do employ anyone, you’re usually required by law to have employers’ liability insurance too.

For example:

• you accidentally place your toolbox on a glass pane that’s awaiting installation, causing it to crack
• you’ve removed a manhole cover and need to fetch a tool from your van – while you’re gone, a passer-by trips over the manhole, breaking their ankle

Read more about public liability insurance

Employers’ liability insurance

In case something happens to an employee while they’re working for your consultancy business.

What’s typically covered by employers’ liability insurance?

Claims against your business for:

• an employee, including a temp or casual worker, suing you after falling ill because of working for you, or
• making a claim for an injury they’ve suffered through working for you

**Employers’ liability insurance is required by law if you have people working for you. Without it, you could be fined up to £2,500 a day for each employee.**

For example:

• you haven’t provided the right safety equipment for your employee, and they injure their hand while on a client’s premises
• your employee is joining you on site and trips on a hidden pothole, breaking their knee

Tools insurance

In case your tools are lost, stolen or damaged.

What’s typically covered by tools insurance?

• loss, damage or theft of your engineering tools and equipment

For example:

• your measuring equipment gets damaged while on site, and needs replacing
• a fire at your place of work destroys your toolbox and its entire contents

Read more about tools insurance

Business and office equipment insurance

In case something happens to the equipment you use to run your business, like your laptop.

What’s typically covered by business and office equipment insurance?

• theft of the equipment you use to run your business, while at work or out and about
• accidental loss, flood, fire or damage to your equipment

For example:

• your laptop is stolen from your home office while you’re loading your car, and you need it to access CAD software, as well as client files
• while presenting to a client, you drop your tablet on a concrete floor, cracking the screen

Read more about business and office equipment insurance

Legal expenses insurance

In case your consultancy business runs into a legal issue.

What’s typically covered by legal expenses insurance?

• legal expenses resulting from your day-to-day consultancy activities, like an employee dispute
• the cost of making or receiving legal claims relating to property damage, nuisance or trespass
• HMRC investigations, or tax and compliance disputes
• includes a tax advice helpline, a 24/7 confidential legal helpline and crisis support to help you protect your reputation as a trusted consultant

For example:

• a temp you’ve hired is injured at work, and brings a claim against you
• your site is vandalised and you need to bring a claim against the vandals

Read more about legal expenses insurance

Personal accident insurance

In case you or anyone you’ve covered has an accident, at work or elsewhere.

What’s typically covered by personal accident insurance?

• injury or death outside of work, for anyone covered by the policy
• lost income, medical costs and hospitalisation benefit

For example:

• you lose a finger while working on site
• your casual labourer breaks their leg while playing football

Read more about personal accident insurance

Can I just cover my most expensive tools?

Make sure you cover the total cost of replacing all your tools or you’ll only get a proportion of your claim paid out if something happens to them. Learn about tool cover.

Which type of workers do I need insurance for?

Employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ people.

If you have people working for you, including bona fide subcontractors (BFSC), labour-only subcontractors (LOSC), part-timers, or full-time staff, employers’ liability insurance is required by law.

Read on for our simplified guide to the difference between labour-only subcontractors and bona fide subcontractors.

Will tools insurance cover all my equipment?

Depending on what you use to do your work, you may need other covers.

You may need more than tools insurance – for example, business equipment insurance if you have a work laptop, plant insurance if you use machinery.

Does engineering consultant insurance cover my work correctly?

Make sure you’re picking the right cover to protect you properly. It’s important to know that if you have another trade or job, you’ll need additional cover. For example, do you need to consider electrical engineer insurance or mechanical engineering insurance?

Do I need cover for other types of work?

If you provide other services, make sure you’re covered:

• Engineering business insurance
• Engineers – project management
• Civil engineer insurance
• Heating engineer insurance
• Engineers insurance
• Insurance for refrigeration engineers
• More engineering industry insurance

Other types of insurance

• Limited company insurance
• Self-employed insurance
• Freelance insurance
• Consultant insurance
• Contractors insurance
• Sole trader insurance

Which public liability cover limit should I choose?

Think about the maximum possible loss your business could face in the event of a claim, and make sure you take legal fees and damages into consideration. You can choose from three levels of coverage – £1 million, £2 million, or up to £5 million.