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If clients, lenders or investors make decisions on the strength of your feasibility studies, you need professional indemnity insurance. A study that overstates demand, understates cost or misses a planning constraint can lead someone to buy land, release funding or launch a venture that was never going to work. Those losses can dwarf your fee, can surface years later and can come from people who never signed your appointment. Public liability does not cover them. PI does, subject to the policy terms.
Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex
In short
Feasibility studies are written to be relied on, often by more than the client: lenders, investors, grant funders, joint venture partners and, for planning viability work in England, the public. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 lets a third party identified in your contract enforce a term that benefits it, unless the contract shows that was not intended. Government guidance in England says planning viability assessments should be prepared on the basis that they will be published, and RICS members must follow a mandatory professional standard for them. In England and Wales, some negligence claims can be brought up to 15 years after the advice. PI covers your liability for negligent studies, subject to the policy terms.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
A feasibility study is a professional judgement about whether something will work: a development, a new site, a business, a public project. Its whole purpose is to be relied on. When a decision made on the back of it goes wrong, the person who lost money will ask whether the study was done properly, and that question is what professional indemnity (PI) insurance is built to answer.
Public liability (PL) is for accidental injury and property damage. It might respond if you trip a site manager while measuring a building, but a study that overvalued a site causes no injury and damages no property. The loss is purely financial, and PL policies are not designed for it.
It also helps to be clear about what you promise. In a business contract, section 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 implies a term that you will carry out the service with reasonable care and skill. That is a promise about how you did the work, not that your forecast will come true. A claim has to show that your method, data or assumptions fell short of that standard, which is why your working papers matter as much as the report.
These scenarios are illustrative, to show the kind of allegation a feasibility consultant can face. They are not real claims.
In each case the allegation is not simply that the outcome was disappointing, but that a competent consultant would have reached a different conclusion or flagged the risk.
There is no single regulator of feasibility consultants. A study is judged against the duty you owed, the guidance that applies to the type of study and the professional standards of any body you belong to.
| Rule or standard | What it says | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, section 13 | In a business contract, the supplier will carry out the service with reasonable care and skill (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). | The baseline standard for most business-to-business studies. |
| Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, section 1 | A third party identified by name, class or description can enforce a contract term that purports to benefit it, unless the contract shows the parties did not intend that. | Lenders, investors and group companies can gain rights under your appointment. |
| Planning Practice Guidance: Viability (England, updated 16 December 2025) | Viability assessments should be prepared on the basis that they will be made publicly available, other than in exceptional circumstances, and by a suitably qualified practitioner with professional integrity. | Your study will be read by the council, objectors and the public, not just your client. |
| RICS professional standard: Financial viability in planning: conduct and reporting | Mandatory for RICS members preparing viability assessments for planning in England, effective 1 September 2019. Requirements include a sensitivity analysis, a non-technical summary, a statement that no performance-related or contingent fees were agreed, and confirmation that no conflict of interest exists. | A breach of a mandatory standard is likely to be used as evidence against you in a negligence claim. |
| The Green Book 2026 (HM Treasury) | Central government guidance on appraisal. It uses the five case model and says practitioners should explicitly adjust appraisals for optimism bias. | Public sector clients expect feasibility work and business cases to follow it. |
This is the feature that sets feasibility work apart. Your client is rarely the only reader, and the people with the most money at stake are often lenders and investors you never met. Third parties usually acquire a right to rely in one of four ways:
Two practical points follow. First, studies go stale: a report dated two years ago, recycled into a data room, can attract reliance on figures you would never stand behind today, so date your assumptions and say how long the study should be relied on. Second, if you publish or allow publication, as planning viability work in England expects, write the report on the assumption that the least friendly reader will test every number.
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Negligent forecasts, appraisals and recommendations | Guarantees that a forecast, return or valuation will be achieved | Accidental injury on a site visit (public liability) |
| Claims from lenders or investors who were entitled to rely on the study, subject to the policy terms | Liability in reliance letters or appointments that goes beyond what the law would impose | Your own staff (employers’ liability) |
| Errors in data you compiled or analysed | Projects in which you or your firm hold a financial interest | Claims against you as a director of a client or project company (directors’ and officers’ liability) |
| Errors by subconsultants you appointed, where the policy extends to them | Work outside the business description on your schedule, such as regulated investment advice | Loss of client data or a cyber attack (cyber insurance) |
| Defence costs, including expert evidence on your methods | Circumstances you knew about before cover started | Your laptop and office equipment (office insurance) |
All cover depends on the insurer’s acceptance and the policy wording. Describe your work accurately. “Management consultancy” may not obviously include development appraisals, and a property-focused description may not cover a business plan for a hospitality start-up.
Size your limit by the decision your study supports, not by your fee. A study on a land purchase, a funding round or a public project can be relied on for sums many times larger than anything you invoiced. Lenders, public bodies and developers often set a minimum limit in the appointment. If you work in an RICS-regulated firm, RICS rules require PI that meets its requirements. Under the version in force from 1 July 2025, the minimum limit depends on turnover, at £250,000, £500,000 or £1,000,000, and cover must come from an RICS listed insurer.
Time matters as much as amount. In England and Wales, a contract claim must usually be brought within six years of the breach. A negligence claim can be brought within six years of the damage or, if later, three years from when the claimant knew enough to sue, subject to a 15-year longstop from the negligent act. A study that drives a long development programme can therefore produce a claim many years on.
PI is claims-made, so the policy that pays is the one in force when the claim arrives, not the one you held when you wrote the study. Keep cover continuous and arrange run-off if you retire, sell or close. See run-off cover explained and how much PI you need.
A complete proposal gets better terms than a bare one, and a broker can only present what you tell us. Have these ready:
Speak to a broker
PI for feasibility study consultants, placed by a named broker
Start the online proposal and save it as you go, or leave your number and a named broker will call you back, usually the same working day.
Apex Insurance Brokers is an independent insurance broker based in Bristol, established in 2009 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are not tied to one insurer: we work with over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s syndicates through wholesale brokers, and every client has a named broker who handles the placement, mid-term changes, certificates for clients and the renewal.
Yes. Feasibility studies exist to be relied on, and a negligent one can cause losses far larger than your fee, often to lenders or investors as well as your client. Those are purely financial losses, which public liability does not cover. PI covers your legal liability for them, subject to the policy terms.
No law requires feasibility consultants as a group to hold PI. If you work in an RICS-regulated firm, RICS rules require PI that meets its minimum requirements. Otherwise the demand comes from clients, lenders and public bodies, which commonly set a minimum limit in the appointment or reliance letter.
They may be able to. A third party can gain rights through your appointment under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, through a reliance letter or assignment, or by alleging you knew they would rely on your study. PI usually responds to third-party claims, subject to the policy terms.
Not by itself. In a business contract you promise reasonable care and skill, not a result. The question is whether your method, data and assumptions were ones a competent consultant would have used. Dated assumptions, sensitivity tests and clear caveats are your evidence that they were.
Often not fully. Many policies exclude or limit claims connected to businesses or projects in which you hold a financial interest, and success fees raise conflict questions. For planning viability work, the RICS standard requires a statement that no performance-related or contingent fees were agreed. Tell your insurer about any stake.
In England and Wales, contract claims usually have six years from the breach. Negligence claims have six years from the damage or three years from when the claimant knew enough to sue, if later, subject to a 15-year longstop. Because PI is claims-made, keep cover or run-off in place throughout.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for feasibility study consultants across the UK. Tell us about your work and we’ll find cover that fits. Or call 0117 325 0027.
Start your PI proposal Call 0117 325 0027Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered in England and Wales, company number 07014570. This page is general information, not advice on your individual circumstances. Cover is always subject to the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms, and this page does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.
