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Home and interior design
If you are paid to survey, design or specify kitchens or bathrooms, you need professional indemnity insurance, even when another firm does the fitting and even when your design is bundled into a supply price. A missed measurement, an extract fan that falls short of Part F or a fitting drawn too close to a shower can all mean a room is ripped out and rebuilt. Public liability usually won’t answer that claim. PI is the policy built for it.
Part of: Professional indemnity for designers
In short
Kitchen and bathroom designers are judged on the drawing: the survey, the layout and the specification. In England, Part 2A of the Building Regulations 2010 makes anyone who designs building work in the course of a business a designer, with a duty to take all reasonable steps so the work would comply if built as drawn. Layouts are tested against Approved Document F extract rates, the Part P rules for electrical work near baths and showers, and water fittings rules. Homeowners have Consumer Rights Act protections you cannot contract out of, and work on existing homes can bring Defective Premises Act claims for up to 15 years.
Last reviewed 5 October 2026 by the Apex professional indemnity team.
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance usually pays for your legal liability when a client, or someone relying on your work, loses money through a mistake in your professional service. For a kitchen or bathroom designer, that service is the survey, the layout, the drawings and the specification. If any of those is wrong, someone pays for the rip-out and rebuild, and they will look to the person whose drawing the fitter followed.
Public liability (PL) is a different policy. It responds when you accidentally injure someone or damage their property, such as dropping a sample door onto a client’s new floor during a survey visit. PL wordings usually exclude loss caused by professional advice or design. A worktop cut short because your drawing gave the wrong run length is not accidental damage. It is a design error, and the claim is for a new worktop, the fitter’s return visit and the extra weeks without a working kitchen.
Working design-only does not shrink that exposure. You have no control over how your drawings are read on site, and the installer’s first answer to any complaint will be that they built exactly what you drew.
The scenarios below are illustrative. They show the kinds of allegation designers face; they are not real claims or outcomes.
Each alleges that you did not use the skill and care expected of a competent kitchen or bathroom designer.
Most disputes about a kitchen or bathroom design come back to one question: would the layout have complied if built as drawn? The points below apply in England; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.
| Rule | What it says | Why it matters to your design |
|---|---|---|
| Building Regulations 2010, Part 2A (regulation 11K) | Since 1 October 2023, anyone who designs building work in the course of a business is a “designer”, who must take all reasonable steps to ensure the work would comply with all relevant requirements if built to the design. | Your drawing, not only the installer’s work, is measured against the Regulations. |
| Building regulations approval (GOV.UK) | Installing a bathroom that will involve plumbing, and changing electrics near a bath or shower, are listed as work that needs approval, unless a competent person scheme member does the work. | A bathroom refit is often building work, which brings Part 2A into play. |
| Approved Document F, Volume 1: Dwellings (2021 edition), Table 1.1 | Minimum intermittent extract rates: 30 l/s for a kitchen with a cooker hood extracting outside, 60 l/s for a kitchen without one, 15 l/s for a bathroom. A recirculating hood on its own does not comply with Part F. Where building work is done in a kitchen or bathroom, existing fans should be retained or replaced. | Hood type, fan position and duct route are design decisions. |
| Building Regulations 2010, regulation 12(6A) (Part P) | Any addition or alteration to circuits in a “special location” is notifiable. In a room with a bath or shower, that is the space up to 2.25 metres above the floor (or a higher shower head) and 0.6 metres out from the bath or shower tray, or 1.2 metres from the shower head where there is no tray. | Where you put lighting, sockets and towel rails decides whether the electrician can install and certify them as drawn. |
| BS 7671, Section 701 (IET Wiring Regulations) | Divides a room containing a bath or shower into zones and restricts the electrical equipment that can be installed in each, including socket-outlets. | An electrician can refuse positions on your drawing, turning a design error into rework. |
| Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, regulation 5 (England and Wales) | The water undertaker must be notified, and must consent, before installing a bath holding over 230 litres to the centre line of the overflow, or a bidet with an ascending spray or flexible hose (unless an approved contractor fits it). It has ten working days to respond. | Large freestanding baths and some bidets affect the programme as well as the specification. |
Design-only means you never pick up a drill, but your liability is fixed by your drawings and what you said, while the result depends on trades you do not control. Four things decide how exposed you are.
If you carried out the survey, the dimensions are yours. If you worked from a builder’s or client’s measurements, say so on each drawing and in your terms, and ask for a check measure before anything bespoke is ordered. A note telling the fitter to verify dimensions helps, but carries little weight if you were the only person who measured the room.
Before October 2023 a designer could argue that compliance was the installer’s job. In England, regulation 11K now says you must not start design work until satisfied the client knows its own duties, and must take all reasonable steps so the work would comply if built to your design. If your scheme relies on an extract fan, cable route or pump that you left to someone else, record in writing who is responsible for it.
Where your client is a consumer, section 49 implies a term that you will use reasonable care and skill, and section 57 stops your terms from excluding that liability. Section 50 makes what you say or write about your service binding where the client takes it into account. A showroom assurance that “this layout will pass building control” can become part of the contract.
Section 2A of the Defective Premises Act 1972 covers work on existing dwellings completed after 28 June 2022. Work must be done in a workmanlike or professional manner, with proper materials, so that the dwelling is fit for habitation as regards that work. The duty is owed to your client and later owners, and claims can be brought for up to 15 years. Because it covers work done in a “professional manner”, don’t assume it is aimed only at builders.
| Usually covered by PI | Often excluded or limited | Needs a different policy |
|---|---|---|
| Errors in your survey, measurements and drawings | Promises that a layout is fit for purpose or will pass inspection, beyond reasonable care and skill | Accidental damage to a client’s home during a survey visit (public liability) |
| Layouts that breach Part F, Part P or other building regulation requirements | Indemnities you give a retailer or developer that go further than the law would | Injury to your own staff (employers’ liability) |
| Damage to third-party property caused by a negligent specification, such as a leaking wet room, subject to the policy terms | Liability for products you sell, as opposed to products you specify | Injury or damage caused by products you supply (product liability) |
| Unintentional infringement of another designer’s work, or breach of confidence, where the wording includes it | Refunds or write-offs of your own design fee | CAD equipment, laptops and showroom samples (contents or equipment cover) |
| Defence costs, including expert reports on the design | Problems you knew about before the policy started | Hacked email or lost client data (cyber insurance) |
Cover depends on the insurer’s acceptance and the policy terms. Check the business description: “kitchen retailer” may not clearly include a stand-alone design commission, and “designer” may say nothing about products you sell.
No regulator sets a minimum limit for kitchen and bathroom designers, so the figure comes from your contracts and the jobs you design. Three questions shape it:
PI is written on a claims-made basis: the policy that responds is the one in force when the claim is made, not when you drew the room. A homeowner who finds a slow leak three years after completion claims against the policy you hold then. With Defective Premises Act claims possible for up to 15 years on some work, keep cover running and arrange run-off if you stop trading. See run-off cover explained and claims-made and occurrence policies.
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 kitchen and bathroom designers, 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, if you are paid to survey, design or specify. Errors in measurements, layouts or specifications cause financial loss rather than accidental damage, so public liability usually won’t respond. PI covers your legal liability for those errors, subject to the policy terms, even when a separate firm does the installation.
No law or regulator requires kitchen and bathroom designers to hold PI. In practice retailers and manufacturers that subcontract design, developers, contractors and commercial clients ask for it, usually as a minimum limit in their terms. Homeowners rarely ask, but they can still sue.
Partly. In England, regulation 11K of the Building Regulations 2010 requires a designer to take all reasonable steps so that building work would comply if built to the design. The installer is responsible for building it properly and certifying it, but if the layout itself could never comply, the claim is likely to come back to you.
It can. Water damage caused by a design or specification error, including damage to a neighbour’s property, is often a PI matter, subject to the policy terms. An accident on site is usually a public liability claim. Check how both wordings treat damage arising from design.
Only so far. Section 57 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 means a term cannot exclude your liability to a consumer for failing to use reasonable care and skill, or restrict it so that the consumer cannot recover the price paid. Clear terms on scope, survey responsibility and check measures do more for you than broad exclusions.
If you are freelance or trade through your own company, usually yes. The retailer may hold PI, but its policy may not extend to outside designers, and its terms will often make you indemnify it for design errors. Check the contract and ask whether its policy names you before relying on it.
Apex arranges professional indemnity insurance for kitchen and bathroom designers 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.
