Professional Indemnity Insurance for New Quantity Surveyors — Your First Policy (2026)

Reviewed by Matthew Bartlett, Director, Apex Insurance Brokers Limited · Last reviewed 2026-08-05

1. Do you actually need PI as a new quantity surveyor?

Almost certainly, yes — and usually for two separate reasons that reinforce each other.

The regulatory reason. If your firm is regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), holding adequate and appropriate professional indemnity cover is a condition of that regulation. The RICS Rules of Conduct require regulated firms to maintain PII that meets the RICS minimum terms — a baseline set of policy conditions RICS specifies so that clients (and the public) are properly protected if something goes wrong. In other words, for an RICS-regulated firm, PI isn't a "nice to have" you can defer until you're busier. It's part of being allowed to trade under the RICS banner at all.

If you're a chartered quantity surveyor (MRICS or FRICS) working through your own firm, or a firm applying for RICS regulation, plan on this from day one. Even if you're not personally chartered, the moment your business is RICS-regulated the minimum-terms requirement applies to the firm.

The commercial reason. Even setting regulation aside, the way quantity surveying work is contracted makes PI a practical necessity. Cost consultancy, procurement advice, contract administration, bills of quantities, valuations for interim payments, final account settlement, loss-and-expense assessments — every one of these is advice a client relies on to move real money. If a figure is wrong, a valuation is overstated, or a contractual step is missed, the client's loss can be many times your fee. Appointments from developers, contractors, public bodies and funders routinely require the QS to hold PI at a stated level before work can start. Without it, you simply won't win the instruction.

So for a new quantity surveyor the honest answer is: you need it because your regulator requires it, and you need it because your clients will demand it in writing before they let you near the job.

2. When cover must start — from your first engagement

This is the part first-time buyers most often get wrong, so it's worth being precise. Your PI cover should be live before you accept your first paid instruction — not after you've done a few jobs and "got established".

The reason is the nature of the risk. A client rarely complains the day you hand over your advice. Problems on construction projects surface months or years later — when a final account is disputed, when a valuation is challenged, when a cost overrun gets investigated. The work you do in your first week could generate a claim well down the line. If you had no policy in force when the claim lands, there is nothing to respond to it, even though you did nothing differently from the day you were properly insured.

There's a second, subtler point. When you take out your first policy, the insurer sets a "retroactive date" — the point from which past work is covered. For a brand-new firm this is typically the date the business started trading, which is exactly what you want: it means all of your work is capable of being covered. If you delay buying, and only insure later, you risk a retroactive date that leaves your earliest jobs sitting outside the cover entirely. Starting on day one keeps that gap from ever opening.

3. How much cover does a new firm need?

The "limit of indemnity" is the maximum your insurer will pay on a claim (or across all claims in the policy year, depending on how the limit is structured). Choosing it is the biggest decision you'll make on your first policy, and it's driven by three things.

The RICS minimum terms. As an RICS-regulated firm, the level of cover you must hold is tied to your firm's turnover under the RICS requirements. RICS sets a minimum limit that scales with the size of your practice, so a sole practitioner just starting out has a different floor from an established multi-partner firm. Your broker will help you read this correctly — the point for now is that RICS sets a minimum, and it's a floor, not a target.

What your clients demand. In practice, client appointments often push the figure above the RICS minimum. It's common for a developer, main contractor, funder or public-sector body to specify the PI limit the QS must carry — frequently expressed as a round number such as £1m, £2m or £5m each and every claim. If you know the kind of projects you're chasing, look at the appointment terms those clients typically use, because the highest limit any of your clients require effectively sets the level you need to hold.

The size and nature of your work. The bigger the contract values you advise on, and the more your advice moves money directly, the greater the potential loss if something goes wrong — and the higher the limit that makes sense. A QS doing cost planning on small domestic and commercial fit-outs carries a different exposure from one running final accounts on multi-million-pound infrastructure.

For a new firm, £1m, £2m and £5m are common starting reference points, but treat these purely as illustrative options rather than a recommendation. The right figure is whichever satisfies the RICS minimum for your turnover and the highest limit your target clients contractually require. A short conversation with a broker who knows the surveying market usually settles it quickly.

4. What shapes the price of a first policy

We won't quote a premium in a guide — anyone who gives you a firm number without knowing your firm is guessing. What's genuinely useful is understanding what an underwriter looks at when they price a brand-new QS practice, because it demystifies the process and helps you present yourself well.

With no claims history to examine, an underwriter for a new firm focuses on a small number of things:

• Estimated turnover. This is the single biggest driver. As a new firm you'll give a reasonable projection for your first year — an honest estimate is fine and expected.
• The work you actually do. Underwriters distinguish between activities — cost consultancy, employer's agent, contract administration, project monitoring, expert witness work, and so on. Higher-exposure activities influence the price more than routine cost advice.
• Your qualifications and experience. RICS membership (AssocRICS, MRICS, FRICS) and years of relevant experience reassure an underwriter that the person behind the firm knows the discipline — a real advantage when you have no trading history to show.
• The sectors and project sizes you serve. Advising on large or complex construction projects generally attracts a different assessment from smaller, lower-value work.
• The limit and excess you choose. A higher limit of indemnity costs more; agreeing to carry a larger self-insured excess can reduce the premium.

The encouraging news for a first-timer: because you have no past claims and no complicated history to disclose, the information you need to provide is genuinely modest. New firms are often the easiest risks to place, not the hardest.

5. "Claims-made" — the one concept to understand

PI insurance works on a "claims-made" basis, and grasping this is worth more than any other single thing in this guide.

Most people assume insurance responds to when the work was done. PI doesn't. It responds to when the claim is made against you. The policy that pays is the one in force on the day a client brings a claim — regardless of when you actually carried out the job that caused it.

Two consequences follow, and both matter enormously for a new firm.

Continuity from the start is everything. Because a claim could arrive years after the work, you need an unbroken chain of cover running from your very first engagement onward. If you let the policy lapse for even a short period, a claim arriving during that gap has nothing to respond to it — even though you were insured when you did the work and insured again afterwards. This is why you renew every year without a break, and why starting on day one is so important: it opens the chain at the right point.

You'll want run-off cover one day. When you eventually stop trading, retire or merge the firm, claims can still surface for years afterward. "Run-off" cover keeps a claims-made policy answering for that past work after you've stopped. It's not something to buy now, but knowing it exists explains why continuity is designed into PI from the outset — and why RICS pays close attention to run-off arrangements when firms close.

If nothing else sticks from this guide, let it be this: keep the cover live and unbroken, every year, from the first job onward.

Get your first year of cover in place →

6. How to buy your first policy

The process is more straightforward than most new practitioners expect. Here's what a broker will typically ask you for — and note how little of it a new firm actually has to dig up:

• Basic firm details — trading name, structure (sole trader, partnership, limited company), start date and where you're based.
• Your estimated turnover for the first year. A sensible projection is all that's needed.
• The services you'll offer — the QS activities you intend to carry out, and roughly the split between them.
• Your qualifications and experience — RICS membership and background.
• The types of client and project you're targeting, and any limit of indemnity your clients contractually require.
• The limit and excess you'd like to explore.

Because you have no claims history and no years of accounts to reconcile, a new firm's submission is short. That's genuinely a benefit — you can often go from enquiry to a quote you can act on within a very short window, rather than the drawn-out back-and-forth an established firm sometimes faces.

One duty applies to everyone, new or not: answer the questions honestly and completely. When you buy insurance you have a legal duty to make a fair presentation of your risk — to tell the insurer the things that would matter to their decision. For a new firm there's very little to disclose, but disclose it fully and accurately. Getting this right at the outset protects your ability to claim later.

7. Common first-timer mistakes to avoid

• Waiting until you're "busy enough". The riskiest work is often the first job, done before cover was in place. Insure from your first engagement, not your tenth.
• Buying to the RICS minimum when a client needs more. The minimum terms are a floor. If a client appointment specifies a higher limit, that's the number you must meet — check the appointment before you agree the level.
• Letting cover lapse at renewal. A gap in a claims-made chain can leave past work stranded. Renew on time, every year.
• Underestimating turnover to save money. Your premium and, more importantly, your minimum-terms obligations are tied to turnover. Understating it can breach RICS requirements and cause problems at renewal. Give an honest figure.
• Not reading what your appointments require. Client contracts frequently dictate the PI limit, sometimes the excess, and the length of time you must maintain cover after the project ends. Know what you're signing up to.
• Assuming a general business policy covers professional advice. Public liability and PI are different things. PI is the cover that responds to alleged errors in your professional work — you need it specifically.
• Going it alone on the wording. RICS minimum-terms compliance, retroactive dates and activity definitions are easy to get subtly wrong. A specialist broker checks these so you don't have to become an insurance expert.

8. About Apex — and why we're quick for new firms

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is an FCA-authorised insurance broker based in Bristol (FRN 724952). We arrange professional indemnity cover for surveying and construction professionals, and we spend a lot of our time helping people who are buying their first policy — sole practitioners going out on their own, and small firms taking their first instructions.

New quantity surveying practices are exactly the kind of risk we place quickly. Because your submission is short — a turnover estimate, your qualifications, the work you'll do and the limit you need — we can usually get you a quote that meets the RICS minimum terms and any client-mandated limit without a long wait. We'll talk you through the limit, the excess and the retroactive date in plain English, make sure your first policy starts before your first job, and be there to help if a claim ever arises.

Whether you're days away from your first instruction or still planning the launch, it's worth getting the cover sorted early so nothing holds up your first appointment. Speak to Apex about your first policy →

Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This guide is general information, not advice on a specific policy.