Professional indemnity broker · Engineers · UK

Professional indemnity insurance broker for engineers

Professional indemnity for civil, structural, building-services, geotechnical and fire engineers — sized to your appointments, placed by a broker who knows the difference between what your institution expects and what your client’s contract demands.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

Who this page is for

• Civil, structural, mechanical and electrical, geotechnical, fire and environmental engineering consultancies.
• Sub-consultants to architects and design-and-build contractors whose appointments pass down PI requirements.
• Practices bidding for public-sector or infrastructure work that specifies £5m or £10m per claim.
• Fire engineers and structural engineers with post-Grenfell exposure that insurers now underwrite line by line.
• Firms with a project that has gone wrong, a notified circumstance, or a claim in progress.

What engineers’ PI has to do

Engineering claims are large and slow. A structural or services defect surfaces after completion, the claim is pleaded against every consultant on the project, and the engineer’s share depends on the appointment, the warranties and the net-contribution wording. The policy has to be big enough for the project, live long enough for the limitation period, and free of an exclusion that guts it.

Unlike architects (ARB), solicitors (SRA) and surveyors (RICS), engineers have no single statutory regulator mandating PI. ICE, IStructE, CIBSE and IMechE codes require adequate cover, but the binding minimum comes from your clients’ standard-form appointments.

• Appointments set the limit. NEC Professional Service Contracts, ICE and ACE agreements and RIBA-style consultant appointments routinely specify £2m, £5m or £10m per claim.
• Project-specific PI can cover one large job without inflating your annual limit for everything else.
• Fire engineering and structural work on residential and higher-risk buildings is scrutinised most closely; a full presentation matters more here than anywhere.
• Collateral warranties and novation can extend your liability to parties you never contracted with; the policy needs to follow.

What limit engineers actually need

There is no regulator-set minimum for engineers. As a working guide: a small civil or geotechnical practice on residential extensions, small commercial work and surveys may sit at £1m to £2m per claim; a mid-sized multi-disciplinary firm on schools, commercial buildings, mid-rise residential and infrastructure typically sits at £2m to £5m; a structural or building-services practice on high-rise residential, hospitals, large infrastructure or substantial commercial buildings commonly carries £5m to £10m or more.

The number that matters is the one in your appointment. If a contract requires more than you hold, tell us before you sign it — a top-up or project policy is usually quicker to arrange than renegotiating the appointment.

How Apex places professional indemnity for engineers

• A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as consulting engineers: what you do, who for, fee income, staff, contracts, claims and anything unusual.
• A written presentation to insurers. Under the Insurance Act 2015 you have a duty of fair presentation. We help you meet it — and a well-presented risk gets better terms than a bare proposal form.
• Quotes set out to compare. Usually three or four, with limits, excesses, retroactive dates, exclusions and premium side by side, and our recommendation in plain English.
• No gap in cover. If you are moving from another broker, insurer or scheme, we put the new policy in place before the old one lapses and check the retroactive date protects your past work.
• The same person afterwards. Mid-term changes, contract queries, certificates for clients, circumstance notifications and next year’s renewal all go through your named broker.

Why engineers move their PI to Apex

• Owned by its directors, not for sale. No consolidator, no private-equity owner, no external shareholders — and we have declined approaches to buy the firm. Read the Apex Independence Charter.
• Independent, not tied. No single-insurer scheme, no in-house policy, no placement quotas — the recommendation is the one that fits, not the one we are paid to push.
• Over 30 markets, including Lloyd’s. Specialist UK PI insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates via wholesale, so a risk that one underwriter dislikes can still be placed properly with another.
• Usually three or four competing quotes, laid out side by side — limit, excess, retroactive date, exclusions and premium — with a plain-language note on the trade-offs.
• The stay-put letter. If your existing cover is right, we say so in writing, free and without obligation. How the stay-put letter works.
• A named broker all year. The person who places your cover is the person who picks up the phone at renewal, on a mid-term change, or when a letter of claim lands.
• Director-level attention on claims. We help you notify circumstances early and in the right form, stay involved once the insurer’s panel solicitors are appointed, and tell you plainly where you stand.
• Directly authorised by the FCA since 2016, not an appointed representative trading under someone else’s permissions.

When it is worth getting a second quote

• You have outgrown a professional-body or adviser-network scheme, or an online-only policy, and nobody has re-marketed your risk in years.
• A client, lender, framework or regulator now requires a higher limit, a different basis of cover, or evidence your existing broker cannot produce quickly.
• Your insurer has non-renewed, withdrawn from your profession, or imposed an exclusion you were not warned about.
• Your renewal rose sharply with no explanation, or the person who knew your firm has left, retired, or been absorbed into a consolidator.
• You have a claim, a circumstance, a CCJ or something else non-standard, and your current arrangement treats it as a tick-box decline.
• Your broker has been bought by a consolidator or a global broker and the independence you chose them for has gone.

None of these needs a falling-out with your current broker. Send us the renewal, we tell you plainly whether you are well placed. If you are, we say so. How switching broker works without a gap in cover →

When we are not the right broker

• You want the cheapest possible policy bought online in five minutes with no conversation. An online-only product may suit you better, and we would rather say so than waste your time.
• Your regulator or professional body requires you to use one specific scheme with no alternative. That is rare, but where it applies we will tell you.
• You are outside the UK, or your firm is effectively a US-domiciled business with a UK office.

Related guides

• What professional indemnity insurance costs for engineers (Apex placement data, 2026)
• Get a professional indemnity insurance quote
• Best professional indemnity insurance in the UK: how to choose
• Engineers professional indemnity insurance — the full UK guide
• How much professional indemnity insurance do you need?
• What professional indemnity insurance costs, and what drives the premium
• Professional indemnity insurance at Apex
• When to switch business insurance broker
• Non-standard professional indemnity: CCJs, claims, declines, adverse credit
• The Apex Independence Charter: owned by its directors, not for sale
• PI minimum limit calculator: what your regulator requires
• UK PI brokers: who has been bought, and who is still independent
• A contract requires higher insurance limits — what to do

Frequently asked

Apex 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 about professional indemnity insurance, not advice on your individual circumstances, and it does not guarantee that cover will be available or on what terms.