Professional indemnity broker · Surveyors · UK

Professional indemnity insurance broker for surveyors

RICS-compliant professional indemnity for building surveyors, valuers, quantity surveyors and project managers — including the risks other brokers would rather not present.

Part of: Professional indemnity insurance at Apex

Who this page is for

• RICS-regulated firms: building surveyors, valuers, quantity surveyors, project managers, party-wall surveyors and expert witnesses.
• Valuers doing lender panel work, EWS1-related work or anything touching cladding and fire safety.
• Firms whose insurer has withdrawn from surveyors, imposed a fire-safety exclusion, or doubled the premium without explanation.
• Small practices that have stayed on a scheme because moving felt risky, and larger firms whose limit has not kept pace with fee income.
• Surveyors with a claim, a circumstance, or a complaint that could become one.

What surveyors’ PI has to do

Valuation is where the money is lost. Lender claims after a downturn, EWS1 and cladding-related claims, and building-survey claims where a defect was missed all sit on the same policy, and insurers price the whole firm on the riskiest thing it does. That is why a small valuation book can drive the premium for a mainly building-surveying practice.

RICS requires cover on its minimum policy wording from an insurer on its listed-insurer register, at a limit set by fee income, with a capped uninsured excess and run-off when the firm ceases. Inside those rules, the choice of insurer and the quality of the presentation make a large difference to price and to what is excluded.

• Fire-safety and cladding exclusions. RICS has permitted certain fire-safety exclusions in recent years where full cover was unavailable. The exact wording decides whether an EWS1 or valuation claim is covered — we walk through it line by line.
• Lender panels. Panel terms often require limits above the RICS minimum and specific wording. We check the panel requirement against the quote before you bind.
• Run-off. RICS requires run-off cover after a firm ceases; we quote it early so it is a plan, not a shock.
• Expert witness and party-wall work should be declared as activities in their own right.

The minimum cover RICS requires

RICS sets the minimum limit of indemnity by the firm’s turnover in the preceding year: £250,000 for turnover up to £100,000; £500,000 for turnover between £100,001 and £200,000; and £1,000,000 for turnover above £200,000. The policy must be on RICS’s minimum wording (or a wording it has approved) with a RICS-listed insurer, and the uninsured excess is capped under the RICS rules.

Most valuers and building surveyors with any lender or commercial work carry well above the RICS floor, because a single valuation claim can exceed £1m on its own.

How Apex places professional indemnity for surveyors

• A short fact-find, not a 40-question form. We ask about your work as RICS-regulated surveyors and valuers: 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 surveyors 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

• Engineering & built-environment PI
• PI for estate & letting agents
• What professional indemnity insurance costs for surveyors (Apex placement data, 2026)
• Get a professional indemnity insurance quote
• Best professional indemnity insurance in the UK: how to choose
• Surveyors 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
• Your insurer has non-renewed you — 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.