Professional Indemnity Insurance for Fire Engineers and Fire Risk Assessors

Reviewed by Apex Insurance Brokers · Last reviewed 2026-08-05

Why fire safety professionals need PI cover

Fire engineers, fire risk assessors and fire safety consultants sell judgement. A fire strategy for a residential block, a Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 risk assessment, a means-of-escape calculation or advice on compartmentation all rely on your competence. If that judgement is later challenged — because a building is found non-compliant, a remediation bill runs into millions, or a fire causes harm — the resulting claim can dwarf your fee. Apex acts for the client rather than the insurer, and our page on what a specialist PI broker for engineers does describes how that works in practice.

Professional indemnity insurance responds to allegations that your professional service was negligent, inadequate or wrong. It covers the cost of defending the claim and any damages or settlement you are legally liable to pay. For a sole assessor a single defence bill can be existential; for a consultancy, one disputed high-rise strategy can threaten the business.

The Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 reshaped this market. Scrutiny of external walls, cladding and compartmentation has driven a wave of remediation and a corresponding wave of claims against the professionals who designed, assessed or signed off on buildings. Insurers reacted by restricting the fire-safety cover they will offer — which is exactly why placement now needs care.

Is PI insurance legally required?

There is no single UK statute that makes professional indemnity insurance compulsory for every fire engineer or fire risk assessor in the way that, say, employers' liability is compulsory once you have staff. In practice, though, it is effectively unavoidable:

• Professional registers and certification schemes. Third-party certification and competence schemes — for example BAFE SP205 for life-safety fire risk assessment, and the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) Register of Fire Risk Assessors — require registrants to hold adequate PI cover as a condition of listing.
• The Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) and other professional bodies expect members offering services to be appropriately insured, consistent with their codes of professional conduct.
• Contracts. Principal contractors, housing associations, local authorities, main duty-holders under the Building Safety Act 2022 and their insurers will almost always require you to carry PI to a specified limit before you are appointed.
• The competence framework. Post-Grenfell reforms — the Building Safety Act 2022, the Fire Safety Act 2021, the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 and competence standards such as BS 8670 — have raised the expectation that fire professionals demonstrate competence and stand behind their work, which realistically means carrying insurance.

So while no law names PI by title, you will struggle to hold registration, win work or satisfy a client without it.

The specific risks you are insuring against

Fire safety PI claims cluster around a handful of scenarios. Understanding them helps you buy the right cover:

• Inadequate or out-of-date fire risk assessments — assessments that miss a hazard, misjudge occupancy, or fail to reflect the current guidance (for example a PAS 79-style methodology applied incompletely).
• Flawed fire strategies and engineered solutions — disputed smoke control, evacuation or compartmentation design on complex or high-rise buildings.
• External wall and cladding assessments — EWS1-related work and advice on external wall build-ups, one of the most heavily litigated areas since Grenfell.
• Advice that is later relied on for remediation decisions — where a client spends (or fails to spend) large sums based on your report.
• Documentation and record-keeping failures — a defensible file is often what wins or loses a claim.

Because a fire risk assessment can be relied upon for years and a building's life is measured in decades, claims can surface long after the work is done. That is why the way your policy handles time matters as much as the limit.

How much cover do you need?

PI is written on a claims-made basis: the policy that responds is the one in force when the claim is made against you, not when you did the work. Two features follow from that:

• Retroactive date. Your policy should cover work done back to when you started practising, not just from the policy's start date. A limited retroactive date leaves older work uninsured.
• Run-off cover. When you stop trading or retire, claims can still arrive. Run-off cover keeps you protected for past work after you cease.

Limits are usually quoted on the basis below. The right figure depends on the buildings you work on and, critically, on what your clients and their contracts demand.

Check whether the limit is offered each claim or in the aggregate. Fire-safety cover is frequently written on an aggregate basis — meaning the limit is the most the insurer will pay across the whole policy year, not per claim — and the excess for fire-safety work can be higher than for the rest of your practice.

Fire-safety exclusions: the thing to read first

This is the defining feature of the current market. Many standard PI wordings now carry restrictions on fire-safety and cladding exposures. You may encounter:

• Cladding or combustible materials exclusions that carve out claims connected to external wall systems.
• Fire-safety aggregate sub-limits — a lower ceiling and a separate, larger excess for fire work specifically.
• Restricted retroactive cover for historic fire-safety assessments.
• Conditions requiring you to follow named methodologies, keep certain records, or decline work outside your competence.

The danger is buying a policy that looks like fire-sector cover but excludes the very work you are paid for. A generic PI policy bought online can leave a fire risk assessor uninsured for their core service. This is where using a broker who reads the wording earns its keep.

Send us your current schedule and we will tell you plainly what is and isn't covered.

How Apex places fire-sector PI

Apex Insurance Brokers is an FCA-authorised broker (FRN 724952) based in Bristol. We treat fire-engineering and fire-risk-assessment PI as a specialist placement, not a box-tick, because the market does too. Our approach:

• We understand your work. We ask about the buildings you assess, your registrations (for example IFE or BAFE SP205), your methodology and your record-keeping — the things underwriters actually price.
• We present you well. A clear, credible submission that evidences competence and controls gets better terms in a hard market. How your risk is presented matters.
• We check the exclusions. We compare wordings on fire-safety and cladding carve-outs, aggregate limits, excesses and retroactive dates — and we tell you where the gaps are.
• We match cover to contracts. We make sure the limit and basis satisfy the appointments you are chasing, so you are not turned away at tender.
• We plan for the long tail. Retroactive cover and run-off are part of the conversation from the start, not an afterthought.

Whether you are a sole fire risk assessor or a consultancy of chartered fire engineers, we place cover with insurers who still write this class and understand it.

Common questions

Does PI cover me if a fire causes injury or death?
PI responds to claims that your professional advice or assessment was negligent and caused loss — including where that failure is alleged to have contributed to injury or death. It is distinct from public liability, which covers injury or damage arising from your business operations. Most fire professionals carry both.

Can I get PI that includes cladding and external wall work?
Sometimes, but it is the hardest part of the market. Cover for cladding and EWS-related work may be limited, sub-limited, excluded, or available only with a higher excess. It depends on the insurer, your experience and how the risk is presented — which is exactly what a specialist broker helps with.

I've stopped taking on high-rise work — am I still exposed?
Yes. Because PI is claims-made, a claim about work you did years ago is judged against the cover you hold when the claim arrives. Keeping continuous cover with an appropriate retroactive date, and arranging run-off when you cease, is what protects that historic work.

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 or a substitute for your policy wording.