Design and construct contractors: a PI proposal form walkthrough
Proposal form guide · Reviewed by the Apex broking team · Last reviewed 2026-08-22
Why the form carries legal weight
Under the Insurance Act 2015 a commercial insured owes a duty to make a fair presentation of the risk: to disclose every material circumstance it knows or ought to know, in a manner that is reasonably clear and accessible, with every material representation as to fact substantially correct. A proposal form is the ordinary way that duty is discharged, and a form completed carelessly is a problem waiting for a claim. Our entry on fair presentation covers the duty and the remedies for breaching it.
Two practical rules follow. First, the person signing must actually know the answers or have made a reasonable search of the business to find them — a signature from someone who has not checked is not a defence. Second, if the honest answer does not fit the box, write the honest answer somewhere it can be seen. A supplementary note attached to the form is disclosure; a squeezed half-answer inside a box is not.
Section 1: the business, its history and its people
Give the full legal entity name, any trading names, and every associated or predecessor company you want covered. D&C contractors often carry a chain of previous companies, and cover for work done by a predecessor is not automatic — if you want it, name the entity and ask for it expressly.
On personnel, insurers want the number of qualified designers, their disciplines and their experience. If design is done by people who are not designers by background — a contracts manager developing a temporary works solution, for example — say so, because that is the risk the underwriter is actually pricing.
Section 2: turnover, and the design split
This is the section that matters most and the one most often got wrong. Insurers usually ask for total turnover for the last three years plus an estimate for the coming year, then a split. For a D&C contractor the split needs to answer three separate questions:
What proportion of turnover is on contracts where you carry design responsibility? Not the value of the design work — the value of the contracts that carry design liability. On a design and build contract the whole contract value is generally the relevant figure, because the liability attaches to the works, not to the design fee.
What is the split by sector? Residential, commercial, industrial, health, education, infrastructure. Residential and higher-risk building work is rated very differently from the rest.
What is the split by contract type? Traditional with contractor’s designed portion, full design and build, novated design team, framework, and any work done as a subcontractor with a design obligation.
A form showing £X of turnover with “design 5%” against it, where the 5% is the value of the design consultancy fee rather than the contracts carrying design risk, understates the exposure by an order of magnitude. That is a disclosure problem as well as a rating one.
Section 3: the design team and subconsultants
Set out who does the design: in-house, novated consultants, or subconsultants appointed by you. For subconsultants, insurers want to know whether you require them to carry PI, at what limit, for how long after completion, and whether you check it. The honest answer to “do you check” is worth giving, because a firm that says it checks and does not is worse off than one that admits it does not.
Note who takes responsibility when a novated consultant’s pre-novation work turns out to be wrong. That is a live exposure for D&C contractors and underwriters ask about it.
Section 4: contract conditions
Expect direct questions on whether you accept fitness for purpose or similar absolute obligations; whether liability is capped and at what level; whether you give collateral warranties and to whom; whether you accept uncapped indemnities; and whether you use net contribution clauses.
Answer these precisely. “Sometimes” is not an answer; “we work on amended JCT design and build forms, we resist fitness for purpose and have accepted it on two contracts in the last three years, both disclosed below” is. Fitness for purpose is the classic mismatch: PI responds to a failure of reasonable skill and care, so an absolute obligation to achieve a result generally sits outside cover. See collateral warranties and your PI programme and the design and construct PI guide.
Section 5: higher-risk buildings, fire safety and cladding
Since the Building Safety Act 2022 almost every D&C proposal form has a dedicated section here. Typical questions: have you worked on buildings above a stated height, or on buildings in scope of the higher-risk regime; have you designed, specified, installed or been involved with external wall systems, insulation or facades; do you take dutyholder roles such as principal contractor or principal designer; and what remediation work have you done.
Answer at the level of specific projects rather than in general terms, and treat this as the part of the form most likely to be scrutinised after a claim. Disclosure on HRB and cladding questions goes through the wording of the common questions, and principal contractor exposure under the Act covers the dutyholder point. Expect an exclusion in this area; the negotiation is about its width, which is why the description of your involvement has to be accurate and specific.
Section 6: claims, circumstances and known issues
Every form asks for claims history and for anything that might give rise to a claim. Two things go wrong here.
The first is treating “claim” narrowly. Adjudications, contra-charges, defect allegations, withheld payments framed as set-off for defective work and threatened proceedings are all normally disclosable, whether or not anyone has used the word claim.
The second is the circumstances question. A circumstance you know about and do not notify before the policy incepts is normally excluded from that policy and from every later one. If you find something while completing the form, notify it to the current insurer before the current policy expires. Our note on the first thirty days of a notification sets out what a valid notification contains, and date of discovery explains why the timing matters.
Section 7: risk management
Design review and sign-off procedures, document control, how assumptions and client instructions are recorded, quality assurance accreditations, training, and how you handle change on site. This section is where a well-run contractor earns better terms, and it is also the section most often left thin. Attach the actual procedure if you have one.
Common mistakes to avoid
Using the design fee rather than the design-liable contract value. Answering contract-condition questions from what the standard form says rather than from the amendments you actually sign. Describing higher-risk building involvement generically. Leaving the circumstances question to the person who knows least about live disputes. Signing a form prepared by someone without authority to bind the business. And rolling last year’s form forward without checking what has changed — a change in sector mix or contract type between renewals is precisely what the duty requires you to disclose.
After you submit
Keep a dated copy of the form and every attachment with the policy documents. If anything material changes between submission and inception, tell the insurer — the duty runs to the point the contract is concluded, and a change in the interim is disclosable. When the policy arrives, check that the description of professional business matches what you described and that no endorsement has narrowed it.
Frequently asked questions
Should design turnover be the fee or the contract value?
For a design and construct contractor the figure the underwriter needs is the value of contracts carrying design responsibility, not the fee attributable to design work. The liability attaches to the works. Using the fee figure dramatically understates the exposure and creates a disclosure problem as well as a rating one.
Do we have to disclose adjudications?
Almost always. Proposal forms ask about claims, disputes and circumstances that may give rise to a claim, and an adjudication about defective design or workmanship falls squarely within that even though it is not litigation. Contra-charges and payment withheld as set-off for alleged defects should be disclosed for the same reason.
What happens if we accepted a fitness for purpose obligation on one contract?
Disclose it and identify the contract. PI responds to a failure to exercise reasonable skill and care, so an absolute obligation generally sits outside the policy — but an underwriter who knows about a single disclosed instance can consider it, whereas one who finds out after a claim will treat it as a non-disclosure. The commercial answer is to resist the obligation at appointment stage.
Who should sign the proposal form?
Someone with authority to bind the business who has actually made a reasonable search of it — typically a director, having asked the commercial, design and contracts functions. The duty of fair presentation covers what senior management knows and what a reasonable search of the organisation would reveal, so a signature without that search does not discharge it.
This page is general insurance information, not legal advice, and describes the position as at August 2026. Cover depends on the wording of the policy actually in force.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 724952). This page is general information, not advice on a specific policy.