The Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA 2022) reshaped the risk horizon for architects working on residential buildings. The Act amended section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972, extending the limitation period for defective-premises claims to 30 years for past causes of action and 15 years for future ones. A design decision made in 2005 on a residential block can, in the right circumstances, still be the subject of a claim in 2035. Coupled with the long-tail cladding claim environment and the higher-risk building (HRB) regime, architects face a materially different notification landscape from the one their PI policies were originally underwritten against.
Notification discipline matters because most architect PI wordings are written on a claims-made-and-notified basis. If a circumstance likely to give rise to a claim is not notified to the insurer on cover at the time the architect becomes aware of it, cover may be declined when a formal claim later arrives - the classic deeming trap.
The most common trap is the informal enquiry that does not look like a claim. A residents' management company asks for records of the cladding specification. A freeholder asks whether the practice retained the fire-strategy report. A managing agent forwards an EWS1 refusal. None of these correspondents has demanded compensation. Under section 3 of the Insurance Act 2015 and the typical circumstance clause in an architect PI policy, however, they can still be notifiable circumstances if a reasonable insured would consider that a claim might follow.
Section 130 of the BSA 2022 introduced the building-liability order (BLO), which allows the High Court to make one company in a corporate group liable for the relevant liability of another. For architects, the risk is that a design-and-build contractor named in a BLO application may in turn look to the principal designer or original architect to contribute. A BLO application against a former contractor, even before proceedings have been served on the architect, can amount to a material circumstance requiring notification. Delayed notification here is unlikely to be forgiven.
Correspondence from the Building Safety Regulator on a higher-risk building - a section 76 or section 78 enforcement notice, a request for golden-thread information, or a compliance notice - should be treated as a potential circumstance even where the architect is not the direct recipient. If the practice was named as principal designer, it is likely to be drawn in. Notify when the correspondence lands, not when the regulator writes directly.
Worked example: in October, a small architect practice receives a general enquiry letter from the management company of a 2015 residential block asking about the cladding specification and design responsibility. The letter demands nothing. It asks the practice to confirm the identity of the fire consultant and to provide copies of the fire-strategy report. Under section 3 of the Insurance Act 2015 and the standard circumstance clause, the practice should assess whether this is a notifiable circumstance. The conservative view - and the view that avoids the deeming problem if a formal BSA order or claim follows years later - is to notify the current insurer, preserve all project records, and confirm with the broker whether a blanket or specific notification is appropriate. Notifying costs nothing beyond the administrative time; failing to notify can void cover on a claim that arrives in 2032.
Every notified circumstance must be disclosed at the next renewal as part of the fair-presentation duty. See fair presentation for architect PI renewal for the mechanics. Architects working alongside contractors and engineers on residential projects may find it useful to compare notification patterns across adjacent disciplines - see the architects PI insurance guide, the design-and-build contractors PI insurance guide, and the engineers PI insurance guide.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm reference number 724952. This entry is general information, not advice on any particular policy.