Why do architects need insurance?
Client suffers an injury
An architect’s studio is often full of equipment. Powerful computers loaded with specialist software like AutoCAD, large drafting tables and boxes of tools all compete for space. When visiting your office to discuss an extension to their home, your client trips on a roll of graph paper, breaking their wrist.
Should they choose to make a claim, public liability insurance for architects can help to cover compensation and legal costs.
Negligence causes an accident
Your latest project is under way. You’re called in for advice when a construction worker notices an aspect of your design isn’t feasible. You suggest a few design changes, but your advice proves incorrect and the client loses money. They take you to court, citing negligence.
Professional indemnity insurance is part of the Architects Code of Conduct. In this case, it can help cove r the cost of compensation and legal fees, so you can stay focused on your designs.
Stolen equipment
While you’re working on numerous exciting projects, your office is broken into overnight. When you arrive in the morning, you discover expensive computer equipment has been taken and other business assets damaged. This theft means work has to stop and you lose both precious time and income as a result.
Fortunately, including office contents insurance in your tailored architects’ policy can help to cover the cost of equipment replacement to quickly get you back on track.
What insurance is available for architects?
Professional indemnity insurance
Professional indemnity insurance (PI) for architects can help to protect you if your services or advice result in losses or damage for your clients. As an architect, you make dreams come true. You’ll often have people depending on you to get things right.
Architects’ indemnity insurance helps when things go wrong. If someone is injured as a result of a design decision you make, or delays come at a cost, indemnity insurance can help cover the costs of any compensation and legal fees.
Public liability insurance
For most architects, working around members of the public is part of the job. Insurance for architects can help protect against the potential risks.
Public liability can help if someone claims they’ve been injured, or their property damaged, as a result of your business activities. Say you’re working outside a client’s home and someone walking past trips over your kit.
Public liability insurance can help to cover compensation as well as the legal costs of defending the claim.
Office insurance
Your office is where you lay the foundations for any project you work on. Accompanying your honed skills and expertise are the tools and equipment crucial to your day-to-day work.
Loss, damage or theft can be costly for your business. These could affect your specialist assets, such as 3D scanning equipment, or more general tools such as a laptop or tablet.
Including office insurance in your tailored architects’ policy can protect your workspace and help to cover the cost of replacing or repairing vital equipment.
Architects might also benefit from the support of several other types of business insurance. These include cyber and data cover, portable equipment insurance, cover in the event of a personal accident, and employers’ liability insurance.
Equipment breakdown insurance can add extra cover in case equipment and computers stop working due to a technical fault. This only applies for items held at your premises or computers within the UK.
These are just some of the types of business insurance for architects that we can offer. We can provide other specific types of cover and build them into a policy that’s tailored to the exact needs of your business.
Get your quoteInsurance for architects: FAQs
What is professional indemnity insurance for architects?
Professional indemnity insurance for architects is a type of business insurance related to the professional advice and services you provide to your clients and customers. It’s different to other types of business insurance, for example public liability, which is focused on your interactions with members of the public.
What is the minimum PI insurance for architects?
The Architects Registration Board, the official body governing the profession, demands its members have professional indemnity (PI) insurance. When it comes to how much is required specifically, the ARB’s website (external link) states that architects should maintain ‘adequate and appropriate’ PI. It advises you to speak to your insurance broker, but notes that architects should hold PI cover of £250,000 minimum.
What insurance do I need as an architect?
By law, if you employ anyone, the only insurance you legally need (external link) is employers’ liability insurance. However, if you’re a member of the Architects Registration Board (ARB) you’re required to also have professional indemnity insurance. Beyond that, many public and private contracts will require you to have a certain level of public liability cover before you commence work.
How much does architects’ PI insurance cost?
The cost of professional indemnity insurance for architects can vary, depending on the nature of your business, including its size. In general, however, costs start at £8.00. Get an online quote in five minutes to find out how much indemnity insurance could cost you.
*Figures based on an average of all professional indemnity policies sold to at least 10% of our customer base between February 2024 and February 2025
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