Performance requirements · legionella · commissioning
Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a mechanical engineering consultancy
A mechanical engineering design is judged on measurable outcomes. If the installation does not achieve them, the discussion is not about craftsmanship but about what you promised.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een werktuigbouwkundig bureau.
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A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
A mechanical engineering consultancy designs climate, cooling, air, drinking water and heat generation installations, writes specifications and assesses the work of installers. The loss caused by a mistake is almost always financial: a building that does not reach temperature, a cooling installation that is too small, a system that consumes more than budgeted, a completion date that slips by months. Professional indemnity insurance is made for that pure financial loss; how it is put together is set out on the hub page on the BAV.
The difficulty in this profession is that your product is measurable. With building advice people argue about interpretation. With you the client puts down a thermometer or a sound level meter. As a result a design assumption slides easily into a promise. Consistently state performance as a design assumption under stated conditions: occupancy, outdoor temperature, hours of use, insulation values: and not as a guaranteed result. Liability arising from guarantees is excluded on virtually every policy, and that is exactly the trap this profession falls into.
The second theme is that installations can harm people. An inadequate risk assessment or control plan for legionella prevention affects users' health; air handling, flue gases and refrigerants have the same potential. Such personal injury falls outside the ordinary BAV. Ask for an extension or for a fit with a public and employers' liability insurance. If you also carry out installation work, see liability in assembly and installation work.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four subjects that shape the cover discussion in mechanical engineering consultancy.
Performance requirements are not a guarantee
A promised indoor climate, a guaranteed efficiency or a promised energy label turns your obligation to use best efforts into an obligation to achieve a specific result. If that result is not achieved, the liability is contractual and not insured. State in every document the conditions under which the calculated performance applies and what lies outside your control: use, maintenance, occupancy and later alterations.
Drinking water and air quality affect people
Priority installations carry obligations on risk assessment and a control plan for legionella prevention. A mistake there leads not to a financial claim but to a health claim, and that type of loss falls outside the BAV as a matter of course. Have this work expressly included in your capacity and ask how the insurer deals with injury arising from an advice error.
Efficiency calculations and subsidy conditions
Heat pumps, thermal storage and heat recovery are often part-financed with a subsidy carrying technical conditions. If the installation does not meet those conditions, the subsidy that is lost is your client's loss. Record which input values and measurement methods you used and which checks lie with the client or the installer.
Balancing and commissioning is different work
As soon as you measure, balance or commission yourself, you are handling someone else's installations. If that causes damage to property, that is not a professional error but public and employers' liability, where the care, custody and control provision also plays a part for equipment in your care. Also excluded are penalties and reduction clauses for delay and the reworking your own design.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover: split between design, specification and site supervision
- Type of installations: commercial buildings, healthcare, industry or process engineering
- Work on drinking water installations: risk assessments and control plans weigh more heavily
- Performance promised: how your contracts word performance
- Your own installation and balancing work: determines the line with public and employers' liability
- Sum insured and excess: per claim and per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| An office wing does not reach temperature in summer because the chiller was sized too small | No | Yes |
| Completion of a care centre slips by months because of a mistake in your specification | No | Yes |
| An engineer is injured because your design did not provide for a shut-off valve in the refrigerant line | No | Provided that |
| One of your staff damages the client's suspended ceilings while taking measurements | Yes | No |
| The client refuses to pay your final instalment because he is dissatisfied with the result | No | No |
| Your design server is encrypted and three projects are at a standstill for weeks | No | No |
As soon as the same outcome is promised as a result rather than calculated, line one moves to No.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
The installation does not achieve the calculated capacity. Is that a covered professional error?
That depends on the cause and on your wording. If it is down to a calculation error or a wrongly chosen component, there is a professional error. If it is down to use that differs from the assumptions, there is no error but a different situation. If you guaranteed the capacity, the guarantee exclusion comes into play and the insurer will in principle not pay.
A supplier gave incorrect capacity data. Can we pass that on?
You may rely on a manufacturer's data, but not blindly. A consultancy is expected to test data for plausibility and to make enquiries for unusual applications. Record in the design file which data you took over, from whom and on what date. That determines whether your insurer can recover from the supplier after it has paid the loss.
We also supervise the installation works. Is that co-insured?
Only if site supervision and inspection are stated in your described capacity. It is a different activity from designing: you assess workmanship, reject work and approve instalments. Mistakes in that role lead to claims about work approved too early or defects missed. Have the role expressly included, along with any assessment of variations.
When do we have to report a threatened claim?
As soon as you know that a client may bring a claim against you, even without a formal letter. Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires notification as soon as you are reasonably aware, and under a claims-made policy the notification determines which policy year the matter falls under. Before you notify, promise nothing about repair or compensation, because an admission can limit your insurer in its defence.
Read more
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