Purchasing terms · professional capacity · leaving employment
Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a self-employed sustainability consultant
As a self-employed professional you sign the engagement yourself. The liability clause you accept often matters more than the policy conditions.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering voor een zelfstandige duurzaamheidsconsultant.
The calculator and the quote form below are in Dutch. Prefer to do this in English? Email info@finassverzekert. nl or call 072 - 509 24 56 and we will take it from there.
Work out for yourself what it would cost.
Enter your details; you will receive a proposal within one working day.
- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
Large clients work with their own purchasing terms. These almost always contain an insurance requirement: professional indemnity insurance with a minimum amount per claim, sometimes with a requirement that you produce a policy schedule and maintain the cover for a number of years after the engagement ends. If you only take out a policy after signing, the amount demanded may turn out to be higher than you had allowed for. So read that clause before you sign, not afterwards.
At the same time your own general terms fail more often than you might think. A limitation of liability only works if the terms were handed over before or when the contract was concluded; if that does not happen, the clause is voidable under Article 6:233(b) of the Dutch Civil Code. A reference that appears only on the invoice comes too late. Send your terms with the quotation and have the client confirm the engagement confirmation.
What you do is not self-evident to an insurer. Advice on CO2 reduction, a value chain analysis, support with certification and writing a grant application are different activities. The policy covers only claims within the stated business activity. So have it recorded in full. The dividing line with damage to property runs through the public and employers' liability insurance; if you work for or through an agency, see also professional liability in sustainability advice.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
What to look out for
Four points that work out differently for a self-employed professional than for a consultancy with staff.
Your client's contractual requirement
Purchasing terms sometimes prescribe a sum insured above your normal choice, and require you to continue the cover for years after delivery. Both points cost premium. Assess them before you accept the engagement, because an increase mid-term is not always possible and an insurer may refuse a period of subsequent cover.
Moving from employment or from an agency
If you started out on your own after years with an employer, you were covered by their policy until that moment. Claims about that earlier work go to your former employer, not to you, unless you are held personally liable. For your own engagements what counts is the retroactive date: set it at the start of your business, otherwise your first engagements are uninsured.
Working as a subcontractor to an agency
If you deliver through a consultancy, the end client claims against the agency and the agency then seeks recovery from you. The indemnity in your subcontract determines how far that goes. Tell your insurer that you work under someone else's name, and check whether claims by your own client are covered and not carved out.
What you bear yourself
Not covered are redoing your own work and refunding your fee, fines and penalty payments imposed on you personally, and liability arising from promises about savings or certification that go beyond the professional standard. Loss you cause intentionally or recklessly is not paid. That follows from Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code. Work outside the stated professional capacity also falls outside cover.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover as a self-employed person: the basis for calculating the premium
- Requested sum insured: often determined by your clients' purchasing terms
- Type of clients: industry and government weigh more heavily than SMEs
- Activities within the professional capacity: advice, audit, certification support or grant work
- Retroactive date: the further back in time, the higher the premium
- Excess per claim: you save premium by bearing a larger share yourself
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| Your advice to replace the boiler rests on outdated consumption data and the investment disappoints | No | Yes |
| You leave a roof window open after a survey and rain comes into the client's loft | Yes | No |
| A certification process is delayed by months because your documentation was inadequate | No | Yes |
| A supply chain partner or parent company of your client bases an investment on your report | No | Provided that |
| Your client terminates the contract and you lose the remaining value of the engagement | No | No |
| Your laptop with all your project files is stolen during a site visit | No | No |
The policy only covers claims within the professional capacity on the policy schedule, so have every activity you carry out named there separately.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
I work alone. Do I need professional indemnity insurance at all?
The number of staff says nothing about the loss your advice can cause. A grant that is missed, or an investment based on the wrong figures, easily runs to a multiple of your fee. Without a policy you carry both the claim and the cost of defending it. Many clients also require the cover under contract before you may start.
My client asks for a policy schedule. What is on it?
The policy schedule states the insured professional capacity, the sum insured per claim and per year, the excess and the policy period. Check whether the professional capacity really covers the work for this client. A description such as management consultancy does not automatically cover technical sustainability work. Have the description amended if necessary before you forward the document.
I am closing my business. Does the cover continue?
Not automatically. A claims-made policy ends with the insurance, while a complaint about an old report can still come years later. So apply for a run-off period before you cancel or deregister. Obtaining run-off cover afterwards almost never works, not even with the same insurer.
A client is dissatisfied but has not claimed anything yet. Do I have to report it?
Yes, report the circumstance to your insurer as soon as you can reasonably suspect that a claim will follow. Under Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code you have a duty to notify and to cooperate with the investigation. Under a claims-made policy, notifying a circumstance also allocates the matter to the current insurance year. In the meantime, admit no liability and promise no credit note.
Read more
Within Beroepsaansprakelijkheidsverzekering
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