Engineering contracts can sometimes make one consultant responsible for work performed by other consultants or subcontractors.
This may create additional Professional Indemnity exposure.
For example, the engineer may be required to:
- coordinate another consultant’s design
- review or approve their work
- accept responsibility for subcontracted services
- indemnify the client for errors made by another party
The insurance position can depend on the engineer’s contract, the PI policy and the relationship with the other consultant.
Where responsibility for another consultant is accepted, insurers may want to know who performs the work, what qualifications they hold and whether they maintain their own PI Insurance.
Engineers should be careful about accepting responsibility that extends beyond the services they can reasonably control.
