Fire Risk Assessor Professional Indemnity Insurance UK 2026
Why does a fire risk assessor need specialist professional indemnity insurance?
The demand side has never been larger. Fire and rescue services carried out 51,026 audits in 2024/25 and recorded 8,471 article 9 non-compliances — inadequate or absent fire risk assessments are the third most common failing found — and the Fire Safety Act 2021 brought the structure, external walls and flat entrance doors of every multi-occupied residential building within the scope of the assessment. The Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 added recurring duties in high-rise residential buildings, and PAS 9980:2022 created a new professional product, the fire risk appraisal of external walls, for a market that was previously served only by the EWS1 form. Every one of those developments is a fee opportunity for a competent assessor and an exposure the PI market has to be persuaded to write.
The supply side of insurance has contracted. Most package PI schemes carry a fire safety exclusion that removes any claim arising from the assessment of fire risk, fire strategy or fire-stopping; the combined construction PI market applies cladding and combustible-material exclusions as standard; and a sole-practitioner fire risk assessor without a recognised certification is often declined at the first question. The specialist market that remains — a small number of Lloyd's syndicates and MGAs with fire engineering appetite — writes on competence evidence and scope discipline, and prices FRA, FRAEW and EWS1 work as three different risks.
This guide sets out those three risks, what competence means and why underwriters care, which exclusions to expect and how to remove them, what a claim looks like, how the Building Safety Act and the Fire Safety Act have changed the exposure and its limitation period, how to write terms of engagement that survive a claim, and how a fire safety practice is placed. It sits with our Principal Designer PI guide in the Building Safety Act cluster, alongside our fire and safety business insurance guide, and connects to our professional indemnity page, where most of these enquiries begin.
Key facts at a glance
- Article 9A is written but not in force. Section 156(4) of the Building Safety Act 2022 inserted a duty on the responsible person not to appoint an assessor who is not competent; commencement is awaited. Underwriters already price as though it applied.
- BS 8674:2025 defines fire risk assessor competence and BAFE SP205 version 6, effective 1 April 2026, certifies it at foundation, intermediate and advanced tiers. Certification requires professional indemnity insurance to be in place.
- An FRA, an FRAEW and an EWS1 are three different products. A PAS 79 assessment of a building, a PAS 9980 appraisal of its external walls, and an EWS1 form for a lender are rated, limited and excluded differently — and many policies cover only the first.
- Fire safety exclusions are the default on package PI. Most schemes remove claims arising from fire risk assessment, fire strategy or fire-stopping advice; construction PI adds cladding and combustible-material exclusions. Removal is negotiated on evidence.
- The claim is the fire, not the report. Damages follow the loss the fire caused — building, contents, business interruption, injury — and the responsible person's insurer subrogates against the assessor. Limits should be sized to the buildings assessed, not the fee.
- 8,471 article 9 non-compliances in 2024/25 across 51,026 fire and rescue audits. Fire safety offences carry unlimited fines and up to two years' imprisonment under article 32; the average organisation fine is £50,570.
- Liability is long. Claims-made PI must be maintained through run-off; negligence limitation runs six years from damage or three from knowledge, with a fifteen-year longstop — and for work "in connection with" dwellings the Defective Premises Act now runs fifteen years prospectively.
How does The Insurability Framework™ apply to fire risk assessors?
Placing a fire risk assessment practice in a market that has spent eight years excluding fire safety is exactly what the Insurability Framework was built for.
The Insurability Framework — applied to fire risk assessors
Four pillars, one method: separate the practice from the sector's reputation, and price the practice.
Underwriter Intelligence
Fire engineering underwriters ask five questions: what tier of building does the practice assess, is it certified to BAFE SP205 or registered with the IFE, does it follow PAS 79-1 and 79-2 with a documented methodology, does it do external wall work under PAS 9980 or sign EWS1 forms, and does it turn down work above its competence? We answer all five in the submission, with the certificates, the sample reports and the declined-work log, so the practice is priced on its competence rather than on Grenfell.
Difficult Risk Expertise
Package PI schemes exclude fire safety by rule and decline sole-practitioner assessors at the first question. A small number of Lloyd's syndicates and specialist MGAs with fire engineering appetite write FRA, FRAEW and EWS1 work on their merits — with the fire safety exclusion removed, the right limit for the buildings assessed and run-off that can actually be bought.
Risk Assessment
We find what the proposal form misses: the external wall appraisal done under a policy that covers only internal FRAs, the EWS1 signed for a lender the practice never contracted with, the "review" of another assessor's work that adopts its errors, the terms of engagement that promise a compliance outcome rather than an opinion, the aggregate limit that would be exhausted by one care home, and the run-off nobody has priced.
Claims Advocacy
A claim against a fire risk assessor arrives after a fire, alongside a fire and rescue investigation, a possible prosecution of the responsible person and a subrogated recovery from the building insurer. We coordinate the PI insurer's panel, the legal expenses solicitor and the practice's regulatory response so the assessor speaks with one voice — and has a broker who has read a PAS 79 report, not a helpline.
Why are an FRA, an FRAEW and an EWS1 three different insurance risks?
| Product | Legal basis and standard | Who relies on it | Typical consequence of error | PI market position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire risk assessment (FRA) | Article 9 FSO 2005; PAS 79-1:2020 (non-domestic) and PAS 79-2:2020 (housing); BS 9999 / BS 9991 for design references | The responsible person; the fire and rescue service on audit; occupiers indirectly | Enforcement or prohibition notice against the responsible person; after a fire, subrogated recovery for building, contents and BI loss; injury claims | Writable by specialist markets with fire safety exclusion removed; tiered by building type (BS 8674 / SP205 tier) |
| Fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW) | Fire Safety Act 2021 (external walls in scope of art 9); PAS 9980:2022 methodology; typically chartered fire engineer | Building owner or managing agent; leaseholders; the Building Safety Regulator for high-rise; remediation funders | Wall classified "tolerable" that later requires remediation — claim for the remediation cost and delay; or "high risk" wrongly, with unnecessary cost and leaseholder claims | Written by a handful of markets only; separate rating, often separate limit; combustible-material exclusion must be specifically deleted |
| EWS1 form | RICS / UK Finance / BSA process form, not a statutory document; signed by a "qualified professional" — chartered fire engineer or equivalent | Lenders and valuers; buyers; the freeholder indirectly. The signatory usually has no contract with the party relying on it | Lender or purchaser claim in negligent misstatement where the form is wrong; leaseholder claims for lost sales; regulator scrutiny of signatory competence | Many policies exclude EWS1 signing expressly; where covered, a per-form or per-building sub-limit and a competence warranty are common |
| Fire strategy / fire engineering design | Building Regulations Approved Document B; BS 7974 fire engineering; Gateway 2/3 for higher-risk buildings | The client, the principal designer, building control, the Building Safety Regulator | Design defect claims under the Defective Premises Act and in contract; Gateway rejection delay claims | Design PI market; see our Principal Designer guide — a different placement from FRA work |
The practical trap is scope creep inside a single policy year. A practice insured as a "fire risk assessor" that takes on an external wall appraisal, or is asked by a managing agent to sign an EWS1 "while you're there", has done work the underwriter did not rate and may have expressly excluded. The claim, when it comes, is a coverage dispute before it is a negligence dispute. We insist on every product the practice offers being named in the schedule of activities, and on the FRAEW and EWS1 questions being answered accurately even when the honest answer costs premium — because the alternative is an uninsured multi-million remediation claim. Our cladding and EWS1 buildings insurance guide covers the building-owner side of the same documents.
What does "competent" mean under article 9A, BS 8674 and BAFE SP205 — and why do underwriters care?
| Framework | What it is | Status in 2026 | What it means to the PI underwriter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Article 9A FSO 2005 | Duty on the responsible person not to appoint an assessor who is not competent; inserted by BSA 2022 s.156(4) | Enacted, uncommenced; government committed to mandatory accreditation in its February 2025 Grenfell Phase 2 response | When commenced, an uncertified assessor becomes a client the responsible person cannot lawfully appoint — and a practice with no work. Underwriters price as though it were in force |
| BS 8674:2025 | British Standard: competence framework for individual fire risk assessors — knowledge, skills, behaviours, tiered by building risk | Published 2025; the reference for SP205 v6 and for any statutory scheme | The document against which a claimant's expert will measure the assessor. Evidence of assessment against it is the strongest competence evidence available |
| BAFE SP205 version 6 | UKAS-accredited third-party certification of assessors and organisations; three tiers; requires PI cover, methodology, surveillance | Effective 1 April 2026; last audits under the previous scheme concluded 31 March 2026 | The certification most underwriters ask for by name. Tier determines which buildings the policy will cover; the PI requirement makes the certificate and the policy interdependent |
| IFE register of fire risk assessors | Institution of Fire Engineers peer-reviewed register; life-safety and higher-risk categories | Live; recognised by fire and rescue services | Accepted as competence evidence alongside or instead of SP205; category should match the work proposed |
| PAS 79-1 and 79-2:2020 | Code of practice for fire risk assessment methodology — non-domestic and housing | Current; the industry-standard method | A documented PAS 79 methodology is the difference between "we did an assessment" and "we did the assessment the profession recognises" |
| PAS 9980:2022 | Code of practice for fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding | Current; the FRAEW method; competence expectation is chartered fire engineer or equivalent | Separate activity; separate rating; competence evidence at the higher level required before the combustible-material exclusion is deleted |
The underwriting consequence of the tier system is scope discipline. A foundation-tier assessor is competent for simple, low-risk premises; an intermediate-tier assessor for more complex buildings; an advanced-tier assessor for high-risk and complex buildings — care homes, hospitals, high-rise residential, buildings with engineered fire strategies. A practice that accepts a care home instruction at foundation tier has done work outside its competence, and the PI policy's warranty that the insured will only undertake work for which they are qualified is engaged. We ask every fire safety practice for its declined-work log — the instructions it turned down as above tier — because it is the single most persuasive document in a competence submission. Our guide to choosing a professional indemnity broker covers why that kind of evidence matters more than the proposal form.
Which fire safety exclusions sit on PI policies — and how do you get them removed?
| Exclusion | Typical wording effect | Who it hits hardest | What removes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire safety exclusion | Excludes any claim arising from fire risk assessment, fire strategy, fire-stopping, compartmentation or means-of-escape advice | Every fire risk assessor — the exclusion removes the entire business | SP205 or IFE evidence at the right tier; PAS 79 methodology; sample reports; declined-work log; terms of engagement limiting reliance and liability |
| Cladding / external wall exclusion | Excludes claims arising from external wall systems, cladding, insulation, attachments or their assessment | Practices doing FRAEW or EWS1 work; anyone assessing buildings over 11m | Chartered fire engineer or equivalent on the work; PAS 9980 methodology; separate declaration of FRAEW activity; sometimes a separate limit |
| Combustible-material exclusion | Excludes claims arising from the specification, use or assessment of combustible materials in buildings | FRAEW practices; assessors of timber-frame, modular and mixed-construction buildings | As above, plus a scope statement confirming assessment (not specification) only |
| EWS1 exclusion | Excludes claims arising from the completion or signing of EWS1 forms or equivalent lender certifications | Chartered fire engineers asked to sign for lenders; assessors signing "while on site" | Named-signatory competence evidence; per-form or per-building sub-limit accepted; reliance letter discipline; sometimes not removable — in which case do not sign |
| Contractual liability exclusion | Excludes liability assumed under contract beyond what would exist at law — guarantees of compliance, fitness-for-purpose warranties | Practices whose terms promise "a compliant building" rather than a competent opinion | Terms of engagement rewritten to an opinion-and-recommendation basis; no warranties of outcome |
| Retroactive date / prior work exclusion | Excludes claims arising from work before a stated date | Practices that changed insurer after a gap or were previously declined | Continuous cover evidence; run-off from the previous insurer; specialist market willing to backdate on a clean claims history |
The exclusion that cannot be removed is the one to respect. If a market will not delete the EWS1 exclusion for a particular signatory, the answer is to stop signing EWS1 forms, not to sign them and hope. The same applies to FRAEW work under a policy that retains a cladding exclusion: the appraisal is uninsured on the day it is issued, and the remediation claim it may generate is measured in the cost of a wall, not the cost of a report. Our PI after a claim guide sets out how a coverage dispute of that kind plays out at renewal.
What does a claim against a fire risk assessor look like?
In each case the claim is measured by the consequence, not by the fee. A £900 fire risk assessment of a care home is the gateway to a claim for the reinstatement of the care home. The legal route is negligence and breach of the implied term of reasonable skill and care in the contract with the responsible person; where the report was relied on by a third party the assessor knew of — a lender, a purchaser, a managing agent's landlord client — negligent misstatement under Hedley Byrne principles extends the exposure to parties outside the contract. Contribution claims under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 bring the assessor into disputes between the responsible person, the building owner, the contractor who installed the defective fire-stopping and the building control body, and the assessor with the deepest insured pocket tends to attract the largest share.
Two features make fire risk assessor claims distinctive. The first is the report itself: it is a written document, dated, signed, stating what was inspected and what was not, and it will be read line by line against PAS 79 by a claimant's expert. A report that records "no access to roof void" and recommends investigation has a defence; a report that is silent on the roof void does not. The second is the significant-findings record and the action plan: an assessor who identified the defect, rated it and recommended action has discharged the duty even if the responsible person ignored the recommendation; an assessor who did not identify it has not. The claim, in other words, is decided by the quality of the document — which is why sample reports are in every submission we present. Our guide to business insurance after a fire claim covers what the responsible person's own insurers do next.
Which cover does each type of fire safety practice need?
Fire Safety Practice Cover Checker
Select the type of practice to see the insurance programme and the exclusions to negotiate
Sole-practitioner fire risk assessor — simple and low-risk premises
- ESSENTIAL Professional Indemnity £1m–£2m any one claim, fire safety exclusion removed for FRA work at the practitioner's tier
- ESSENTIAL Public Liability £2m–£5m — site visits, roof voids, plant rooms
- ESSENTIAL Competence evidence: SP205 foundation/intermediate or IFE registration; PAS 79 methodology; declined-work log
- ESSENTIAL Terms of engagement on an opinion basis with scope, access limitations and a liability cap
- RECOMMENDED Legal Expenses with regulatory scope — fire and rescue service interviews follow fires
- RECOMMENDED Run-off provision budgeted from year one — the liability outlives the practice
- CONSIDER Cyber — client building plans and access records are personal and security-sensitive data
Fire risk assessment consultancy — SP205 organisation, mixed portfolio
- ESSENTIAL Professional Indemnity £2m–£5m any one claim, with an aggregate that survives one large building; fire safety exclusion removed; activities schedule listing every product offered
- ESSENTIAL Public Liability £5m; Employers' Liability £10m
- ESSENTIAL Per-assessor tier register — no assessor allocated above their SP205 tier; internal review of advanced-tier reports
- ESSENTIAL Quality system: PAS 79 templates, peer review, significant-findings tracking, report retention for 15 years
- RECOMMENDED Directors' & Officers' — a fire investigation examines who allocated the work
- RECOMMENDED Legal Expenses with regulatory and contract-dispute scope
- CONSIDER Office and equipment, cyber, and management liability packaged with the PI
Advanced-tier practice — care homes, healthcare, high-rise residential, complex buildings
- CRITICAL Limit sized to the buildings, not the fees: a single care home reinstatement or high-rise evacuation claim can exceed £5m. £5m–£10m any one claim with reinstatement
- ESSENTIAL Professional Indemnity with fire safety, cladding and combustible-material exclusions removed for the declared activities
- ESSENTIAL Advanced-tier SP205 or IFE life-safety register evidence for every assessor on this work; chartered fire engineer available for engineered strategies
- ESSENTIAL Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 competence for high-rise residential — monthly and annual checks, wayfinding, secure information boxes, external wall information
- ESSENTIAL Terms of engagement addressing evacuation strategy, interim measures and the limits of visual inspection
- RECOMMENDED D&O; Legal Expenses; run-off funded — 15-year Defective Premises Act horizon for dwelling work
Fire engineer carrying out external wall appraisals under PAS 9980
- CRITICAL FRAEW work is uninsured under any policy retaining a cladding or combustible-material exclusion — the exclusion must be expressly deleted for this activity before the first appraisal is issued
- ESSENTIAL Professional Indemnity £5m–£10m; often a separate FRAEW limit or sub-limit; claims-made with continuity
- ESSENTIAL Chartered fire engineer (IFE / Engineering Council) on every appraisal; PAS 9980 methodology; intrusive-investigation scope stated
- ESSENTIAL Reliance discipline: reports addressed to the instructing party only; reliance letters for funders and leaseholders only where insured and paid for
- ESSENTIAL Terms of engagement with a liability cap proportionate to the fee and the building, and an express statement that the appraisal is not a warranty of the wall
- RECOMMENDED Legal Expenses; D&O; specialist placement reviewed annually as the remediation programme evolves
EWS1 form signatory
- CRITICAL Many PI policies exclude EWS1 signing expressly. If the exclusion cannot be removed for the named signatory, do not sign — the party relying on the form is a lender you have no contract with
- ESSENTIAL Professional Indemnity with the EWS1 exclusion deleted for the named signatory, usually with a per-form or per-building sub-limit
- ESSENTIAL Competence evidence at the level the form requires — chartered fire engineer or equivalent for options B1/B2
- ESSENTIAL Underlying FRAEW on file for every form signed; no "desktop" EWS1s
- ESSENTIAL Form register: every EWS1 signed, building, option, date, underlying appraisal — for the underwriter and for run-off
- RECOMMENDED Legal Expenses; run-off funded — forms are relied on for years after signature
Fire safety contractor also carrying out FRAs — alarms, doors, fire-stopping, extinguishers
- CRITICAL Assessing your own installation is a conflict underwriters price and clients' auditors question. Separate the FRA activity, its assessors and its reports from the installation business
- ESSENTIAL Professional Indemnity for the FRA and design/specification work, fire safety exclusion removed; Contractors' PI or design-and-construct for installation advice
- ESSENTIAL Public and Products Liability £5m–£10m with the efficacy exclusion addressed — a fire door or alarm that fails to perform is the only way it injures anyone
- ESSENTIAL Employers' Liability £10m; contract works and tools as appropriate
- ESSENTIAL Third-party certification for the installation work (BAFE SP203, SP101, FIRAS, IFC) alongside SP205 for the assessment
- RECOMMENDED Legal Expenses; D&O; see our fire and safety business insurance guide for the installation side
Are you ready to present a fire risk assessment practice to a PI underwriter?
Fire Risk Assessor PI Readiness Self-Check
Click each item you can evidence. Ten or more and the practice is presentable with the fire safety exclusion negotiable; fewer than six and it is not ready to go to market.
- Third-party competence evidence — BAFE SP205 v6 certificate with tier, or IFE register entry with category, for every assessor
- Documented methodology — PAS 79-1/79-2 based template, significant-findings format, risk-rating matrix, action-plan format
- Three sample reports across the building types assessed, anonymised, showing scope, access limitations and recommendations
- Declined-work log — instructions turned down as above tier, with the referral made
- Activities schedule — FRA, FRAEW, EWS1, fire strategy, training, installation — each declared with its share of fee income
- Terms of engagement on an opinion basis, with scope, access, reliance and liability-cap clauses reviewed in the last two years
- Portfolio profile — number of buildings assessed per year by type and height, largest single building, any higher-risk buildings
- CPD and training record for every assessor — BS 8674 knowledge areas, Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, PAS 9980 where relevant
- Report retention and version control — every report retrievable for 15 years with the site notes and photographs behind it
- Peer-review or sign-off process for advanced-tier and FRAEW reports
- Continuous PI history — certificates back to the first year of trading, retroactive date confirmed, no gaps
- Claims and circumstances record — five years, including fires at assessed premises whether or not a claim followed, and any prior decline
How hard will your practice be to place?
Fire Risk Assessor PI Placement Assessor
Select the highest-consequence activity and the competence evidence available to see how the market will read the practice
What does the Fire Safety Order actually require of the assessment — and who is prosecuted when it is wrong?
The Order places every duty on the "responsible person" — the employer, the person in control of the premises, or the owner — and article 9 gives that person the duty to assess. Article 18 requires the responsible person to appoint one or more competent persons to assist with the preventive and protective measures; the fire risk assessor is that appointment for the assessment. The Building Safety Act 2022, section 156 amended the Order from 1 October 2023 to require the full assessment to be recorded (not only the significant findings), the identity of the assessor to be recorded, and responsible persons in multi-occupied buildings to cooperate and share fire safety information — and inserted the uncommenced article 9A competence duty. Article 32 creates the offences: failure to comply with a requirement of the Order which places one or more relevant persons at risk of death or serious injury carries an unlimited fine and up to two years' imprisonment on indictment.
The assessor's exposure to prosecution is real but secondary. The Order's offences are drafted around the responsible person and, under article 5(3) and (4), around any person who has control of premises to any extent or an obligation in relation to their maintenance or safety — which is why fire safety contractors and, in some cases, assessors have been prosecuted. The usual route against the assessor, however, is civil: the responsible person who has been served with an enforcement notice, or prosecuted, or whose building has burned, pursues the assessor for the consequence. The fine the responsible person paid is not recoverable — public policy prevents a convicted party passing its penalty to another — but the remedial works, the downtime, the reinstatement and the injury claims are. Our HSE prosecution guide sets out the parallel position for the responsible person's own insurance.
How do the Building Safety Act, the Fire Safety Act and the 2022 Regulations change the assessor's exposure?
| Provision | What it did | What it means for the assessor |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Safety Act 2021 s.1 | Clarified that the Order applies to the structure, external walls (including cladding, balconies and windows) and flat entrance doors of buildings containing two or more sets of domestic premises | Every residential FRA must address external walls and flat entrance doors, or state clearly why it does not and recommend an FRAEW. An FRA silent on external walls is defective on its face |
| Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — regs 4–10 | In high-rise residential buildings (18m / 7 storeys): external wall information and floor plans to the fire service, monthly lift and firefighting equipment checks, quarterly common-parts door checks, annual flat entrance door checks, wayfinding signage, secure information boxes | The assessor who designs or audits the checking regime owns its adequacy; the responsible person who fails to carry it out owns the failure. Terms must say which |
| Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 — reg 9 | In all multi-occupied residential buildings: fire safety instructions to residents and information on the importance of fire doors | Usually drafted by the assessor; a claim shape where the instruction was wrong |
| BSA 2022 s.156 (from 1 Oct 2023) | Full FRA to be recorded; assessor's identity recorded; cooperation and information-sharing between responsible persons; article 9A competence duty (uncommenced) | The assessor is named in the building's record for as long as the building stands; the assessment is a document the regulator and any claimant will read in full |
| BSA 2022 Part 4 — higher-risk buildings | Occupied higher-risk buildings (18m / 7 storeys with two or more dwellings) require an accountable person, a safety case report and a building assessment certificate from the Building Safety Regulator | The FRA and FRAEW are core evidence in the safety case. The accountable person's claim for a rejected certificate is a new claim shape |
| BSA 2022 s.135 — limitation | Defective Premises Act 1972 claims: 30 years retrospective, 15 years prospective from 28 June 2022; also applies to s.38 Building Act claims when commenced | Where the assessor's work is "in connection with" the provision or refurbishment of a dwelling, the run-off horizon is fifteen years, not six |
| BSA 2022 ss.130–132 — building liability orders | The High Court can extend a body corporate's liability for building safety risks to an associated company | Restructuring away from a liability does not work; the PI policy, not the corporate structure, is the protection |
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry's Phase 2 report in September 2024 recommended that fire risk assessors of higher-risk buildings be required to hold a nationally recognised certification, and the government's February 2025 response accepted the direction of travel — mandatory, independently verified accreditation through a UKAS-approved scheme, with a consultation on the mechanism in 2026. Whatever the final shape, the PI market has already priced it: the question "are you certified, and at what tier?" is on every fire engineering proposal form in 2026, and the answer decides whether the fire safety exclusion comes off. Our Principal Designer PI guide covers the higher-risk building gateway regime from the design side.
How long does a fire risk assessor stay liable — and what does that mean for run-off?
The fire risk assessor's liability clock has a feature most professions do not share: the damage is a fire, and the fire may not happen for years. An assessment that missed a breached compartment wall in 2024 causes no loss until the fire in 2029; the negligence limitation period then runs from 2029, subject only to the fifteen-year longstop from the act in 2024. The report is dated, the assessor is named in the building's record under section 156, and the responsible person's insurer will find both. A practice that stops trading in 2027 and lets its PI lapse is uninsured for that 2029 claim.
Run-off is therefore not optional, and it is expensive if left to the end. Specialist markets will offer run-off to a retiring assessor at a declining premium over six years — typically starting at 100% of the expiring premium and falling — but only to a practice they already insure with a clean record; a practice that arrives at retirement uninsured, or after a decline, has few options. We budget run-off from year one for every fire safety practice we place, and for practices with dwelling-related work — FRAEW on residential blocks, EWS1 forms, assessments feeding refurbishment — we plan for fifteen years. Our guide to professional indemnity run-off cover sets out the mechanics.
How should a fire risk assessor's terms of engagement limit the exposure?
| Clause | What it should say | Insurance effect |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the service | An assessment and opinion under article 9, exercising reasonable skill and care; not a guarantee of compliance or of the building's safety | Keeps the claim in negligence, where PI responds, rather than in breach of warranty, which the contractual-liability exclusion removes |
| Scope and access | Areas inspected and not inspected; visual and non-destructive; no opening up of construction; concealed spaces, voids and external wall build-up excluded unless stated | Defines the duty the expert measures the report against; the basis for the "recommend further investigation" defence |
| External walls | Whether external walls were appraised under PAS 9980 or excluded and referred; no EWS1 unless separately instructed and insured | Prevents an FRA being read as an FRAEW; keeps uninsured activities out of the engagement |
| Reliance | For the use of the instructing responsible person only; no third-party reliance without a signed reliance letter and fee | Limits negligent-misstatement claims from lenders, purchasers and leaseholders |
| Liability cap | Aggregate cap — commonly the greater of a multiple of the fee or a stated sum within the PI limit; excluding death and personal injury as the law requires | Caps the recoverable loss; must be reasonable under UCTA 1977 to be enforceable, so proportionate to fee and building |
| Net contribution | Liability limited to the share just and equitable having regard to other parties' responsibility | Prevents the assessor bearing the contractor's and the responsible person's shares because it is the insured party |
| Review interval and validity | Assessment reflects the premises on the inspection date; responsible person to review on change and at stated intervals; assessor not liable for changes after the date | Answers the "the assessment was three years old" claim |
| Responsible person's duties | Client acknowledges its own duties under the Order and that implementing recommendations is its responsibility | Separates the assessor's duty (identify and recommend) from the client's (implement) |
| Insurance statement | PI maintained at a stated limit for six years after completion, subject to availability at commercially reasonable rates | Matches what the policy can actually deliver; avoids a promise of run-off the market may not offer |
Underwriters read terms of engagement as closely as sample reports, because a practice that promises "a fully compliant building" in its marketing and its terms has written its own claim. We review every fire safety practice's terms before the submission goes in, and the cap, the reliance clause and the external-wall statement are the three we most often have to fix.
What does fire risk assessor PI insurance cost — and what drives the premium?
| Rating factor | Why it moves the premium | What reduces it |
|---|---|---|
| Activities undertaken | FRA, FRAEW, EWS1, fire strategy and installation are rated separately; external wall work carries the highest rate | Declare accurately; drop activities the practice cannot evidence competence for |
| Competence evidence | SP205 tier or IFE category is the primary rating input; uncertified practices are declined or heavily loaded | Certification at the tier matching the work; BS 8674 assessment; CPD records |
| Building portfolio | Care homes, healthcare, high-rise residential, HMOs and buildings with engineered strategies carry the highest consequence | Portfolio profile with counts by type; declined-work log showing scope discipline |
| Limit and basis | Higher limits and any-one-claim basis cost more than aggregate; limits must nonetheless match the buildings | Right-size the limit to the largest building, not the largest fee; reinstatement of limit |
| Methodology and quality system | PAS 79 templates, peer review and report retention reduce both frequency and severity | Documented methodology; sample reports; sign-off process for advanced-tier work |
| Terms of engagement | Warranties of compliance and uncapped liability increase severity | Opinion-basis terms with cap, net contribution and reliance restriction |
| Claims and circumstances | A fire at assessed premises, whether or not a claim followed, is rated; a paid claim doubles the concern | Full disclosure with the report and the investigation outcome; show the process change |
| Continuity and retroactive date | Gaps in cover or a lapsed retroactive date leave prior work uninsured and signal instability | Continuous cover evidence; retroactive date to inception of the practice |
| Fee income and growth | Premium scales with fees; rapid growth signals capacity strain | Accurate projections; assessor headcount matched to fee growth |
| Subcontracted assessors | Work done by associates under the practice's name is the practice's liability | Associates' own PI evidenced; tier register; contracts with associates |
| Conflict of interest | Assessing buildings where the practice also installs or maintains systems is priced as a conflict | Separation of assessment and installation; independent review |
| Excess | Specialist markets trade a higher excess for a lower rate | Take a realistic excess the practice can fund; costs-inclusive excess where affordable |
What do real fire risk assessor claims look like — and how should you manage one?
Case study 1 — The care home fire and the compartment wall (composite, illustrative)
Situation: A sole-practitioner assessor, IFE-registered at the life-safety category, assessed a 34-bed care home. His report recorded the compartmentation as "appeared satisfactory where visible" with no access to the roof void noted. Fourteen months later a fire in a first-floor bedroom spread through an unstopped service penetration in the roof void; the home was evacuated, two residents were hospitalised with smoke inhalation, and the building was out of use for seven months. The operator's property insurer paid £1.9m for reinstatement and business interruption and pursued the assessor in subrogation; the residents' injury claims were brought against the operator and passed down.
What we did: Notified the PI insurer on the day of the fire, before any letter of claim, as a circumstance. The insurer's panel solicitors obtained the report, the site notes and the photographs from the practice's retention system. The defence turned on the scope clause and the roof-void note: the assessor had recorded no access and had recommended, in the action plan, that the void be inspected by a fire-stopping contractor. The operator had not done so. Contribution proceedings brought in the original fire-stopping contractor and the operator's maintenance provider.
Outcome: The subrogated claim settled at £310,000 against the assessor's £1m limit, reflecting a 15% share of responsibility; defence costs £84,000 within the limit. Injury claims settled by the operator with a contribution of £22,000 from the assessor. Renewal: premium from £2,100 to £3,900 (+86%), limit increased to £2m on the broker's advice, no exclusion added. The insurer commended the report's scope discipline.
Lessons: The report that records what was not seen, and recommends what should be done about it, is the defence. The limit should be sized to the care home, not to the £950 fee.
Case study 2 — The external wall appraisal and the exclusion nobody read (composite, illustrative)
Situation: A four-person fire risk assessment consultancy, SP205-certified as an organisation, was asked by a managing agent to appraise the external walls of a six-storey block of 48 flats under PAS 9980. The lead assessor was experienced but not a chartered fire engineer. The appraisal classified the wall as "medium risk, tolerable with interim measures". Two years later a new freeholder commissioned a second appraisal by a chartered fire engineer, which identified combustible insulation behind the render and classified the wall as high risk requiring remediation at £3.4m. The freeholder and 31 leaseholders claimed against the consultancy for the remediation cost, the delay and lost sales.
What we did: Notified the PI insurer. The insurer's coverage position arrived first: the policy carried a cladding and external wall exclusion that had never been deleted, the FRAEW activity had not been declared on the proposal form, and the practice's activities schedule listed "fire risk assessments" only. Cover was declined. We engaged coverage counsel on the practice's behalf and negotiated a contribution to defence costs on an ex gratia basis; the substantive claim was uninsured.
Outcome: The consultancy settled for £420,000 funded by the partners personally and a loan, with £96,000 of its own defence costs. It ceased FRAEW work. Re-placed with a specialist market at £11,800 against £4,600 expiring (+157%), fire safety exclusion removed for FRA work only, cladding exclusion retained, and a warranty that no external wall appraisals or EWS1 forms would be undertaken.
Lessons: An FRAEW under a policy with a cladding exclusion is uninsured on the day it is issued. The activities schedule is the policy; declare every product, and have the exclusion deleted in writing before the first appraisal.
Case study 3 — The review that adopted the previous assessor's error (composite, illustrative)
Situation: An HMO landlord with eleven converted houses engaged a fire risk assessment firm to "review and update" assessments originally carried out by a previous provider. The firm's assessor visited each property for forty minutes, updated the dates and the occupancy figures, and re-issued the reports. The previous assessments had recorded the flat entrance doors as FD30S; a fire and rescue service audit after a complaint found that seven properties had non-fire-rated doors with no intumescent strips or self-closers, and served enforcement notices on the landlord under article 30. The landlord spent £58,000 on doors and remedial works across the portfolio, lost rental income during the works, and claimed against the firm.
What we did: Notified the PI insurer on receipt of the enforcement notices. The defence was weak: the "review" reports did not state what had been re-inspected, and the assessor's notes showed the doors had not been examined. The insurer's panel advised settlement. We negotiated the claim down on the basis that the landlord's own duty to maintain the doors under the Order was a substantial contributory factor, and that the loss of rent was partly attributable to the landlord's delay in commissioning the works.
Outcome: Settled at £41,000 plus £19,000 defence costs. Renewal: premium from £6,800 to £9,500 (+40%), with a warranty that review instructions are carried out to the same scope as a new assessment and that every report states the areas inspected. The firm rewrote its review template.
Lessons: A review is a new assessment with the old assessment's errors unless the report says otherwise. Flat entrance doors are within scope of every residential FRA since the Fire Safety Act 2021, and "as previously recorded" is not an inspection.
How to manage a fire risk assessor PI claim — the eight-step process
- Notify the PI insurer the day you learn of a fire or enforcement notice at assessed premises. A fire, an enforcement or prohibition notice, a complaint or a request for your report from a solicitor is a circumstance that may give rise to a claim. Notify it in writing through your broker before any letter of claim; late notification is the most common reason PI claims are declined.
- Preserve the complete assessment record. Lock the report, site notes, photographs, floor plans, correspondence, terms of engagement and any previous assessments you relied on. Do not amend, annotate or re-issue anything. The report will be read line by line against PAS 79 by a claimant's expert.
- Do not correspond with the responsible person, the fire service or the building insurer about liability. Provide factual documents on request through the insurer's panel solicitor. Do not offer an opinion on cause, admit fault or offer to re-assess free of charge; each can prejudice cover and the defence.
- Notify legal expenses if a fire and rescue service interview is requested. An interview under caution or a request for a witness statement in a prosecution of the responsible person is a regulatory matter. Legal expenses cover, or the PI policy's regulatory extension, funds representation; instruct through the insurer, not independently.
- Identify every other party who may share responsibility. The responsible person's own duties, the fire-stopping or door contractor, the previous assessor, the maintenance provider and the building control body may each bear a share. Give the panel solicitor the names and documents to support contribution claims early.
- Check the coverage position before the substantive defence. Confirm with the broker that the activity in question — FRA, FRAEW, EWS1, review — was declared and is not excluded, that the retroactive date covers the work and that the limit is adequate. A coverage dispute discovered late is a defence fought without funding.
- Notify every related circumstance to the expiring policy before renewal. Other buildings assessed on the same methodology, other reports for the same client and any further correspondence belong to the policy in force when they were first known. List and notify them before expiry so the renewal policy's prior-circumstances exclusion does not leave them uninsured.
- Present the process change at renewal, not the excuse. Underwriters price recurrence. Show the template, scope clause or review process that changed as a result, with the date, and present the claim as closed with a lesson applied. Diary the claim for five years of disclosure and challenge the loading as clean years accumulate.
Glossary of fire risk assessment and PI terms
- Article 9
- The provision of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requiring the responsible person to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to relevant persons, to review it regularly, and — since 1 October 2023 — to record it in full with the assessor's identity.
- Article 9A
- The duty, inserted by section 156(4) of the Building Safety Act 2022 but not yet commenced, that the responsible person must not appoint a person to assist with the assessment unless that person is competent. The legal basis for mandatory assessor competence.
- BAFE SP205
- The UKAS-accredited third-party certification scheme for fire risk assessors and organisations. Version 6, effective 1 April 2026, certifies at foundation, intermediate and advanced tiers aligned to BS 8674:2025 and requires professional indemnity insurance.
- BS 8674:2025
- The British Standard setting out a competence framework for individual fire risk assessors — the knowledge, skills and behaviours required at each tier of building risk. The reference document for certification schemes and for any statutory register.
- Claims-made
- The basis on which PI is written: the policy in force when a claim or circumstance is first notified responds, not the policy in force when the assessment was done. The reason run-off cover must be maintained after a practice stops.
- Combustible-material / cladding exclusion
- PI exclusions removing claims arising from external wall systems, cladding, insulation or combustible materials. Standard on construction PI since 2018; must be expressly deleted before FRAEW or EWS1 work is insured.
- Competent person
- Under article 18(5) of the Order, a person with sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable them properly to assist. The definition BS 8674 and SP205 give practical content to.
- EWS1
- The External Wall System form developed by RICS, UK Finance and the Building Societies Association for lenders valuing flats in multi-storey buildings. Signed by a qualified professional; not a statutory document; relied on by parties the signatory has no contract with.
- Fire safety exclusion
- A PI exclusion removing any claim arising from fire risk assessment, fire strategy, fire-stopping or means-of-escape advice. Standard on package PI schemes; removed for declared activities by specialist markets on competence evidence.
- FRAEW
- Fire risk appraisal of external walls — the PAS 9980:2022 methodology for assessing the fire risk of an existing building's external wall construction, brought within the scope of article 9 by the Fire Safety Act 2021. A separate professional product from an FRA.
- Higher-risk building
- Under Part 4 of the Building Safety Act 2022, a building at least 18m or seven storeys with two or more residential units (plus hospitals and care homes in the design phase). Subject to the Building Safety Regulator, the accountable person regime and the safety case.
- IFE register
- The Institution of Fire Engineers' peer-reviewed register of fire risk assessors, with categories including life safety and higher-risk. Accepted by fire and rescue services and PI underwriters as competence evidence.
- Net contribution clause
- A term of engagement limiting the assessor's liability to the share that would be just and equitable having regard to the responsibility of other parties, so the insured assessor does not bear the uninsured contractor's share.
- PAS 79
- The BSI code of practice for fire risk assessment methodology — PAS 79-1:2020 for non-domestic premises and PAS 79-2:2020 for housing. The industry-standard method against which a claimant's expert measures an assessment.
- Responsible person
- Under article 3 of the Order, the employer, the person in control of the premises, or the owner — the party on whom every duty in the Order is placed, who appoints the assessor and is prosecuted when the assessment is inadequate.
- Run-off cover
- Claims-made PI maintained after a practice ceases trading, so that claims arising from past assessments remain insured. At least six years; fifteen where dwelling-related work engages the extended Defective Premises Act limitation.
- Significant findings
- The record of the assessment's conclusions — hazards, people at risk, measures in place and measures required — formerly the only part the Order required to be recorded, now part of the full record required since October 2023.
Frequently asked questions
Not by statute, but in practice yes. BAFE SP205 certification requires PI to be in place, most responsible persons and managing agents require it as a condition of instruction, and the government has committed to mandatory accreditation of fire risk assessors which will carry an insurance requirement. Without PI a fire risk assessor is personally exposed to claims measured by the cost of a fire.
Enough to cover the largest building assessed, not the largest fee. A sole practitioner on lower-risk premises typically carries £1m–£2m; a consultancy with a mixed portfolio £2m–£5m; a practice assessing care homes, healthcare or high-rise residential £5m–£10m; external wall appraisal and EWS1 work often carries a separate limit. Any-one-claim basis with reinstatement is preferable to an aggregate limit.
Because after 2017 most PI insurers withdrew from fire safety exposure across the construction and property professions, and package schemes still exclude fire risk assessment, fire strategy and fire-stopping advice by default. For a fire risk assessor the exclusion removes the entire business. Specialist markets remove it for declared activities on competence evidence — certification tier, methodology, sample reports and terms of engagement.
Only if those activities were declared and the cladding, combustible-material and EWS1 exclusions were expressly deleted. Many policies that cover fire risk assessments retain those exclusions, so a PAS 9980 appraisal or an EWS1 form issued under them is uninsured on the day it is signed. Check the activities schedule and the exclusions before undertaking any external wall work.
Article 9A of the Fire Safety Order, inserted by section 156(4) of the Building Safety Act 2022, provides that the responsible person must not appoint a person to assist with the fire risk assessment unless that person is competent. It has been enacted but not yet commenced. The government has committed to mandatory, independently verified accreditation of assessors, and PI underwriters already ask for certification evidence as though the duty applied.
BS 8674:2025 is the British Standard setting out a competence framework for individual fire risk assessors, tiered by building risk. BAFE SP205 version 6, effective 1 April 2026, certifies against it at foundation, intermediate and advanced tiers. PI underwriters use the tier as a primary rating input and will cover work at the tier the assessor is certified for; work above tier engages the policy's competence warranty.
Yes, though the responsible person is the usual defendant. The Fire Safety Order's offences reach any person with control of premises to any extent, and assessors have been prosecuted where an assessment was so deficient as to place people at risk of death or serious injury. Fines are unlimited with up to two years' custody. Legal expenses cover or a PI regulatory extension funds the defence; the fine is uninsurable.
In negligence, six years from the damage or three years from when the claimant knew of it, subject to a fifteen-year longstop from the assessment. Because the damage is usually a fire that may occur years after the report, the practical exposure runs to the longstop. For work in connection with dwellings the Defective Premises Act limitation is fifteen years from completion. Run-off PI must be maintained accordingly.
Yes. PI is claims-made, so a claim arriving after the practice has stopped is covered only by a policy in force at that time. Run-off is normally maintained for six years, and fifteen where dwelling-related work was done. Specialist markets offer run-off at a declining premium to practices they already insure with a clean record; it is far harder to buy after a gap or a decline, so budget it from year one.
Yes. A fire at assessed premises is a circumstance that may give rise to a claim and must be notified to the current PI insurer under the policy's notification condition and disclosed at renewal under the Insurance Act 2015 duty of fair presentation. Notifying it to the expiring policy also secures cover for any claim that follows, because the renewal policy will exclude circumstances known before inception.
You can, but underwriters price it as a conflict of interest and clients' auditors question it. Separate the assessment activity, its assessors and its reports from the installation business, hold PI for the assessment and design advice alongside contractors' liability for the installation, and address the efficacy exclusion on the products section — a fire door or alarm that fails to perform is the only way it injures anyone.
Look for a broker whose first questions are your certification tier, your methodology, which of FRA, FRAEW and EWS1 you undertake and what work you turn down — not just your fee income — and who places through Lloyd's and specialist MGA markets with fire engineering appetite rather than package schemes. Miller & Partner places fire risk assessors, fire engineers and fire safety consultancies using The Insurability Framework, with the fire safety exclusion removed for declared activities and run-off planned from the outset.
Instagram
LinkedIn