A Review on Professional Indemnity Insurance for Quantity Surveyors

Abstract

Professional Indemnity Insurance is a risk shifting mechanism popular among the service providers including the delivery of construction related services. One of the guiding principles used for structuring an insurance policy is to ensure adequate indemnity. This research is to appraise various dimensions of Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) related to the quantity surveying profession with particular emphasis on the Sri Lankan context. A comprehensive literature survey was carried out to recognize the liabilities that inspire policy requirements. A desk review was carried out to identify the deficiencies of the existing PII policies. 15 individual practitioners selected purposively were interviewed to gauge their perception and experience. All responses were considered valid for analysis. A discourse analysis was carried out to understand the themes and patterns in the context under study and draw conclusions. It was found that PII for the QS profession is at its embryonic stage. The study suggests that the uptake of enhanced policies would indeed help in fostering a fully-fledged insurance mechanism for quantity surveyors that is capable of accommodating the rapidly changing and newly added dimensions in the quantity surveying profession.

Keywords: Professional indemnity insurance, Quantity surveyor, Professional liabilities, Insurance policy