Proposed SEI Insurance levels

sydthebeat

So at this stage most assessors will be aware that SEI proposes to make insurance mandatory next year.

A good step in my opinion, but i have worries about the level of cover required.

professional Indemnity insurance of €1,500,000

public indemnity insurance of €6,500,00

employers indemnity insurance of €13,000,000

The professional indemnity insurance I can live with. We currently have a cover of €1,300,000 so its not a huge step to increase that by €200K.

Professional indenity covers an event in which a client suffers financial loss as a result of alleged neglect, error or omission in the professionalism of the service, professional indemnity insurance will meet the cost of defending claims and any damage payable.

1.5 million should be adequate cover to pay financial loss and / or defence claims.

Public Indemnity covers protection towards the public from injury or wrongful acts done either deliberately or as a result of negligence by the business or its employees.If a member of the public is injured or there is damage to property as a direct result of your business activities then you could be held legally responsible and risk a lawsuit.


Now, can anyone please explain how there could possible be €6,500,000 risk of damages from what is essentially a non intrusive service?? How could this level of damage to a property occur? The service occurs on the clients property. There is no requirement for the client to visit the assessors office (if one exists). can someone enlighten me please.



Employers Liability cover of €13,000,000 can make sense in light of an employer say, providing a fault ladder, inducing an employee to fall from a height and say, incurring back injuries which leads to paraplegia. Anyway, how many assessors out there employ others? Its impossible to make a living for one person, never mind trying to run a business in energy assessment.


will these insurance premiums push some practitioners out of the industry??
if so, how do they feel about these requirements being forced on them after spending so much money training, getting equipped etc. Do they feel its a breach of contract with SEI when compared to the original requirements to enter the industry?

comments please.....

sinnerboy

Tend to agree with the general thrust of your post syd . Perhaps , just perhaps , insurers will assess the risks sensibly and price premiums accordingly .

As far as SEI are concerned I believe they opened the floodgates to swamp the market and having done so can abuse those in it as they wish .

I will not be renewing my registration .

muffler

Is there no way the SEI would consider doing some form of a package deal with one of the insurance companies on behalf of the assessors. Or do the assessors not have an association that could do this?

Stupid question I know.

holdfast

Its a good idea I think. But I was reading a article in the examiner where they had done the price differernce between each rating. which was about 2000 euro per sq m from A3 to C1. If I recall right and the the case is you would want to have a gross error to get a differernce or more than one rating between two asessors. So the cost should be less than 800 euro i think based on the idea you could only have a case taken against you getting a rating been C1 Vs C2.

I wont make much difference to some guys as some county council look for 1.5 million already. If SEI really want to reuce the BER assessors, guys who have failed the test show me made removed and asked to redo the course again. Be aware there are assessors out there that have failed it twice and are still working.

SilverBER

I have to agree with everything mentioned. Simply put - SEI can do whatever they wish when it comes to this, they have not been professional in any way all along this process so why do we expect anything less of them now? Insurance should have been mandatory from the beginning - it is only common sense after all.
I agree that BER assessors who fail the exam (after all its not a particularly exam to pass) should be audited fully for one failure and struck off for the second one and made to resit the course. The training provider should also be disciplined and fined heavily.
SEI needs to step up to the mark on this before all credibility is lost completely.

No6

SilverBER wrote: »

SEI needs to step up to the mark on this before all credibility is lost completely.

You are being very optimistic surely that was lost along with the poor old celtic tiger!!!:D

SilverBER

No6 wrote: »

You are being very optimistic surely that was lost along with the poor old celtic tiger!!!:D

Sadly, No6, I have to agree with you. One can hope, however.

sydthebeat

just hearing about some quotes for the limits above...

all in around the €3000 mark...!!!!

No6

HHhmmmm anybody actually make 3K on BER's last year? I thought not!! crazy. Still it will thin out the market, if it becomes mandatory but I for one will not put these levels of cover in place unless they do, I already have more than enoguh as far as I am concerned and you can bet your bottom dollar that the day after you pay your 3k for PI insurence SEI will move the goalposts somewhere else!!!

mickdw

If you are a one man band, then you wont need the employers liability.

What are people on here paying for PI insurance? Ive had 500k for a few years and I have been getting much cheaper quotes on the net now than I have been paying.

picorette

Just about to renew my insurance, is there any update on these levels and the implementation?

And does anybody have any names of other companies to approach for comparison quotes? Who were the cheaper companies you found on the net, Mickw ?