The Importance of Professional Indemnity Insurance to Letting and Estate Agents

What exactly is Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance?

PI Insurance is there to protect professional people against claims by clients or others that their advice or performance has caused them loss in some way. Usually dissatisfied clients then proceed to demand financial compensation and sometimes such awards can be substantial. Professional Indemnity Insurance will cover the legal costs of defending any action against you, along with covering any financial award that the court may make.

Who needs PI Insurance?

In the past it was only mainly people like surveyors, accountants, engineers that needed to have PI Insurance in place. In fact it was always a condition of membership of their respective professional organisations that they maintained such cover at least to minimum levels specified.

Of course this requirement has always tended to enhance the trust that the general public places in such consultants, who were members of these professional organisations.

As time has gone by, many new professions have emerged where it has become important to have protection in place to cover claims from clients or others. Certainly letting agents and estate agents would fall into this category. What's more, it's known that Britain has become an increasingly litigious society spurred on by the proliferation of 'no win no fee' lawyers.

Where a letting agent, say, has contracts with local authorities, perhaps to source suitable properties for their social housing tenants, it is normal for such authorities to demand that the agents concerned have PI insurance in place.

Remember also that assuming your agency is part of an Ombudsman scheme and all approved ombudsman schemes require that their members maintain valid PI Insurance.

Dissatisfied landlord clients

As you know, you are often called upon to carefully vet tenants for your landlords. Supposing a bad tenant slips through and the landlord claims that you effectively failed in a duty of care to thoroughly check their references etc. That landlord may decide to make a claim against you. Another example is where a landlord may claim that there is a critical error in the wording of the AST agreement you use which may have perhaps allowed a rogue tenant to remain in the property longer than the landlord would have liked. Again, they may make a claim against you.

Some more examples of typical PI claims

• Lack of clarity regarding your commission
• Overstating the rental value of a property
• Issuing a defective rent review
• Failure to pass on details of offers received to the seller
• Dishonesty of your employees
• Underselling a client's property
• Fraud
• Issuing a defective notice of rent review

A few examples of things typically covered by this insurance

• Compensation for court attendance
• Civil Liability
• The Estate Agents Act
• Ombudsman cover
• Negligence
• Loss of documents

So, as a professional letting or estate agent I trust you can see just how important for the future security of your business it is to maintain valid Professional Indemnity Insurance.