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Cautionary Note 39 – Are your experts insured?
October 1, 2000
Based on data collected from inspection of over 45,000 buildings we issue the following advice.
Increasingly, legal clients are telling us horror stories about the consequences of uninsured advice. Even experts make mistakes. Sometimes customers can be unreasonable about what they are expecting from their advisors.
However, the increase in liability claims against building, and particularly, timber pest consultants or organisations has highlighted how important the choice of your consultant is.
Even though indemnity insurance is important, clients often intensely dislike the time and cost of proving an expert has done something wrong. And what good is insurance to you if you end up losing a good client.
After reviewing thousands of complaints against experts, we are convinced that the most important components of advice are the:
- qualifications and experience of the expert
- research and development behind the systems used
- time spent detecting and identifying the problems
- accuracy and clarity of reporting
- complaint handling process especially how some experts will resolve matters without unnecessary involvement of their insurer
- level of indemnity insurance and specifically the way the insurers handles any complaint.
In the end it is often better to choose someone with a known reputation than to have to work with an unknown. However, if you are recommending building or timber pest experts we suggest that you:
- use consultants with a time tested track record
- ask for details of the organisation’s complaint handling procedure ie Do they have someone specifically responsible for after sales customer advice or complaints? How quickly does the insurer become involved?
- obtain copies of the certificate of currency for indemnity insurance with specific reference to public liability and extent of cover
- consider discussing how the insurer will handle a complaint if it occurs.
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