You can hire a specialist. You cannot hand them your responsibility.
Engineers and Geoscientists BC is direct about this. The professional who relies on a specialist has to understand, accept and take responsibility for the decisions built on that specialist’s work. Your professional liability policy is written the same way. The question is not whether your sub is insured. It is what happens when they are not insured enough.
Build the practice file Read the short answer firstRelying on a sub does not move the duty.
Theirs may be smaller than yours.
Claims made cover has to still exist.
If a sub-consultant’s work fails, whose insurance answers?
Usually yours first, because the client hired you and your seal is on the work. Engineers and Geoscientists BC puts the duty plainly: the professional “must fully comprehend, accept, and take responsibility for all engineering or geoscience analyses, decisions, or recommendations that are made based on contributions from a specialist”.
Your insurer then looks at whether any of it can be recovered from the sub. That turns on three things: whether the sub carries professional liability at all, whether the limit is worth chasing, and whether the policy still exists when the claim lands. Claims made cover disappears when a firm closes and does not buy run-off.
The same advisory says a professional should perform due diligence to establish a reasonable level of confidence that the specialist is competent, and should monitor the work as it comes in so the outputs are of the quality and completeness expected. That is a practice duty first, and it is also the question an insurer asks after a loss. Read the EGBC advisory on relying on the work of a specialist (opens in a new tab).
Four things to get from every sub-consultant.
A certificate, not a promise
A current certificate of professional liability insurance showing the limit and the expiry date. Get a fresh copy every year the work continues.
A limit that matches the package
A sub carrying a fraction of your limit is fine on a minor piece of work and thin on a structural or geotechnical package.
The retroactive date
Claims made policies only reach back so far. A recent retroactive date means older work is not covered, even though the certificate looks perfectly current.
What happens if they close
Ask whether they would buy run-off cover. A firm that winds up without it leaves nothing behind to claim against.
Three packages, three gaps.
The specialist who had let it lapse
A small firm supplied a connection design. Their certificate was two years old and nobody asked for a new one. By the time the claim came they had no cover, and the prime consultant’s own policy carried all of it.
The limit that was not worth chasing
The geotechnical sub carried a limit that covered a fraction of the remedial cost. The rest sat with the prime, who had accepted the report without asking what stood behind it.
The retirement nobody heard about
A sole practitioner retired and let the policy end. The work was six years old and the claim still arrived. There was nothing left to recover from.
The questions practices ask about this.
Do I have to insure my sub-consultants?
No. They carry their own. Your job is to check that what they carry is real, current and large enough for the work you gave them.
The client contracted them directly. Am I clear?
Not automatically. If you relied on their work in what you sealed, the duty to understand and accept it is still yours.
What limit should I ask a sub to carry?
It depends on the package, not on the size of their firm. A small firm on a critical element is the case to look at hardest.
They will not send a certificate. What now?
Treat that as the answer. A firm that will not evidence its cover is telling you something about the cover.
Does my policy cover work I subcontract out?
Most professional liability wordings answer for your legal liability, including liability that arises from work you subcontracted. Read yours, because the wording varies more here than people expect.
Two that sit next to this one: what run-off cover does when a practice closes, and how the retroactive date decides which old work is covered.
Not the question you came with? Send it through the short contact form and we will answer the one you actually have.
Know what stands behind every package you seal.
Send us your sub list and your current wording. We will tell you where the gaps are and what they would cost you.