Cover here can be harder to place. Our program includes it.
Structural and geotechnical engineering are usually the first things struck out of a professional liability policy. Our design-professional program excludes no discipline, so the work you actually do is the work we quote.
Build the practice file Why it gets excluded Ask about your firmProfessional liability including structural, geotechnical and civil work
Structural, geotechnical, civil and building science firms
Your current policy, so we can read the exclusions back to you
Can a structural engineer get professional liability insurance in BC?
Yes, though fewer markets will write it and many policies carve structural and geotechnical work out by exclusion rather than declining the firm outright. That is the trap: the policy looks complete until a claim arrives on exactly the work you were hired for. What matters is not whether you have cover, but whether your discipline is inside it.
If your discipline is excluded, the policy answers nothing on the exact work you were hired for. You will have paid premiums for years and still be uninsured on the claim that actually arrives. Engineers and Geoscientists BC defines a critical member as one “that, if it fails, is more likely to lead to collapse or global instability of the structure”. When the regulator’s own language is about collapse, the claims are about collapse too, and that is why this discipline carries the most severe professional liability exposure in design. Read the EGBC structural condition assessment guideline (opens in a new tab).
Our program has no discipline exclusions. Send us your current policy and we will read the exclusions back to you in plain English, whether or not you move to us.
Why these disciplines get excluded.
It is not personal, and it is not about your competence. It is about how the claims behave.
The claims arrive late
A foundation problem may not show for a decade. Long-tail claims are harder for insurers to reserve for, so some avoid the class entirely.
The losses are large
When structural work fails, the remedy is rarely small, and it can involve the whole building rather than one element.
Ground is unpredictable
Geotechnical work involves conditions nobody can fully see in advance, which underwriters find uncomfortable.
So they exclude rather than decline
Which is worse for you, because it leaves you holding a policy that looks fine and answers nothing on your core work.
Read your own policy for these three things.
You can do this tonight without talking to anyone. If any of them are present, your cover may not match your practice.
A discipline exclusion
Wording that carves out structural, geotechnical, foundation or soils work. Sometimes phrased as an activity rather than a discipline.
A retroactive date
The date before which past work is not covered. If it moved when you last switched insurers, years of your work may be uninsured.
Defence inside the limit
If defence costs come out of your limit rather than sitting on top of it, a long dispute erodes the money meant to settle it.
How this can play out.
A foundation issue appears eight years after completion. The firm has held professional liability throughout. The claim is refused because the policy excluded geotechnical work all along, and nobody read that clause out loud.
The whole design team, not just the headline discipline.
Smaller practices are placed outside the program, with markets that suit their size. Same team, same speed.
The clauses that decide engineering claims.
Structural and geotechnical work carries the site’s biggest consequences, so its professional cover carries the site’s most exact conditions.
The retroactive date on old ground
Foundations designed years ago fail slowly. If a policy switch moved the retroactive date, the buildings from before it are standing outside the cover.
Scope creep into the excluded list
Some wordings restrict or exclude specific work: certain retaining structures, certain soils reports. Taking the job first and reading the exclusion second is the wrong order.
Field reviews promised, not logged
Where the design role includes field review, the reviews are evidence. The ones that happened but were never written up did not happen, as far as a courtroom is concerned.
Limitation periods signed away
Contract clauses can extend how long clients may sue, past what the policy contemplated. The clause is negotiable at signing and immovable at claim time.
The program desk reads these contracts daily. Send the clause before the seal goes on, not after.
What engineering firms ask us.
Is structural work excluded from your program?
No. Nothing is excluded by discipline.
What is a retroactive date and why does it matter?
It is the date before which your past work is not covered. Switching insurers can reset it, which quietly leaves years of completed projects uninsured. Always check it before moving a policy, and tell us if yours has ever moved.
Our contract requires a $10 million limit. Can you meet it?
Yes. Limits of $10 million, $20 million and $100 million are available through the program. Send us the insurance clause and we will tell you exactly what it requires, which is not always what people assume.
Are defence costs included in or on top of the limit?
It depends on the wording, and it matters a great deal on long-tail claims. We will tell you which yours is, a lot of firms do not know.
We do geotechnical investigations for other engineers. Who is liable?
It depends on the contract and how the work is relied upon. Bring us the agreement, how the design team is structured changes how the cover should be written.
Can you review our current policy without us switching?
Yes. Send it over and we will read the exclusions, the retroactive date and the defence-cost treatment back to you in plain English. If it is well arranged we will say so.
Geotechnical work disturbs ground. pollution & environmental cover is where that exposure sits.
The questions behind the questions.
Send us your current policy.
We will tell you what is excluded from it before we tell you anything about ours.
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