HVAC and Fire Safety Firm After Five Declines

A Sydney-based mechanical services firm, specialising in HVAC and Fire Safety Engineering, found themselves at a crossroads during their annual insurance renewal. As the business evolved to offer a more complex mix of services, including high-stakes Fire Safety Assessments and Mechanical Engineering, they hit a wall with the standard insurance market.

The client faced a series of rapid-fire declines from major underwriters. The real-world problem was a lack of appetite for their specific blend of high-utility manual work and high-liability professional design. With their renewal date looming and operations spanning sensitive environments like hospitals and high-rise residential blocks, the client was understandably concerned about a total lapse in coverage that could halt their ability to tender for new projects.

The primary hurdle was a "Business Occupation" mismatch. To most insurers, the business looked too complex to categorise. We stepped in to provide the necessary clarity through a rigorous fact-find and educational process:

• Service Segregation: We worked with the General Manager to precisely deconstruct their $1.2M turnover. By separating "Project Management" from "Fire Safety Engineering" and "HVAC Air Balancing," we created a transparent risk profile
• Professional Validation: To overcome underwriter skepticism, we gathered and presented the professional CVs of the leadership team, emphasising their Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng) and RPEQ credentials
• Strategic Splitting: We identified that a single "catch-all" policy was causing the market to decline the entire risk. We advised the client on the strategic benefit of splitting their exposures to ensure each activity was placed with an underwriter that actually understood that specific niche

When five major insurers declined the risk due to the "business occupation," we navigated the market to find a specialist path forward.

We negotiated a structured solution with a specialist underwriting agency, specifically workshopping the Professional Indemnity component to cover their design and advisory work. Simultaneously, we coordinated with specialised liability underwriters to ensure their physical mechanical services were protected.

This required deep-market advocacy, making outbound calls to individual underwriters to explain the nuances of the client's work in mid-to-high-rise residential and municipal buildings.

Despite a difficult market cycle and multiple initial declines, we secured a comprehensive policy that mirrored the business's actual daily operations. The client moved from the brink of being "uninsurable" to having a robust, multi-layered defence.

The firm is now fully compliant with professional standards and ready to scale their engineering consultancy, backed by a policy that recognises their technical expertise rather than just their industry category.