Fire Protection Consultancy PI: What the Market Covers and What It Doesn't

A NSW-based fire protection consultancy with two staff and around $250,000 in annual turnover approached us for Professional Indemnity cover. Their consulting work covered fire safety reports, sprinkler system specifications, NCC/BCA compliance assessments, and related advisory services.

They were seeking $1M PI cover for their professional and advisory activities. On the surface, a straightforward request. In practice, the occupation created friction in the PI market that required some persistence to resolve.

We took the risk to four insurers across the standard and specialist PI markets. Three declined on occupation, unwilling to offer standalone PI for this type of fire protection consultancy.

Woodina was the exception. Their underwriter reviewed the consulting scope and quoted at approximately $1,700 gross premium for the advisory activities. We obtained those terms and presented them with a full explanation of what the policy covered and where its boundaries sat.

The core difficulty isn't unusual for fire protection consultancies, but it catches people off guard. The PI market is selective about which fire safety occupations it will write, and three of the four insurers we approached declined outright rather than engage with the risk.

Woodina was prepared to quote, and their underwriter was clear about the scope they were covering. That clarity upfront is what makes a policy useful when a claim eventually arises. A policy with well-defined boundaries is more valuable than broad wording that hasn't been properly tested against your actual work.

The risk for consultancies in this position is not being uninsurable. It's accepting a policy without understanding exactly what it responds to, and finding out at claim time that assumptions were wrong.