Six Declines. Dual Risk. One Specialist Placement.

A mechanical services firm providing HVAC maintenance, repair, and project management across commercial buildings came to us needing a complete insurance programme. The business operated across two distinct activity types - ongoing repair and maintenance work, and structured project management engagements on larger HVAC installations and upgrades.

These aren't just two names for the same risk. The project management work carried professional liability exposure - advice, scoping, oversight, and coordination decisions that could result in financial loss claims if a project went wrong. The trade services side carried physical risk - site access, equipment handling, and third-party exposure typical of Public Liability.

Most firms in this space either don't recognise the dual risk, or assume one policy covers both. Neither is true. We structured the programme from the start as a two-policy solution: Professional Indemnity for the project management side, and a separate Public Liability policy for HVAC trade services.

The PL placement was straightforward. A clean operation, no adverse claims history, and the trade services scope was well-defined. We sourced competitive terms without difficulty.

The PI was a different story. HVAC project management sits in a category that many insurers either don't want to write or price uncompetitively when they do. The combination of trades background and project management creates an occupation profile that most standard PI markets treat with caution - some decline outright, others apply heavy loadings.

We approached the PI across the specialist market. On initial placement, six insurers reviewed the risk:

• QBE - declined
• Dual - declined
• Vero - declined
• ProRisk - declined
• High Street - declined
• Keystone - declined

Woodina wrote the risk and placed the PI policy.

The core challenge is that HVAC project management doesn't fit neatly into the standard PI occupation categories most underwriters use. Underwriters comfortable with engineering consultants often draw the line at firms with a trades background. Underwriters comfortable with trades-based businesses often decline PI for project management activities entirely.

The result is a market gap that affects a significant number of HVAC operators who've moved beyond pure trade work into scoping, coordinating, and managing larger projects. The risk is real - a project management error on a multi-site HVAC upgrade could result in a significant financial loss claim - but many PI underwriters would rather leave the risk uninsured than write it.

Renewal brought a similar dynamic. The incumbent at renewal (Woodina) declined to renew. Keystone came back to market and placed the renewal. Three additional insurers - HSUA, Berkley, and Arena - also declined. Four declines in total before the renewal was secured.

This is the pattern we see with genuinely hard-to-place risks: the market doesn't warm up over time just because the client has a clean record. Each renewal requires the same active broking process.