Introduction

EWS1 surveys covered under the scheme will be subject to an audit process. DLUHC will be appointing qualified RICS and IFE members to undertake the audits. The purpose of the audit is to ensure that surveys are complete and consistent, and to ensure that the survey was conducted according to PAS 9980.

The process will take a sample of EWS1s covered by the scheme and will review the associated technical report that underpins the EWS1 form to identify the extent to which it complies with the process detailed in PAS 9980. This will be an objective process using a standardised feedback form to audit the EWS1 form and associated technical report and to record findings.

By partaking in the scheme, assessors agree to respond to any requests that may arise regarding your EWS1 survey. If audits find significant quality issues with surveys, Government reserves the right to decline to offer further insurance cover under the scheme.

Professional indemnity Insurance is a commercial policy designed to cover the cost of compensating a business or individual (i.e., an insured) against claims from clients or third parties for loss or damage resulting from negligent services or advice provided by that business or individual.

The Government is taking the unprecedented step of setting up a professional indemnity insurance scheme for building assessors to ensure that appropriate insurance cover is available to assessors completing an EWS1 form.

The EWS1 PII cover is different from traditional Professional Indemnity (PI) insurance. The policy will cover a single EWS1 survey, on a specific building. It should be seen as additional cover to any existing general PI cover you may hold.

A policy issued as part of the Government backed professional indemnity insurance scheme (which will be offered (i.e. quoted and bound) by MGAM) is designed to cover a claim arising from an EWS1 form whilst it is valid (an EWS1 form being valid either for five years from date of issue or until it is superseded by a more recent EWS1 form where the EWS1 form was issued for a single survey for a single building and where such claim relates to:

• civil liabilities arising from negligence in performing surveys;
• ombudsman’s awards; and
• legal defence costs against civil court claims.

The Government backed professional indemnity insurance scheme has the following policy limits:

• £2m (two million British pounds) in the aggregate in respect of buildings that are 11m up to 18m in height;
• £5m (five million British pounds) in the aggregate in respect of buildings that are above 18m up to 30m in height; and
• £10m (ten million British pounds) in the aggregate in respect of buildings that are above 30m in height.

The policy will respond to claims made in the future if the following conditions have been met:

(i)    Claims must relate to a valid EWS1 form. An EWS1 form is valid for five years;

(ii)   Should a loss arise when the EWS1 form was valid and relied upon by others e.g. mortgage lenders, valuers, buyers, sellers etc;

(iii)  The loss is within the terms of the policy; and

(iv) The statutory limitation period on claims has not expired

For example, an EWS1 survey conducted in year 1 is used by a mortgage lender to make lending decisions. If a new EWS1 survey carried out in year 7 concludes that the previous form had an incorrect rating, the policy would respond to claims for losses where the EWS1 was relied upon by parties because the EWS1 form was valid when used by the mortgage lender and it is within the terms of the policy and statutory limitation period. However, if a mortgage lender relied on the EWS1 in year 6 to make a lending decision and subsequently found in year 7 that the rating was incorrect, the policy would not respond to that claim because the EWS1 form had expired at the time the form was relied upon to make a decision.

If you provide advice, designs or any other professional service to your clients (as is the case when completing an EWS1 form), either as a self-employed individual or for a company, you should give serious consideration to taking out professional indemnity insurance. Without it, you could be liable for thousands of pounds worth of legal fees and compensation payments payable to your client if you are found to have been negligent in your services to them.

In addition, many clients will require you to have professional indemnity insurance in place in order to begin work on a contract, or your industry association’s membership requirements may stipulate that you must hold a minimum limit of cover.

Here are some reasons why you may need Professional Indemnity Insurance:

• You provide expert advice and consultancy therefore clients can claim compensation if there is a mistake in the advice or report you have provided.
• You provide an expert service, therefore a client of yours may require you have it as many clients will require that you have professional indemnity insurance in place before you can start working for them.
• Your professional body insists you have it – You might belong to a professional body or industry association such as RICS, IFE, CABE where professional indemnity insurance is compulsory:

• All RICS-regulated firms must have adequate and appropriate professional indemnity arrangements under the requirements of the RICS Rules of Conduct for Firms.
• All IFE-regulated firms must hold adequate professional indemnity insurance, where required, under the requirements of the IFE Code of Conduct.

Public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance are both types of insurance that cover compensation claims, however, the nature of the claims covered by these insurances are different: public liability insurance is designed to cover claims by members of the public arising for injury, illness or damage whereas professional indemnity insurance is designed to cover claims by clients for professional mistakes or negligence. Therefore, assessors will not be covered by public liability insurance for claims resulting from negligent services and advice arising from their issuance of an EWS1 form.

No, this scheme will only cover EWS1 surveys.

This insurance policy needs to be purchased as soon as you have been appointed to undertake an EWS1 survey, and before you undertake the survey.

Coverage commences on the date the policy is purchased. Cover will stop on the date which the EWS1 form is completed by the insured.

Once the EWS1 form is completed, you have 14 days to submit it to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities via the Assessor Portal.

The policy will respond to claims made in the future if the following conditions have been met:

(i)    Claims must relate to a valid EWS1 form. An EWS1 form is valid for five years;

(ii)   Should a loss arise when the EWS1 form was valid and relied upon by others e.g. mortgage lenders, valuers, buyers, sellers etc;

(iii)  The loss is within the terms of the policy; and

(iv) The statutory limitation period on claims has not expired

For example, an EWS1 survey conducted in year 1 is used by a mortgage lender to make lending decisions. If a new EWS1 survey carried out in year 7 concludes that the previous form had an incorrect rating, the policy would respond to claims for losses where the EWS1 was relied upon by parties because the EWS1 form was valid when used by the mortgage lender and it is within the terms of the policy and statutory limitation period. However, if a mortgage lender relied on the EWS1 in year 6 to make a lending decision and subsequently found in year 7 that the rating was incorrect, the policy would not respond to that claim because the EWS1 form had expired at the time the form was relied upon to make a decision.

For help and support please contact our Customer Service Team.

No – we are only able to provide cover for businesses domiciled/registered within the UK.

All claims under this insurance are to be notified to the Insurer’s appointed claims representative, Caytons Law LLP using one of the following methods and quoting the policy reference:

Telephone: + 44 (0) 808 175 0850 

Email: EWS1Claims@caytonslaw.com

Please do not respond to the potential claimant until you have spoken to us.

All claims under this insurance are to be notified to the Insurer’s appointed claims representative, Caytons Law LLP using one of the following methods and quoting the policy reference:

Telephone: + 44 (0) 808 175 0850 

Email: EWS1Claims@caytonslaw.com

Please do not respond to the potential claimant until you have spoken to us.

An excess of 2.5% of EWS1 turnover at the time the policy was issued (actual or expected) will be payable for each and every claim. This is subject to a minimum of £5,000 and a maximum of £75,000.

Each claim is unique and may involve a degree of investigation or assessment. For this reason we cannot definitely predict how long each claim will take.

All claims under this insurance are to be notified to the Insurer’s appointed claims representative, Caytons Law LLP using one of the following methods and quoting the policy reference:

Telephone: + 44 (0) 808 175 0850 

Email: EWS1Claims@caytonslaw.com

Please do not respond to the potential claimant until you have spoken to us.

A claim against a policy will not prevent an assessor undertaking new work providing the assessor meets the eligibility criteria set out by RICS and IFE.

We try hard to live up to our promises but sometimes you may feel we have fallen short. If so, and you have a complaint, in the first instance you should contact Caytons Law LLP using one of the following methods and quoting the policy reference.

Telephone: + 44 (0) 808 175 0850 

Email: ews1complaints@caytonslaw.com or

By writing to: Caytons Law LLP, 85 Gracechurch Street, London, EC3V 0AA.

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing, within five (5) working days of receipt, send you a copy of our complaints procedure and advise you who is dealing with your complaint.

If you remain dissatisfied after Caytons Law LLP has considered the complaint you should contact MGAM Limited by email:  complaints@mgamutual.com

If we cannot resolve matters to your satisfaction, you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of receiving our final response:

The Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR
Tel: 0845 080 1800

Making a complaint does not affect any of your legal rights.

You can cancel at any time provided you have not completed the EWS1 form and uploaded it to the Assessor Portal.

To cancel your policy please log onto My Account using this link Customer Login. and click “Make a Change” or contact our Customer Service Team.

Note when cancelling your policy all cover will cease from the start of your policy (ab initio) and no cover will be in place for any work completed.

You can cancel at any time provided you have not completed the EWS1 form and uploaded it to the Assessor Portal.

To cancel your policy please log onto My Account using this link Customer Login. and click “Make a Change” or contact our Customer Service Team.

Note when cancelling your policy all cover will cease from the start of your policy (ab initio) and no cover will be in place for any work completed.

If you have already paid for your policy and not made a claim, we will return all the premium you have paid to us. If you have not paid for your policy, no return premium will be due.

Subject to confirming your bank details, we aim to have all return premiums back with you within 5 days.

No but you can contact our Customer Service Team for assistance.

MGAM Limited is a registered company in England with company no. 09742763. MGAM Limited registered office is Walsingham House Ninth Floor, 35 Seething Lane, London, EC3N 4AH.

MGAM Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 835270 to carry out insurance distribution activities.

The Financial Services Register can be accessed at register.fca.org.uk/s/

Under the FCA regulations an ‘advised sale’ is one where you are given a personal recommendation as to the suitability of one product against another to meet your insurance needs.

A ‘non-advised sale’ is one where a recommendation is not made.  Information is provided leaving you to decide how you wish to proceed.

As we only place insurance policies with one insurer, SCOR, we feel it would be inappropriate to offer ‘advice’.  We do not therefore make any recommendations and do not compare the products we have on offer against those that may be offered by other insurers.

We will, however, provide you with sufficient information to enable you to decide as to whether the policy we are offering meets your demands and needs.

If you are seeking the services of an insurance broker who may be able to give advice, then contact BIBA www.biba.org.uk/

A “Claims Occurring” policy provides coverage for when the incident occurred.

A “Claims Made” policy provides coverage for claims when the incident is reported.

An example would be if there was fault in work that you carried out ten years ago, but it has only just been reported today. If, at the time, you had a “Claims Made” policy in place but the policy has since not been renewed then you are not covered by insurance.

However, if you had a “Claims Occurring” policy in force at the time the work was carried out then you can report the claim to the insurer who held that policy at the time, even if you have switched insurer several times since then.

The cover under the scheme is on a “Claims Occurring” basis.

Liability policies have a policy ‘limit’ – the maximum amount that we will pay out. If the limit is ‘any one claim’ this means that the most we will pay out per claim is the limit specified. You could have several claims in the same policy period and whilst each would be subject to the specified limit there would be no overall limit.

If the policy is on an ‘aggregate’ basis then the limit is the maximum we will pay out in the policy period irrespective of the number of claims you may have.

‘Civil Liability’ is any liability that you may incur other than a criminal one. It therefore includes, amongst others, negligence, defamation, unintentional breach of copyright etc.

Some liabilities are excluded so it is important that you read the relevant summary of cover for a more detailed explanation of the cover we provide.

Using the principle of ‘utmost good faith’ you should disclose all the material facts about your risk which you know or should know.

A material fact has been defined in a number of legal cases and broadly it is ‘any fact which may influence the judgement of a prudent [insurance] underwriter in deciding whether to accept a risk and if so at what premium [and terms]’

If in doubt as to whether some piece of information is relevant contact us anyway – Customer Service Team.

The ‘excess’ is the amount you have to contribute to a claim.

If there is a £100 excess on your policy and the claim comes to, say £500, we would pay you £400, and you would have to bear the first £100 yourself.

A survey is the External Wall Fire Review (EWS1 survey) carried out by a fully qualified competent member of a relevant professional body with sufficient expertise to identify and assess the relevant materials within the external wall cladding and attachments, including whether fire resisting cavity barriers and fire stopping have been installed correctly.

The EWS1 survey is to be carried out for valuation purposes only. It’s about the safety of different types of external wall systems used in residential buildings located across the United Kingdom and will determine whether or not remedial works are required, thereby affecting value. It is not designed to assess other fire safety features or risks and should never be used to determine the overall risk of fire to a building. It is not a life safety certificate.

The report must be completed in accordance with the guidance given in PAS 9980:2022 Fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding (FRAEW) of existing blocks of flats and be signed by the First Named Insured.

What does PAS 9980:2022 cover?
It gives recommendations and guidance on undertaking a fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding of an existing multistorey, multi occupied residential building. A fire risk appraisal of external wall construction and cladding is described in this PAS as a fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW).

The EWS1 form was created by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the Building Societies Association (BSA) and UK Finance and came into effect from December 2019. It has since been revised twice and is now in its third edition.

It is a document designed to allow residential building owners to confirm that a building’s external wall system has been assessed by a suitable expert, providing assurance for lenders, valuers, residents, buyers and sellers.

Once an external wall system has been assessed by a suitably accredited and competent expert, they can complete either option A or option B of the form, depending on their findings.

Option A is completed where the building does not contain materials likely to support combustion or does contain materials likely to support combustion, but only to an attachment (such as a balcony).

Option B is to be completed where there are known combustible primary materials in the external wall system, which includes any external cladding, insulation, support framework or sub-structure.

Both options have specific sub-categories which clarify the risk associated with the competent person’s findings.

A copy of the Professional Appointment Letter can be found by following the links below

• Agreed Form Professional Appointment
• Agreed Form Professional Appointment (Scotland)

As a condition of the policy, you must use the professional appointment letter provided to enter into a contract with a building owner, their agent, or others with an interest in the building (such as a lender).

Using the professional appointment letter ensures that your appointment and the scope of work is appropriately covered by our insurance policy.