Building Surveyors and Certifiers Professional Indemnity Insurance — Endorsement

Application

This endorsement attaches to and forms part of the Meridian Professional Indemnity Insurance wording, version 1.5.0-DRAFT (document reference 2026/PI/0001), referred to here as the base wording. It changes the base wording only as set out below. All other terms, conditions, exclusions and limits of the base wording continue to apply.

Words defined in the base wording have the same meaning in this endorsement. Where this endorsement and the base wording conflict, this endorsement applies to the extent of the conflict.

The same terms are published as a single integrated wording, Building Surveyors and Certifiers Professional Indemnity Insurance, version 1.1.0-DRAFT. Both documents are generated from the same source and have the same effect.

Replaced: Professional services

The definition of Professional services in the base wording is deleted and replaced with the following.

Professional services

The following services provided to a third party for a fee:

(a) building surveying, and the assessment, approval and certification of building work, under a building law of a state or territory;

(b) the inspection of building work at the stages that building law requires or permits;

(c) building compliance reports, building condition reports and fire safety reports prepared in connection with the services in (a) and (b); and

(d) any other service shown in the schedule as a professional service.

A service in (a), (b) or (c) is a professional service only if the person who provides it holds the registration, licence or accreditation that the building law requires for that function and that class of building, or provides it under the direct control and supervision of such a person to the extent that the law permits.

Added: Cover from First Registration

The following extension is added to the base wording, after the Subcontractors and Outsourcers extension.

Cover from First Registration

This extension applies to a building surveyor or certifier registered under the Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018 (NSW), and to any other building surveyor or certifier registered under a law of a state or territory that requires insurance to cover liability for work carried out since first registration.

For a claim arising from work carried out since first registration, the retroactive date is the date you were first registered under that law, if that date is earlier than the retroactive date shown in the schedule. That date applies to the claim in place of the date shown in the schedule, as the definition of the definition of Retroactive date provides.

This extension does not affect the Prior Known Circumstances exclusion.

[WP REVIEW: confirm that the NSW certifier insurance rules require cover for work carried out since first registration, whether a prior-knowledge exclusion may apply to that cover, and whether any other state has the same rule.]

Added: Building Regulator Proceedings

The following extension is added to the base wording, after the Cover from First Registration extension.

Building Regulator Proceedings

In the definition of Claim and the Inquiry Costs extension, a professional disciplinary body and a regulator include any authority of a state or territory that registers, licenses, audits or disciplines building surveyors or certifiers. A formal complaint or proceeding before such an authority is a claim within paragraph (e) of the definition of Claim, for which we pay defence costs under the Claims Against You clause. An investigation or inquiry by it that has not yet become a formal complaint or proceeding is dealt with under the Inquiry Costs extension.

Despite the Statutory Liability extension, we do not pay any fine or penalty imposed on you by such an authority, or the cost of complying with an order to carry out or pay for rectification work, except to the extent that the order compensates a third party for loss caused by your negligence.

Added: Construction Work

The following exclusion is added to the base wording, after the Products exclusion.

Construction Work

Arising from physical construction, installation, fabrication or demolition work carried out by you or on your behalf, or from defects in raw materials or goods you supplied.

This exclusion does not apply to design, contract administration, site inspection, site observation or certification services that you provide as part of your professional services.

Building Surveyors and Certifiers Endorsements

The following endorsements apply to this policy only when the schedule shows that they apply.

An endorsement does not apply to the extent that a law requiring you to hold this insurance does not permit the cover it removes to be excluded or limited.

External Cladding Exclusion

We do not cover any claim, loss or liability arising from the use, or proposed use, in a building of external wall cladding that is combustible or that does not comply with the building law that applies to the building, including any assessment, approval, certification or inspection of building work that includes that cladding.

This endorsement applies to building work in a state or territory only to the extent that, and in the terms in which, the law requiring you to hold this insurance in that state or territory permits such an exclusion. It applies as follows:

Apartment Buildings Sub-limit

For all claims arising from services for a Class 2 building under the National Construction Code, or for any building of more than three storeys, the most we will pay in total, including defence costs, is the sub-limit shown in the schedule for this endorsement. The sub-limit is part of, and not in addition to, the limit of liability.

[WP REVIEW: confirm whether the NSW minimum limit for certifiers applies to claims for Class 2 buildings, and so whether this sub-limit can lawfully apply.]

Retirement Run-off

If you permanently cease to practise as a building surveyor or certifier during the policy period, and this endorsement is shown in the schedule, the Run-Off Cover extension continues for the period shown in the schedule for this endorsement, of up to 10 years after the end of the policy period, on payment of the premium shown in the schedule.

All other terms of this policy, including the limit of liability, continue to apply to those claims.

[WP REVIEW: confirm whether NSW or any other state requires run-off cover for retired certifiers as part of compulsory insurance, so that it cannot be an optional priced endorsement.]

Pool Safety Inspections

The inspection and certification of swimming pool and spa barriers under a law of a state or territory are professional services under this policy, if the person who carries them out holds the licence or accreditation that the law requires.

Fire Performance Solutions Exclusion

We do not cover any claim, loss or liability arising from your assessment or approval of a performance solution under the National Construction Code that relates to fire safety, unless the performance solution was prepared by a person registered or accredited to prepare it under the law of the state or territory where the building is located.