A look at both the legal situation and an architect's responsibilities relating to professional indemnity, public liability, buildings and construction insurances.

There are two references in the RIBA Core Curriculum Syllabus for CPD relating to insurances:

• Practice Management - Risk management
  Manage risk in relation to construction and consultants contracts, liabilities, indemnities and insurance and awareness of mechanisms such as insurance to deal with liabilities.
• Managing Projects - Risk management
  Manage commercial, statutory and technical risk in relation to building operations, construction and consultants contracts, liabilities, indemnities and insurance and awareness of mechanisms such as insurance to deal with liabilities.

The background to this session is therefore the need for architects to understand a number of types of insurance and the implications of taking out the right level of cover.
The session will cover the legal situation, an update on issues around insurance requirements, the need for PII and PL for individuals and practices, building insurances during and after construction, insurances required by various forms of contract and an architects’ responsibilities to clients, staff and the general public that need to be covered.

It will also include information and pointers for delegates to enable them to understand how to deal with brokers and agents as well as the correct way to handle claims and avoid litigation arising out of insurance related issues.

The seminar gives you three hours of general awareness and detailed knowledge CPD under aspects of the 'Practice Management', 'Professional Context' and 'Managing Projects' sections of the RIBA Core Curriculum.

Speaker: Peter Godfrey is one of the directors at the RIBA Insurance Agency covering issues ranging from policy wordings to advice on contractual questions. He is a regular contributor to the RIBA journal and also speaks at a number of Schools of Architecture (Part 3 courses) and national and regional RIBA events. Peter has worked with architects for over 20 years and also gains an understanding of the needs of the industry from a number of family connections involved in construction.