Specialist managing general agent Euna Underwriting has expanded its building and engineering contractors professional indemnity product with fourteen policy extensions. The move follows material shifts in the liability environment for construction professionals since key provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) came into force.
The Act extended limitation periods under the Defective Premises Act 1972 to 30 years retrospectively for certain historic claims and 15 years prospectively for new ones. Those extensions, combined with a May 2025 Supreme Court ruling in URS Corporation Ltd v BDW Trading Ltd [2025] UKSC 21, have lengthened the potential liability tail for contractors, designers, and construction professionals.
The Supreme Court ruling reinforced the need for careful scrutiny of professional negligence exposures in construction, particularly where multiple parties, historic works, and remediation costs are involved.
Euna said the fourteen enhancements were built around practical exposures faced by building and engineering contractors, drawn from broker feedback and the firm's underwriting experience in the sector. Risk areas addressed include collateral warranties and duty of care agreements, subcontracted design exposure, regulatory and disciplinary proceedings, and liabilities connected with Building Information Modelling (BIM).
BIM liability has grown in relevance as digital project records take on greater legal and evidential weight under the Act's framework. The updated wording also extends cover across rectification and mitigation costs, intellectual property infringement, and loss of documents or data connected with professional services.
The product changes arrive as the UK professional indemnity market softens. A 2025 Miller report found rate reductions of 5% to 10% for construction PI risks with strong claims histories, with new capacity entering the sector and competition intensifying across professional lines.
Pete Newson, head of professional indemnity underwriting at Euna, said the coverage questions brokers face in construction PI are often complex. "Our enhancements have been developed specifically against what a building and engineering contractor needs, and they reflect the way liability falls on these projects," he said. "Fourteen extensions is a significant commitment, and every one of them has a reason behind it."
Newson said some market activity had involved adapting traditional consultants' PI wordings for construction clients. He described that approach as distinct from the contractor-specific framework underlying Euna's updated product.
The BSA has prompted wider scrutiny of how policies respond to construction liability. A 2025 analysis of the Act's Building Liability Order provisions found unresolved questions about whether standard liability policies cover liabilities transferred through corporate structures to associated entities.
The updated wording sits within Euna's PI proposition, which offers limits of up to £20 million across a range of UK professional sectors.
