A developer's contract requires a stated level of cover. The consultancy holds less, nobody checks until the appointment documents are circulated, and three weeks of programme are lost renegotiating something that could have been established in an email.
Nobody did anything wrong. Nobody asked either.
The checklist
Expect these and answer them confidently.
1. What cover is held
The type and the level, stated plainly. Clients on larger projects need it and smaller clients are reassured by it.
2. Whether it meets the contract requirement
Because contracts specify levels and a mismatch is discovered late. Asking to see the requirement early is the professional move.
3. Whether cover can be increased for a project
Whether project specific cover is available, what it costs and who bears it. It is frequently possible and rarely discussed.
4. How long cover continues
That claims can arise years later and what happens if the firm ceases to trade. It is the question sophisticated clients actually care about.
5. What the policy excludes
Categories of work outside the cover, which matters when a project involves something unusual.
6. Whether public liability is held
Separately, for site attendance. Clients and contractors frequently require evidence before anybody visits a site.
7. What evidence can be provided
A certificate, a summary or a broker's confirmation, and how quickly. Clients need it for their own records.
8. Who else is covered
Subconsultants, subcontractors and anybody else contributing. Clients assume one appointment means one insured party.
9. What happens with a collateral warranty request
Whether the firm gives them, on what terms and what it means for cover. It arrives from developers and funders and catches smaller practices out.
10. Whether liability is limited
Any cap in the appointment terms, stated openly. Clients should see it before they sign rather than discover it in a dispute, which is the clarity in drawing and deliverable questions clients misjudge.
11. What the client's own obligations are
Providing accurate information, instructing changes properly and not relying on outputs beyond their scope. Liability runs both ways.
12. How a concern would be handled
Who to contact, how it is investigated and the process. Clients who ask want to know there is one, not that nothing ever goes wrong.
Explain what happens on a long running project
Cover is renewed annually and projects run for years, so clients want to know that the position at appointment still holds at completion. Saying that cover is maintained, that evidence can be provided at any point and what would happen if it changed is the reassurance that matters on anything lasting more than a season.
Say what you will not sign
Appointment documents arrive with terms that no consultancy could reasonably accept, and it is better to say so at the outset than at the eleventh hour. Naming the clauses you decline, and what you offer instead, saves a fortnight of legal correspondence on every project.
Publish the position
Cover held, whether it can be increased and what evidence you provide. It is a short paragraph and it wins the buyers who check, which is the same habit as insurance and qualification questions customers should ask.
Ask for the requirement early
At enquiry, alongside scope and programme, before anybody prices anything, which is the sequence in turnaround questions clients ask under pressure.
Answer these questions at any hour
Because procurement teams work when they work, which is the availability in how financial advisors use chatbots to answer client questions.
Getting started
Publish your cover, what evidence you provide and whether it can be increased, then capture contract requirements at enquiry at any hour. SpideyChat for professional services firms answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.