The Estate Agents policy explained...
What's special about this policy?
Our policy works for you in five ways:
- You are covered for claims made against you in the course of your work for clients.
- Your defence costs, your liability to third parties and claimant's costs will be covered.
- The costs of putting a mistake right will be met if this will avoid a claim being made against you.
- In certain circumstances your fees will be covered if a client refuses to pay because of your negligent act and theatens to counter-claim if you pursue what's owed to you.
- You are automatically protected against ombudsman awards.
Your business is protected:
- against claims for negligence and breach of duty or care
- from negligent misstatement or negligent misrepresentation
- against claims for defamation
- if you inadvertently infringe someone else’s copyright
- against dishonesty of partners, directors, employees or self-employed freelancers
This means you need the protection of your own Professional Indemnity insurance.
In law, as a professional, you owe a ‘duty of care’ to the people you work for. As a property agent you could be regarded as working for those wishing to sell or let property as well as individuals looking to buy or rent. There are a large number of people who could make a claim of negligence against you.
Policy documents
The documents for our online policy are linked below:
Who's it for?
- Residental estate agents
- Commercial estate agents
- Residental land managements
- Commercial land managements
- Rating and rent reviewers
- Residental letting agents
- Commercial letting agents
- Property search consultants
Why do you need Professional Indemnity Insurance?
Whether people are looking to buy, sell, or rent, as an Agent you're involved as a professional to help your clients make the right decision.
As an agent, you could be personally liable for giving incorrect advice if, for example, you were responsible for a breach of confidential information, misrepresenting a property to a buyer or distributing inaccurate price information on property particulars.
You need Professional Indemnity insurance because you are regarded as providing a professional service. Today, people who use these services are more likely than ever to blame the professional when things go wrong.
At Blyth Valley, our experience shows that very rarely do claims arise from negligent advice, knowledge, or skill.
The chance of a claim being made against you is very small, but if a claim was made, you could find it could be very expensive to defend yourself.
That's exactly why you need the protection of your own professional indemnity insurance.
If things do go wrong, your Professional Indemnity insurance will step in to protect you against any claims of negligence that arise during your work for clients. It will pay your defence costs and any compensation for which you are found liable.
Claims example
A letting agent advised their client to purchase an insurance policy that guaranteed receipt of rent. So, when tenants of the property left the country with over £5,000 due in unpaid arrears, the client sensibly tried to claim his rent from insurers.
However, the client's claim was refused as he had failed to advise insurers within 31 days of the first rent arrears. He was unaware of such a clause and, as the letting agent's terms and conditions read that they would instigate claims under the rent guarantee insurance, he pursued them to make good his loss.
The letting agent's Professional Indemnity insurance stepped in to pay the costs before any legal proceedings began.
