When you are making decisions about hiring an architect, engineer or other licensed building professional it is important to verify that they carry Errors & Omissions Insurance (E&O). As a client, errors and omissions insurance protects you from major professional mistakes that cause you financial harm. While it is always better to try to work through issues on building projects, there is risk that you may not be able to work through major errors or omissions. If your design professional does not carry E&O they are unlikely to have the funds to rectify the situation.
Most architecture and engineering firms have E&O insurance in varied amounts depending on the risk associated with their projects. It can be a large expense and some smaller individuals and firms may forgo the cost. As a client, you should not use these firms that do not have E&O.
What you should do is ask your architect, engineer or other licensed building professional to verify their policy. If you do repeat work with a firm you can ask them to add you as a policy certificate holder and you’ll receive new copies at each renewal or policy change.
In case you’re curious, EVstudio does carry E&O and has never had a claim against our policy.
