Insurance for Historic Preservation Consultants
Coverage for historic preservation architects and consultants: architectural historians, historic structure reports, conditions assessments, Section 106 review, and federal and state historic tax credit applications from Part 1 through Part 3.
Owners, lenders and agencies make large decisions on your judgment. A lost tax credit, a treatment that damaged original material, or a review that stalled a project can each turn into a claim that asks what you advised.
Where Preservation Consultants Carry Risk
Historic tax credits
Credits are often a large share of a project’s financing. If Part 2 or Part 3 is denied, or work did not follow the approved treatment, investors may look to the consultant for the lost credits.
Recommended treatments
A cleaning method, mortar or coating you recommend can harm masonry, wood or finishes. Damage to historic fabric is hard to undo and costly to repair.
Section 106 and agency review
Federal review can add months. A finding of effect or a missed resource can delay a project, and delay claims follow the schedule.
Conditions assessments relied on
Owners and buyers price work from your assessment. Conditions you did not see, or did not say you could not see, become the dispute.
Significance and integrity findings
Your period of significance and list of character defining features decide what can be changed or removed. A missed feature can mean an owner demolishes something the SHPO later says had to stay.
The Stack Most Historic Preservation Consultants Carry.
Professional liability carries most of the risk. Contracts drive the rest.
Hover a layer to see what it covers. Every firm is different, so treat this as a starting point.
The Windows that Cost the Credit.
A preservation consultant prepares the Part 2 application for a warehouse conversion. The approved scope repairs the original steel windows. During construction the contractor replaces them with a new system the consultant reviewed by email but did not submit as an amendment. The Part 3 is denied, and the investor claims about $2.4 million in lost federal credits.
The questions that follow: did the contract make the consultant responsible for amendments and construction monitoring, did the consultant tell the owner in writing that the change needed approval, and who chose to proceed. Clear roles during construction matter as much as the application itself.
Hypothetical example for illustration. Coverage for any claim depends on the policy terms and the facts.
Clauses Historic Preservation Consultants See Most.
Approval belongs to the agency. Ask for language that you will prepare and submit the application, not that you will obtain approval. Many policies exclude guarantees.
Credits can be worth many times your fee and depend on work by others. Ask to tie responsibility to your negligence and to cap it.
Tax credit investors are sophisticated and well funded claimants. Limit reliance to your client or name the others and the purpose.
Carriers Don’t Always Understand What You Do.
Design work is easy to describe badly on an application. When it is, the policy that gets written may not fit the way you actually practice.
When the work is misread
- Written on a general business form instead of a professional liability form
- “Professional services” defined too narrowly for site visits or construction administration
- Limits picked to match one contract, not the way your firm works
- Past projects left uncovered after a change of insurance company
How we submit your firm
- Your services described the way you deliver them, phase by phase
- Revenue split by discipline and project type
- Policy forms built for design firms
- Retro dates checked every time the policy moves
Questions We Hear From Historic Preservation Consultants.
Most questions reach us right before a contract is signed or a policy is bound. They are usually about what a client's contract demands and what happens when a consultant makes a mistake.
Answers are general. Your policy and your contract always control.
Ask yours on a 15-minute callMy client sent insurance wording for the certificate. Is this normal?
Usually, yes. Additional insured, waiver of subrogation, primary and non-contributory and 30-day notice show up in most owner and builder contracts. Many business policies include blanket wording that applies when a written contract requires it. We check the contract against your actual endorsements before the certificate goes out.
Am I covered if a claim comes from a consultant I hired?
Your consultants need their own professional liability. If you get pulled into a claim because of their work, your policy may respond to defend you. It depends on the policy and the facts, so it is decided claim by claim. Collecting their certificates up front helps.
What retro date will I get if I switch carriers?
Keeping your existing retro date is the goal when you move. It depends on the carrier and your history. Some carriers start a new firm at inception and extend prior acts after a year. We confirm it in writing before you bind.
Does a limitation of liability clause lower my premium?
With some carriers, yes, when you use it consistently. The credit usually applies from the point you start using it, not to past projects.
Does professional liability cover a lost historic tax credit?
It can, if the loss comes from an error in your professional services and the policy does not exclude it. Some policies limit claims for financial or tax outcomes, so we read the exclusions with tax credit work in mind.
What limits do preservation consultants carry?
Commonly $1M per claim and $2M aggregate. Firms working on large tax credit projects often carry more because the credits at stake can exceed standard limits. We look at your largest projects before recommending a limit.
What if a treatment I recommended damaged the building?
A claim for damage caused by your recommendation is usually a professional liability question. Testing, mockups and clear instructions in the specification help show the care you took. Coverage depends on the policy and the facts.
Can I be blamed for a Section 106 delay?
A delay alone is not an error, since the agency controls the review. Claims tend to follow when a resource was missed or a deadline in your scope was not met. This is general information, not legal advice.
Straight Answers
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Send us your current policy or application. We’ll tell you how your work reads to an underwriter.
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Starting out or renewing, with a policy in hand or not. If something is worth discussing, we’ll call. If not, we’ll say so.