{"id":504641,"date":"2026-03-31T05:04:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:04:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:04:18","slug":"architects-face-more-cautious-underwriting-following-withdrawal-of-pii-firm-wren-lawyers-warn-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504641\/","title":{"rendered":"Architects face more cautious underwriting following withdrawal of PII firm Wren, lawyers warn | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Professional<\/p>\n

Architects face \u201cimmediate uncertainty\u201d following the withdrawal of a major insurance provider from the market, a construction law firm has warned.<\/p>\n

Trowers & Hamlins said practices could be landed with more cautious underwriting, exclusions and narrower protections on projects as a result of the Wren Insurance Association\u2019s decision to pull the plug on underwriting new insurance business.<\/p>\n

Wren has been one of the only insurers providing meaningful professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover for cladding since the 2017 Grenfell fire, which resulted in a drastic increase in the volume of claims relating to cladding and fire risks.<\/p>\n

But in a statement last week, the mutual said it was conducting a solvent exit from the market which will see it continue to meet its liabilities but stop all offers for renewal terms from 1 July this year.<\/p>\n

The member-owned firm said it had made the \u201cdifficult decision\u201d due to a high number of claims related to cladding, mostly involving work dating before 2019, which had made it necessary to increase calls on its members.\u00a0It added that a significant number of members had decided to leave the Wren following a supplementary call in March last year, meaning the business now lacks the necessary size to offer competitive insurance cover.<\/p>\n

Trowers & Hamlins senior associate Edward Henley said Wren\u2019s withdrawal means many practices will encounter insurer-imposed terms for the first time, instead of the \u201cbespoke, member driven structure Wren offered\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also warned of the implications for clients appointing architects, including the risk of limitations on cover for higher risk work and changes in policy wording.<\/p>\n

Henley is among several insurance and built environment experts who have made warnings about the impact of Wren\u2019s withdrawal over the past week.<\/p>\n

Former Wren director of risk Management Margaret Wright said the firm\u2019s solvent exit was \u201cnot good news for architects generally,\u201d adding: \u201cWren quietly did good work for the profession in the background. Simply put it was more than an PI insurer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former head of fabric at Barclays\u2019 ASS Facility Services Paul Garner said it represented a \u201csystemic failure surfacing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears of unclear regulation, shifting guidance, and inconsistent building control around cladding have created a perfect storm of retrospective liability. Insurers are now reacting to that uncertainty and exiting,\u201d Garner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlaming government alone is too simplistic. But it\u2019s hard to ignore that a lack of early clarity and enforceable standards has pushed disproportionate risk onto designers and their insurers. Until risk is more fairly allocated and regulatory certainty improves, capacity will keep shrinking and the whole supply chain will feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Architects face \u201cimmediate uncertainty\u201d following the withdrawal of a major insurance provider from the market, a construction law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-504641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}