What is an indemnity in a tender?
A promise to make the other party whole for named losses. It sits next to liability caps, consequential loss, and the insurance schedule. Together they decide what you carry if you win. A pretty methodology will not move any of them.
Public packs often use a standard form the buyer will not rewrite. Private packs hide the same exposure in a shorter PDF. In both cases the bid/no-bid is whether the firm can carry the clause today, not whether a lawyer might chip it in month two.
When is unlimited a no-bid?
When the cap is missing, or sits above what insurance will meet, or the indemnity outruns both. Question 9 and 11 on the scorecard exist for this. A ninety on strategy with a twenty on risk is a no-bid. The axes are not averaged.
Unlimited consequential loss is the quiet sibling. Indirect, economic, loss of profit: numbers that do not sit in a simple cap. If the definition section moves the cap, believe the definition. Models miss this. So do tired readers who started at page one.
What does insurance have to do with the call?
The schedule has to respond to the clause as written. A certificate that covers “professional indemnity” does not automatically cover an unlimited contractual indemnity. If you have not checked, this question is a no, which makes risk a review at best.
Parent guarantees pull the exposure up the group. If the parent will not sign, or the cap is the group’s bad year, stop before the bidding entity looks cheap. That flag is on the list of fifteen for a reason.
What should the room do today?
Name the clause. Owner, date, what cleared looks like. Send legal the clause, not the pack with “have a look.” If it cannot be cleared in the window, it is a no-bid. Starting the response while it is unread is how a zombie puts on a better suit.
This is not legal advice. It is a filter so the bid/no-bid has a fact on the risk axis. Payment terms that bank the client are the neighbouring read: cash-flow risk in the schedule.