Public liability insurance for tradies in Australia

Public liability insurance is there for when your work causes injury to someone else, or damage to their property, and you are found responsible. Think a customer tripping over your gear, water damage from a job that went wrong, or a tool that marks a floor you did not mean to touch. It can cover the compensation and the legal costs that come with a claim.

What it does not cover is your own tools, your own injuries, or faults in your actual workmanship. Those are separate types of cover. Every policy has its own limits, exclusions and excess, so read the product disclosure statement and ask your insurer what is in and what is out before you rely on it.

Plenty of customers now ask to see a certificate of currency before they let you start, and many commercial sites, builders and government jobs will not let you on without one. It is often written into the contract or the site induction, so no cover can mean no work.

It also does a quiet job of making you look like a proper business. A tradie who can email a certificate on request reads as sorted and trustworthy. Some licensing or registration schemes may expect a level of cover too, and this varies by state and territory, so check the requirements where you work and for the type of work you do.

Cover is set as a limit, which is the most the policy will pay for a claim. The levels you will see quoted are commonly in the millions, and the right number depends on your trade, the sites you work on and what your contracts demand. Larger and commercial jobs tend to ask for higher limits than domestic work.

There is no single correct figure, and premiums vary a lot by trade, turnover, claims history and where you are based. Do not treat a number you read online as a fixed price or a fixed requirement. Get a quote for your own circumstances and ask a broker what limit suits the work you actually take on.

Public liability is one piece. Tool insurance covers your gear against theft or damage, which matters when a stolen trailer can stop you working overnight. Income protection can help replace some of your income if you are hurt or ill and cannot work, which is a real risk when the business is just you.

Depending on your trade and setup you might also look at professional indemnity, product liability, or vehicle cover. If you have staff, workers compensation is generally required by law, and how it works varies by state and territory. What you need depends on your trade, your location and how you operate, so this is a conversation for a broker or insurer, not a checklist to guess at.

Insurance protects you when something goes wrong. Good records help you avoid the argument in the first place. Clear quotes, photos of the site before and after, signed acceptances and proper invoices all help show what was agreed and what was done if a dispute ever comes up.

ONARA Ops keeps that trail in one place: branded quotes customers accept online, job notes and photos, and tidy tax invoices, all on your own brand. It does not sell or arrange insurance, but it keeps the paperwork around your jobs clean, so you spend less time digging and more time on the tools.