Qld Electrician Insurance Requirements
We’ve helped thousands of Queensland electricians and have extensive knowledge of the insurance requirements for your electrical contractors licence.
Electrician insurance is our major specialty, and 1 in 10 licensed electrical contractors in Queensland already have their insurance with Trade Risk!
QLD electricians require the following insurance for their licence:
- Public Liability Insurance: $5,000,000
- Consumer Protection: $50,000
- Name on the policy must match exactly the name on the licence
We can assist with your public liability insurance, as well as the consumer protection coverage that is vital for your licence application or renewal.
Whether you just need the minimum cover for your licence, or you run a large electrical contracting company and need a full business insurance package, we can help.
To get started call us on 07 3856 1301 or hit the button below.
If you’re not ready for a quote and are just after information on the insurance requirements for your Qld electrical contractors licence, check out some of these topics from our comprehensive guide:
- What insurance is required?
- How do I meet the requirements?
- How much insurance do you need?
- Qld electrician insurance cost
- What is consumer protection insurance?
- Other types of electricians insurance
- How Trade Risk can help
Our head office is located in Brisbane, and from here we assist thousands of electricians and other tradies from all over Qld and the rest of Australia.
If you’re in Brisbane and would prefer to deal with us in-person rather than online or over the phone, you can always drop in for a visit. Our office details can be found here.
What insurance is required?
Section 43 of the Electrical Safety Regulation Act 2002 requires that contractors have public liability insurance for at least $5,000,000 under a contract of insurance approved by the chief executive.
Furthermore, the policy must include coverage of $50,000 in consumer protection insurance.
The consumer protection insurance is not a separate policy, and instead is an automatic inclusion in your public liability insurance. Whenever you request a quote from us, as long as you say you’re a Qld electrician, your can be assured that the policy will meet the requirements.
How do I meet this requirement?
The easy answer is this – get your policy from Trade Risk, because we insure around 1,000 licensed electrical contractors in Queensland, and we know exactly what you need for your licence!
But if you want to know for yourself, what you need is an insurance policy that can have a certificate of currency issued in accordance with the following Government requirement:
Under section 51 of the Electrical Safety Regulation 2013, Queensland electrical contractors are required to hold current broadform public and products liability insurance of at least $5,000,000 and Consumer Protection Liability of at least $50,000 under a contract of insurance issued in the name of the applicant.
On your licence application you will need to acknowledge the following:
By ticking the check box, I, the authorised person, confirm the following;
- The electrical contractor licence applicant (as named in section 1 of this application) holds current broadform public and products liability insurance of at least $5,000,000 under a contract of insurance, including consumer protection insurance of at least $50,000 at the time of making this application.
- The above insurance cover is in the legal name of the applicant (that is the same name as applicant stated in section 1).
- I hold documentary evidence of the currency of the above insurance cover, which is available for auditing purposes (see guidelines).
The policy issued must cover all of the following:
- liability arising from testing and certification of work in accordance with the ES Regulation
- injury or damage arising from faulty design work performed by you including where you did not charge a specific fee for such design work
- injury or damage arising from incorrect advice including where you did not charge a specific fee for such advice
- goods in your care, custody or control.
We can confirm that all policies issued to Qld electricians by Trade Risk meet these requirements.
How much insurance do you need?
Although it’s clear that $5 million is the minimum level of public liability insurance required by Qld electricians, how much should you actually have?
Sometimes this will be obvious. For example if you sign a contract with a builder and their minimum is stipulated as $10 million, then that’s the amount you’ll need.
If you’re undertaking work at schools or shopping centres etc, they will often stipulate that $20 million is the minimum requirement.
But what if no one has told you how much you need? Should you just go with the minimum, or should you have more?
Even as insurance brokers we can’t specifically tell you how much cover you need, but what we can do is tell you what other electricians are going with.
We looked at our own data for electricians and found that just over half (54%) went with the minimum $5m cover, 20% chose $10m and 26% opted for the maximum $20m coverage.
This is based on electricians who purchased their policy online via our website, so they will typically be our smaller clients. Our larger electrical contracting clients are more likely to choose the maximum $20m cover.
None of this means a certain level of cover is right or wrong, but it is good to know what other electricians are choosing.
Qld electrician insurance cost
The cost of an electricians insurance policy that meets the Qld licence requirements will depend on a few different factors.
If you’re a business with 1-2 licensed electricians, needing the minimum cover of $5 million public liability and $50k consumer protection, you’ll be looking at just over $500.
To bump it up to the maximum $20 million the premium will increase by around $150 a year. The consumer protection cover is fixed at $50k and cannot be increased.
If you have more than two licensed electricians in the business the premium will increase in line with the number of staff.
Working in high-risk locations such as power stations and mine sites will also increase the cost. In this case our brokers will need to seek coverage for you from a specialist provider. Whilst this will increase the premium considerably in some cases, you will have the peace of mind knowing that you are properly covered.
What is consumer protection insurance?
Good question! Most electricians know they need consumer protection insurance for their licence, but don’t know too much about what it actually covers.
First up it’s important to understand that consumer protection is only required (and relevant) for domestic electrical work. We have some clients contacting us concerned that the consumer protection section of their policy only mentions domestic work, when they’re also doing commercial work.
Consumer protection only covers domestic work, but this has no impact upon the public liability section of your policy. Your public liability will cover commercial work, as long as it’s within the guidelines that are clearly laid out on our quotes and policies.
Consumer protection insurance for Qld electricians is intended to cover the following:
- Defects in Domestic Electrical Work
- any Trade Practices Liability
- liability arising from the testing of the Insured’s own work and the work of others
- Personal Injury or Damage to Property arising from incorrect advice or faulty design work performed by the Insured, where the Insured did not charge a specific fee for such advice or design work
- Non-Completion of Domestic Electrical Work
- Consumer Protection
The above wording is from one particular insurer’s policy and and may differ to others, but as this is a mandatory form of cover, it is more or less the same for all insurers who offer the consumer protection option for Qld electricians.
Basically it is protecting your clients against a few extra risks that a typical public liability policy might not cover on its own.
Other types of electricians insurance
Whilst public liability insurance is the one that is needed for your electrical contractor licence, there are other forms of insurance worth considering.
As a full service insurance brokerage, Trade Risk can assist with a wide range of electrician insurance types to suit your business.
You can read more about them in our dedicated electrician insurance guide, but here’s a brief explanation for some of the common types:
Personal Accident Insurance
As an electrician you rely on your ability to do physical work in order to make a living.
If you’re unable to work due to an injury or illness, you could find yourself and your family in serious financial difficulty.
Personal accident insurance can help self-employed electricians by covering a large percentage of your income whilst you’re unable to work due to injury or (optional) illness.
After public liability, personal accident is arguably the most important form of electricians insurance.
Tool Insurance
No matter how good you are as an electrician, you can’t do much without your tools!
Sadly tool theft is rampant in Australia, and electrician’s utes and vans are prime targets for theives.
Tool insurance can’t stop your gear from being stolen, but it can help to replace them in the event that they are stolen, or damaged due to a fire or vehicle collision.
Each tool insurance policy is different, but typically the theft coverage section will require that the tools have been securely stored, and that forced entry was required to access the gear.
Business Pack Insurance
Whilst we help to insure plenty of electrical businesses that operate from home, we also insure many who have made the jump to having their own premises.
Once you’re operating from your own premises, have a team of staff, large amounts of stock and equipment, plus a fleet of vehicles, it’s time to look at a business insurance package.
Our experienced insurance brokers can help to assess your risks and come up with a package to suit your growing business.
At Trade Risk we can help your electrical contracting business from a one-person start up, all the way through its journey to a large multi-million-dollar business.
How Trade Risk can help
We’ve looked after thousands of Queensland electricians of all shapes and sizes.
We’re based in Brisbane and offer competitively priced public liability insurance that meets all requirements for your electrical contractors licence.
- Fast quotes with no paperwork
- Includes $50k consumer protection
- Same day certificate of currency
- Meets Electrical Safety Office requirements
Our business insurance brokers can also assist with a full business package no matter how large or complex your electrical contracting business may be.
Get started!
Over the last decade we’ve helped thousands of electricians in Qld with their insurance needs. If you would like assistance with your cover please contact us for an obligation free chat and quote.
We are the Qld electrician insurance experts and will help you to get the right cover for your licence, with the right advice, and at the best price.
For more information on applying for or renewing an Electrical Contractors Licence Qld please visit the WorkSafe website.
For a quote or advice regarding your insurance please call us on 07 3856 1301 or hit the button below.
IMPORTANT: This information was current as at 03/10/2023 based on information obtained from the Qld State Government. Whilst we take all care in ensuring this information remains up to date, we provide this information as a guide only. Speak to one of our brokers to get the right information for you.
The claim that 1 in 10 Qld electrical contractors have their insurance via Trade Risk is based on data provided by the Electrical Safety office on 31/01/2024, along with our own client data.
