Is My Tradie Insured? What to Check
A tradie's coming to fix something in your home, and somewhere in the back of your mind is the question you haven't asked out loud: what happens if they break something, or hurt themselves on your property? "Insured" gets thrown around on websites and business cards, but almost nobody checks what it actually means before the job starts.
The short answer
Ask for a Certificate of Currency (COI) — a one-page document their insurer issues showing the policy is active right now, not just that they took one out at some point. A legitimate tradie can produce this in minutes, usually by email. If they can't, or they get cagey about it, that's your answer.
What "insured" is actually supposed to cover
There are two different types of insurance doing two different jobs, and tradies (and their websites) rarely distinguish between them.
Public liability insurance covers damage or injury caused by their work — if a plumber floods your bathroom, or an electrician's mistake starts a fire, this is what pays for it. Most legitimate tradies carry somewhere between $5 million and $20 million in public liability cover. It's the insurance that protects you and your property.
Workers compensation insurance covers the tradie and anyone working for them if they're injured on your property. This one matters more than people think — if an uninsured worker falls off your roof, the liability can land on you as the property owner, not just the business.
For bigger jobs — anything over $20,000 in NSW involving certain residential building work — there's also Home Building Compensation (HBC) cover, sometimes still called home warranty insurance. This protects you specifically if the tradie dies, disappears, or becomes insolvent partway through the job and can't finish or fix defects. It's mandatory above that threshold, and a licensed builder or tradie doing eligible work has to provide it before taking a deposit.
"Insured" on a website could mean any one of these, all of them, or — occasionally — none of them, worded to sound reassuring. The word alone tells you nothing. The certificate does.
What to actually ask for
Keep it simple and direct. You're not interrogating anyone — this is a completely normal, expected question:
"Can you send me a Certificate of Currency for your public liability insurance before we start?"
A tradie who does this regularly won't blink. It's a standard admin request, and most have the PDF saved and ready to forward. What you're looking for on the certificate:
- The policy is current — check the expiry date, not just the issue date. Insurance lapses, and a certificate from eight months ago proves nothing about today.
- The insured name matches — the business or trading name on the certificate should match who's actually turning up to do the work, not a different entity.
- The cover amount is reasonable for the job — a $2 million policy might be fine for a tap replacement, but you'd want to see more for structural or higher-risk work.
If you're getting work done through a subcontractor arrangement — common with larger jobs — ask who's actually covered: the head contractor, the sub, or both. This is exactly the kind of gap that causes disputes later.
What if something goes wrong and they're not insured?
This is the scenario the certificate exists to prevent, and it's worth understanding before you need it. If an uninsured tradie damages your property, your options are limited to chasing them personally for the cost — through small claims or NCAT if it comes to that — with no insurer standing behind them to actually pay out. If they're injured on-site without workers comp, depending on the circumstances, you as the homeowner can end up exposed too.
None of this is meant to be alarming — the vast majority of jobs go fine. But the two minutes it takes to ask for a certificate before the job starts is the difference between "insurance covers it" and "good luck with that," if the small-probability bad day actually happens.
Red flags worth noticing
A few signs worth paying attention to, on their own or together:
- They can't produce a Certificate of Currency, or keep saying they'll "send it later"
- The certificate is expired, or the name on it doesn't match the business quoting you
- For jobs over $20,000, no mention of Home Building Compensation cover
- Pressure to skip the paperwork and just get started
None of these prove bad intent on their own — sometimes it's disorganisation, not dishonesty. But it's your house, and it's a completely reasonable thing to ask about before anyone starts work.
The other checks that go with this one
Insurance is one piece of a bigger picture. A tradie who's genuinely legit will usually also have <a href="/blog/how-to-check-a-tradie-licence-nsw">a current licence you can verify on the NSW Fair Trading register</a>, a valid ABN, a White Card, and photo ID that matches who's actually on the job. Checking all five takes about ten minutes and is covered in full in <a href="/blog/how-to-check-a-tradie-is-legit-nsw">our complete guide to checking a tradie is legit in NSW</a>.
Insurance is the one people skip most, mostly because "insured" sounds like enough on its own. It isn't — the certificate is what actually tells you something.