Insurance for electricians is built around one uncomfortable fact: the work carries risk long after you have packed up and invoiced. A loose termination or an overloaded circuit can start a fire months later, and the claim comes back to the contractor who did the job. This guide goes through the covers electrical contractors typically need, what principals commonly ask for, and what drives the premium. For cover options, see our electrician insurance page.
Public and Products Liability
This is the core policy, and it has two parts that matter for electricians.
Public liability responds to injury or property damage caused while you are working — a customer’s floor damaged by a dropped tool, another trade’s worker hurt by a cable left across a walkway, a ceiling damaged while pulling cable.
Products liability, sometimes described as completed operations, responds to injury or damage caused by your work after it is finished. For electricians this is often the larger exposure. Fires traced to installations, electric shocks from incorrect wiring and damage to connected equipment all fall here.
Both sections are usually written on one policy with a limit for each. Products liability is commonly an aggregate limit — the most the policy will pay for all products claims in the period combined — rather than a per-claim limit. Check both figures on your schedule.
Why the Occupation Description Matters
A liability policy covers the business activity described on the schedule. “Electrician” is a starting point, not a complete description. Underwriters distinguish between:
- Domestic, commercial and industrial electrical work.
- Solar panel and battery storage installation.
- Electric vehicle charger installation.
- Data, communications and security cabling.
- Air conditioning installation and servicing.
- High voltage work, hazardous area work and work on mine sites.
- Maintenance contracts as opposed to new installations.
If you install solar and your policy describes you as a domestic electrician, a claim arising from a rooftop system may be disputed. The same applies to work at heights, work on mine sites or any activity the underwriter has not agreed to. Our article on why the occupation description matters goes into this in more depth.
Review the description whenever your work mix changes, not only at renewal.
Liability Limits Principals Ask For
Domestic customers rarely ask about your limit. Builders, head contractors, facilities managers, property managers and commercial clients usually do. They commonly ask for a certificate of currency showing a specified public and products liability limit, and sometimes for their business to be noted as an interested party or covered by a principal’s indemnity clause.
Limits asked for on commercial and industrial sites are often higher than those asked for on domestic work, and some sites set their own minimum. Check contract requirements before you tender, because increasing a limit mid-term is possible but takes time. Our guide to public liability limits for contractors explains how to choose.
Exclusions Electricians Should Know
- Professional advice and design. Public liability generally excludes loss arising from design, specification or advice given for a fee.
- Faulty workmanship itself. The cost of redoing defective work is generally excluded; resulting damage to other property is what the policy is for.
- Asbestos. Commonly excluded. Older switchboards and ceiling spaces are a real exposure.
- Contractual liability. Liability you accept under a contract beyond what the law would otherwise impose is often excluded.
- Undeclared activities. Anything outside the occupation description.
Tools and Test Equipment
Electricians carry a lot of value in a small space: power tools, cable and fittings, and test and measuring instruments that are expensive to replace. Vans and job sites are both targets for theft.
Tools of trade insurance covers portable tools and equipment against theft and damage on site, in transit and at home, depending on the wording. List high-value items individually — installation testers, thermal cameras, cable locators — and check the theft conditions for unattended vehicles.
Your Vehicle
The van or ute is usually the biggest single asset in the business after the tools. Make sure the vehicle use description reflects trade use, that racking and fit-outs are declared as accessories, and that every driver is listed. Tools inside the vehicle are normally a separate cover from the vehicle itself, so do not assume the motor policy picks them up.
Professional Indemnity for Design Work
If you design systems, prepare specifications, size solar and battery installations, sign off designs for others to install, or give paid advice, you have an exposure that public liability generally does not cover. A design error that causes financial loss — equipment that does not perform, rework, delays — is a professional indemnity matter.
Many electricians who install to someone else’s design do not need professional indemnity insurance. Those doing design and construct work, consulting, energy auditing or engineering-level design often do, and some commercial contracts commonly ask for it.
Contract Works
On larger jobs, someone needs to insure the works while they are being built. On a building project the head contractor normally holds this cover, and subcontracted electricians usually sit under it for their work on that project. Where you contract directly with the owner — a switchboard replacement on a commercial building, a solar installation on a factory roof, a tenancy fit-out — the contract may make you responsible for insuring the works.
Read the insurance clause. If it requires you to insure the works, contract works insurance can be arranged annually or per project.
Working as a Subcontractor, or Using Them
If you work as a subcontractor to builders, expect to be asked for your own public and products liability certificate before you start, even where the head contractor holds a contract works policy for the project. That project policy protects the works, not your tools, and it may not respond to liability arising from your work in the way you assume.
If you engage other electricians or apprentices through labour hire, the question reverses. Check whether they hold their own liability cover, collect certificates, and tell your insurer about the subcontract payments. An uninsured subcontractor’s mistake can land on your policy.
Personal Accident and Income Protection
Electrical work is physical. Falls from ladders, electric shock and injuries in roof spaces can keep you off work for extended periods. If you are a sole trader or working director, you may not be covered by workers compensation for your own injuries; the arrangements vary by state and territory.
Personal accident and sickness cover pays a weekly benefit if you cannot work because of injury or illness. Our comparison of workers compensation and income protection explains the difference. If you employ apprentices or staff, workers compensation obligations apply, and those rules also vary by state — check the current requirement with the relevant scheme.
How Insurance for Electricians Is Priced
There is no list price. The main factors underwriters look at are:
- Turnover and wages. The size of the business is the base for liability rating.
- Work mix. The split between domestic, commercial and industrial work, and any specialist work such as solar, high voltage or hazardous areas.
- Liability limit. Higher limits cost more.
- Subcontractors. Payments to subcontractors, and whether they hold their own cover.
- Claims history. Previous claims, and how they were resolved.
- Excess. A higher excess generally lowers the premium.
- Risk management. Isolation and lock-out procedures, testing records and job documentation all support a better offer.
Keeping test results, certificates of compliance and photos of completed work helps with the premium and, more importantly, with defending a products liability claim years after the job.
Common Questions
Do electricians need public liability insurance by law?
Requirements vary by state and territory and by licensing body, so check the current requirement with your regulator. In practice, builders and commercial clients commonly ask for it before you start.
Does my policy cover solar installations?
Only if solar work is included in your occupation description. Declare it specifically, along with battery and charger work.
Is a fire caused by my work years later covered?
Products liability generally responds to injury or damage that happens during the period of insurance, even if the work was done earlier, subject to the policy terms. That is why keeping cover continuous matters.
Do I need professional indemnity?
If you design systems or give paid advice, it is worth considering. If you install to someone else’s design, public and products liability is usually the primary cover.
Talk It Through
Request a quote or call 1300 983 940 and we will match the occupation description, limits and covers on your electrician insurance to the work you actually do.
General advice only. This article does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Consider the relevant PDS and Target Market Determination before deciding on a policy.