Landscapers & Gardeners Insurance Brokers

Covers legal defence costs and compensation if a third party suffers injury or property damage because of your work, debris from a stump grinder shattering a client’s glass fence, or someone tripping on your irrigation equipment. Most commercial clients and councils require a minimum of $10 million in public liability before allowing work to start on site.

Covers a claim arising from completed work after you’ve left the property, a retaining wall that fails months later, or a paving job that settles and cracks. This responds to a different moment in the job than public liability, which covers what happens while you’re actively on site.

Standard public liability commonly excludes pollution and contamination claims, which can catch herbicide, pesticide or fertiliser drift onto a neighbour’s property or damage to a client’s own garden from a misapplied product. This is worth arranging directly with your broker if spraying is a regular part of your work, rather than assuming general liability already responds to it.

Covers hand tools, power tools and smaller equipment against theft or accidental damage, whether stolen from a trailer overnight or damaged on site. It’s worth confirming the per-item limit and overall sum insured reflects current replacement value, not what you paid for the gear years ago.

Covers your work ute, van or truck for accidental damage, theft, fire and third-party liability while used for business. A standard comprehensive car policy generally isn’t designed for commercial use, so if your vehicle carries tools or transports crew for work, commercial vehicle cover is the appropriate policy.

For larger equipment, excavators, skid steers, trenchers, ride-on mowers and tip trucks, where a standard tools policy won’t provide adequate protection. Covers accidental damage, collision, overturning and theft of both registered and unregistered plant. For landscapers who also hire plant from others, hired-in cover is a separate consideration worth discussing with your broker before work begins.

Covers a project while it’s still under construction, before handover to the client. If a completed garden bed is damaged by a storm mid-project, or a retaining wall is vandalised before handover, contract works cover may respond where other policies don’t. Worth considering for larger projects involving significant hardscaping, irrigation systems or retaining walls where the works-in-progress hold substantial value.

Retaining wall footings, drainage trenching and post-hole drilling all carry the risk of striking underground services, electricity, gas, water and telecommunications lines aren’t always mapped accurately or at the depths shown on plans. A Before You Dig Australia enquiry, the service formerly known as Dial Before You Dig, is a practical step before any ground-breaking work, and is a legal requirement before excavation in some states including NSW. It doesn’t guarantee every service is located, but it demonstrates reasonable precaution, and some insurers require evidence of an enquiry before accepting claims related to underground service strikes.

Provides a weekly benefit to replace a portion of income if injury or illness prevents you from working, relevant for owner-operators and working directors not covered under a workers compensation scheme. Landscaping is physically demanding work, and sole traders have no sick leave to fall back on.