Plumbers Insurance

Public Liability responds to third-party injury or property damage caused by your work, the flood scenario. Professional Indemnity responds to financial loss caused by advice, design or specification work, separate from the physical installation. Plumbers Warranty (Completed Work) cover is different again, in Victoria it’s a distinct, mandated cover responding to defects discovered after the job is finished, over a set period, regardless of whether advice was involved.

Licensed Victorian plumbers must hold at least $5 million in Public Liability and Completed Work Liability under the Licensed Plumbers General Insurance Order 2002. But there’s a second, much lower figure most people miss, the Plumbers Warranty component is $50,000 for domestic work and $100,000 for non-domestic work, per compliance certificate, and it needs to run for six years after the job is finished. If you’re licensed in Type B gas fitting, a second Ministerial Order applies on top, with its own $5 million minimum.

This isn’t only a Victorian requirement. Tasmanian plumbing contractor licences require at least $5 million in Public Liability and Products Liability under CBOS licensing rules. Queensland’s QBCC sets the same $5 million minimum under the Building and Construction Commission Regulation, plus a separate Home Warranty Scheme for residential work valued over $3,300. NSW, WA, SA and the ACT don’t set a specific statutory dollar figure at the licence level, but Public Liability is still expected, and NSW has its own Home Building Compensation Fund requirement for residential work over $20,000.

If you register as a Certifying Plumber and Drainer (Design) with the NT Building Practitioners Board, or hold an equivalent private certifying licence class in Queensland, you need Professional Indemnity insurance specifically, commonly $1 million minimum, separate from standard Public Liability. This only applies to the certifying, design-focused registration tier, not a standard advanced tradesman or contractor licence, worth knowing if your work involves any certification sign-off.

Every state treats gas fitting as its own licensed class or endorsement, not just an extension of a standard plumbing licence. NSW requires a separate licence endorsement, Victoria requires a distinct gas fitting registration under the Gas Safety Act 1997 (with Type B work, commercial and industrial appliances over 10MJ/h, needing its own Class B authorisation from Energy Safe Victoria), Queensland requires both a gas work licence from the Chief Inspector of Gas and a separate authorisation from Resources Safety and Health Queensland, and WA requires a separate permit from Building and Energy. Insurers price gas work as higher risk accordingly, expect a real premium difference between a policy with and without gas work declared.

Plumbers commonly pay more than other trades for broadly similar cover, and it’s about how expensive a single claim gets, not how often claims happen. One burst pipe or faulty installation can cause tens of thousands of dollars in water damage from a single incident. A past spike in water damage claims led some insurers to restrict cover to domestic work only, or buildings under three storeys. The market has largely stabilised, but these restrictions can still turn up in policy wording, worth checking if you do commercial or multi-storey work.