You didn't get into your trade to become an expert in policy wording.

A generic policy won't know that your angle grinder lives in a locked ute six nights a week, or that you sub out a job to a mate with his own ABN, so we choose the sections and limits around how you work.

None of these sections replaces WorkCover Queensland: if you employ staff rather than engaging subcontractors, the law requires your own WorkCover Queensland policy covering every worker.

If you hold a Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) licence, the professional indemnity requirement under the Minimum Financial Requirements Regulation reaches only 22 design, certification, and technical licence classes, with limits from $500,000 to $5 million. Carpentry, tiling, plastering, plumbing, and general builder licences are not on that list, so most tradies carry no PI obligation tied to their licence.

Queensland electricians are licensed by the Electrical Safety Office, not the QBCC, so the QBCC condition never applies to them. Most licensed residential building work over $3,300 also triggers the QBCC's Home Warranty Scheme. You pay its premium as the licensed contractor, but the scheme protects your client, not you, if the job can't be finished or a defect fixed.

Public liability does not pay to redo your own bad work. If a fitting you installed leaks and damages a client's floor, the escaped water damage is generally a claim, but refitting the fitting is generally not: that is a business cost, not damage to someone else's property.

Tools cover on some policies comes with a condition on where your gear is kept, typically a locked vehicle or building, with signs of forced entry to prove a break-in. Leave the ute unlocked, or tools in the tray under a tonneau cover with no sign of forced entry, and a real theft can still get declined.

Queensland's WorkCover rules can also treat a subcontractor as your worker, whatever you both call the arrangement. If they are injured on your job and found to be a deemed worker, the liability can land on you, not on whatever cover they told you they had.

Our panel can produce up to nine quotes on the business pack we use, and for the harder-to-place trades we approach specialist insurers a direct channel never reaches. We have told you upfront what we are paid, on every invoice, since the day this business started in 2010.

That includes working solo, running a small crew, subcontracting on a head contractor's site, or holding a QBCC builder's licence. Asbestos removal, demolition, and other high-risk work need a specialist placement rather than a trades policy, so call us. If you lease your workshop, yard, or shed, see business owner-tenants.

Assuming public liability covers a callback. Public liability covers the damage your faulty work causes to someone else, not fixing the work.

Leaving tools in an unlocked ute. On some policies an unlocked ute can cost you the entire claim, so lock the canopy every night.

Assuming a self-employed subbie can't come back on you. A self-employed subbie is still owed a duty of care, so if you direct one onto an unsafe site and they are hurt, you can be found liable at least in part, whatever their ABN says.

Guessing at the subcontractor payments figure, or declaring nil and forgetting. You pay no WorkCover premium for contractors, so a subbie hurt on your job becomes a personal injury claim on your liability policy. The insurer rates that risk from the figure, and the question is about injury to people engaged to work for you, not damage they do to others. On many wordings, the declaration switches that cover on. Direct insurer wordings commonly exclude personal injury to subcontractors by endorsement, while the Steadfast badged wordings we place generally cover it, particularly where payments are disclosed. Declare the real figure, and tell us mid-year when you add a subbie.

What excess applies if a sub-contractor is injured on my site?

Often a much higher one than you expect. Many liability policies carry a standard excess for most claims, but a separate, larger excess for personal injury to anyone engaged to work on your site. In a recent matter, CIB flagged a $10,000 sub-contractor injury excess to a Brisbane residential building company before the insurer confirmed it, so there were no surprises. The full story is in If a subcontractor is hurt on your job, can you be held liable?

Letting your QBCC licence insurance lapse quietly. Where a licence class requires professional indemnity, a gap can be a licensing problem, not just a cover problem.

Skipping income protection because you feel indestructible. A tradie's business is their body, and public liability does not pay you a cent while you are off the tools.

Under-declaring turnover to save premium. Underwriting questions change as turnover grows, so under-declaring can hide a question that would trigger a referral or a decline, such as contracts over $100,000 or working for any one company with turnover over $1 million. At claim time, the insurer can pull your tax return and financials, find the non-disclosure, and cancel the policy as if it never existed, mid-claim.

Setting the contents and stock sum insured low because it feels expensive. It's cheap per $1,000 of cover, so make the sum insured the full replacement cost of your tools, plant, materials, and stock, not a round number that felt affordable.