Written by William Paull
Co-Founder & Account Director
On this page
- Why does your licence class decide it, not your job title?
- Do building certifiers need professional indemnity insurance?
- Does a certifier's policy have to cover past work?
- Do building surveyors and building inspectors need professional indemnity insurance?
- Do surveyors in Queensland need professional indemnity insurance?
- Do quantity surveyors need professional indemnity insurance?
- Do building designers need professional indemnity insurance?
- Which QBCC licence classes, including fire protection, need professional indemnity insurance?
- What should you check when you compare quotes against these minimums?
- FAQ
Why does your licence class decide it, not your job title?
In building, the duty to hold professional indemnity follows a registration class, an endorsement or a licence class. It does not follow what you call yourself. Two people with the same qualification can owe different things, and the one without the endorsement is not in breach of anything.
Professional indemnity is the cover that answers a claim that your certification, design, calculation, inspection or advice cost a client money.
Do building certifiers need professional indemnity insurance?
In New South Wales, yes, at figures the regulation sets. In Queensland, only if you hold a private certification endorsement. In Victoria, see building surveyors below.
Queensland building certifiers
A building certifier in Queensland only has to hold professional indemnity if they hold a private certification endorsement. The Building Act 1975 makes the insurance a condition of that endorsement being made. It requires evidence of the insurance when a licence carrying the endorsement is renewed. And it requires QBCC to show cause and cancel the endorsement if the certifier does not have it. A building certifier without the endorsement is not caught.
QBCC's published requirements set the minimum: $1 million for any one claim and in total in any one period, with costs and expenses on top, and at least one automatic reinstatement.
There is one live exception, and it has an end date. QBCC has extended its cladding exemption to 30 June 2027. Until then, a private certifier does not need cover for private certifying functions directly related to non-compliant external cladding. It has already been extended once, from 30 June 2025. Check it against the calendar, not your memory, because it can also simply expire.
New South Wales certifiers
Under the Building and Development Certifiers Act 2018 and its 2020 Regulation, a registered certifier's policy needs a maximum claim limit of at least $1 million. On top of that sits a further 20 per cent for relevant expenses, meaning the cost of investigating a claim and the legal cost of defending or settling it.
The yearly limit is set too. An individual needs at least $1 million a year with those expenses outside the limit, or $2 million with them inside it. A body corporate or partnership needs the lesser of $20 million or the individual figure multiplied by its registered directors, partners and employees.
Does a certifier's policy have to cover past work?
In New South Wales, yes. The regulation makes it compulsory, reaching back to when you were first accredited.
An individual certifier's policy has to extend to all liability incurred at any time since they first became a registered certifier. The clock reaches back to their original accreditation under the schemes that came before.
Corporate and partnership policies have to extend to registered directors, partners and employees for liability incurred while they were with the firm, including people who have since left. If you have moved firms, or your firm has restructured, that is the provision to check your history against.
The same regulation also permits an exclusion for work on a building that never received an occupation certificate, unless the claim is made and notified within 10 years of the certifier's last inspection or, if there was none, of first occupation or use.
How the retroactive date works in general, and what happens to it when you change insurers, is on our professional indemnity insurance page.
Do building surveyors and building inspectors need professional indemnity insurance?
In Victoria, yes. Building surveyor and building inspector are registered building practitioner categories, and a 2021 ministerial order sets their minimum.
Victoria does it by registration category, not by endorsement. Under the Building Practitioners' and Endorsed Building Engineers' Insurance Ministerial Order made in June 2021, a building surveyor (Category 1) and a building inspector (Category 2) carry professional indemnity. The minimum is at least $1.5 million for any one claim and in the aggregate where defence costs are included, or $1 million plus $500,000 for defence costs where they are not. The policy needs at least one automatic reinstatement.
A building surveyor has a much higher requirement before entering a private certification agreement: at least $5 million for any one claim and in the aggregate.
Do surveyors in Queensland need professional indemnity insurance?
Only with the consulting surveyor endorsement, or as a registered corporation.
The Surveyors Act 2003 makes cover an eligibility requirement for the consulting surveyor endorsement, and requires evidence of it when a corporation applies for registration. A registered surveyor with no consulting endorsement, and an employed surveyor covered by their corporate employer's policy, is not personally required to take out cover.
For a corporation renewing its registration, the Surveyors Board of Queensland's published requirement is $2 million.
Do quantity surveyors need professional indemnity insurance?
In Victoria, yes, if you are registered as a quantity surveyor. It is Category 3 under the same June 2021 order.
The minimum is the same as for building surveyors and inspectors above, with the same two ways of setting the limit and the same automatic reinstatement. Working in another state? Tell us where you are registered and what your contracts ask for, and we will check what applies.
Do building designers need professional indemnity insurance?
In Queensland, yes, if you hold a QBCC building design licence. In Victoria, yes, if you are registered as a draftsperson in a building design class.
Under QBCC's Minimum Financial Requirements Regulation 2018, the building design licence classes, low rise, medium rise and open, each carry a $500,000 minimum.
In Victoria, a draftsperson in the building design (architectural), (interior) or (services) class is Category 4 under the June 2021 order, at the same minimum as the other categories.
Working in New South Wales? The design and building practitioners scheme is on our engineers and design professionals page.
Which QBCC licence classes, including fire protection, need professional indemnity insurance?
Only the classes listed in Schedule 2 of the Minimum Financial Requirements Regulation 2018. A general builder or trade contractor licence is not one of them.
QBCC licence classMinimum cover
- Building design, low rise, medium rise and open$500,000
- Site classifier$1,000,000
- Termite management (chemical)$500,000
- Fire protection, portables stream (certify)$500,000
- Passive fire protection, and the other fire protection classes$1,000,000
- Fire protection, electrical stream (certify), fire alarm systems$5,000,000
The fire alarm systems class is the one class that may instead hold public and products liability of at least $5 million. A general builder's licence and a trade contractor's licence do not appear in the table at all. The cover most builders and trade contractors carry is for the works and the site: construction insurance or trades insurance.
If you are a director or employee of a licensed company, or a partner in a licensed partnership, you meet the requirement if the company or partnership holds the cover.
QBCC may waive the requirement where cover is not available or would be economically unviable, given its cost and the business's turnover. If yours is waived, you must tell a consumer in writing, before entering a building contract, that it was waived and what cover you do hold.
What should you check when you compare quotes against these minimums?
Two things the headline limit does not show: whether defence costs sit on top of the limit or inside it, and whether the limit reinstates after a claim.
The rules above are written both ways. For a Queensland private certifier, QBCC wants costs and expenses on top. New South Wales adds 20 per cent for relevant expenses. Victoria sets one figure with defence costs inside the limit and another with them outside. The wordings differ too. Of the design and construction wordings we hold, one pays defence costs in addition to the limit, and another counts them inside it unless the schedule says otherwise. Not every wording we hold carries an automatic reinstatement.
What we check: the costs basis and the reinstatement your class asks for, on the schedule, before you sign. The side-by-side of the costs rules, and the cladding exclusion a compliant policy can still carry, are on our professional indemnity for engineers and design professionals page.
FAQ
Can Consolidated Insurance Brokers check whether my licence class needs professional indemnity insurance?
Yes. Consolidated Insurance Brokers starts with what your registration, endorsement or licence class lets you do, and the state you work in, because the duty follows the class and not the job title. Then we read your policy for the costs basis and the reinstatement your class asks for. Your board or regulator has the final word on what your scheme requires.
Can Consolidated Insurance Brokers tell me if my firm's policy covers me, or do I need my own?
Yes. Consolidated Insurance Brokers checks it class by class, because the rules differ. A QBCC licensee who is a director, employee or partner meets the requirement through the company's or partnership's cover. An employed Queensland surveyor covered by a corporate employer's policy is not personally required to hold cover. A New South Wales certifier firm's policy must cover its registered directors, partners and employees.
Can Consolidated Insurance Brokers help if I cannot get professional indemnity cover for my QBCC licence class?
Yes. QBCC decides waivers, so talk to Consolidated Insurance Brokers before you count on one. QBCC can waive the requirement where cover is not available, or would be economically unviable given what it costs against your turnover. A waiver comes with a job attached. Before you sign a building contract, you tell the consumer in writing that it was waived and what cover you do hold.