The three are not versions of each other
| Insurance | Who it protects | What sets it off |
|---|---|---|
| Home warranty / home indemnity / domestic building insurance — the name changes with the state | You, the homeowner, and usually the next owner too | The value of the job, and in some states whether it needs approval |
| Workers compensation | The people who work for the business, including apprentices | The wages bill and the business structure — not the size of your job |
| Public liability | Third parties and their property | Mostly a licence condition for particular trades, where it applies at all |
So “are you insured?” is three questions wearing one coat. A tradie can be perfectly correct in saying yes and still not hold the one that would help you. The three sections below take them one at a time.
1 · Home warranty, home indemnity, domestic building insurance
Same idea, five names, five thresholds. It pays out when your builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent — and in Victoria, also when they fail to comply with a tribunal or court order. It is not a general defects warranty you can claim on because the tiling is poor.
| Where | Required when | Cover | Timing rule that protects you |
|---|---|---|---|
| QLD Queensland Home Warranty Scheme |
Residential construction work valued over $3,300, including materials, labour and GST | Up to $200,000 per category; $300,000 with optional additional cover | Premium is included in your contract and paid before work begins; cover lasts 6 years 6 months |
| NSW Home Building Compensation |
Most residential building projects over $20,000 including GST, unless exempt | Not published on the page we read — ask icare | Must be held “before you start work, or take any payment for the project, including a deposit” |
| VIC Domestic Building Insurance |
Threshold not published on the pages we read — ask the BPC | $300,000 for policies from 1 July 2014; structural defects 6 years, non-structural 2 years; incomplete work up to 20% of contract price | Work by an unregistered builder over $10,000 is not covered at all |
| WA Home Indemnity Insurance |
All building work needing a building permit and valued over $20,000 | Loss of deposit up to $40,000; incomplete or defective work up to $200,000 | “You shouldn't make any payments to your builder until HII is in place.” The builder must give you the certificate |
| SA Building Indemnity Insurance |
Domestic building work needing council approval and costing $20,000 or more | Defective-work claims usually up to 5 years from completion | Work cannot start until you and the council each hold a copy of the certificate |
Read the last column, not the first. Every one of those states puts the protection in the timing: the cover has to exist before the money moves. A builder asking for a deposit on a job over the threshold, with no certificate to show, is asking you to give up the thing the scheme was built to give you.
Sources, each read 3 September 2026: QBCC · icare NSW · Building and Plumbing Commission · WA Building and Energy · SA Government. Two cells say the figure was not on the page we read. That is the honest answer, and it is better than a number from somewhere else. Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory are not covered here at all.
Check the licence before you check the insurance2 · Workers compensation runs on wages, not on your job
This is where nearly every published guide gets it wrong, because it asks “is this person a sole tradie?” when the schemes ask “what is the business structure, and what does it pay out?” Two states, read on the same day, show how different the answers get.
| New South Wales (icare) | Victoria (WorkSafe) | |
|---|---|---|
| A sole trader with no employees | No policy needed, and they cannot cover themselves with it at all | No registration needed if they employ no other people as workers |
| Exempt below a wages figure? | Yes — $7,500 or less in wages in a financial year, and no apprentice or trainee, and not part of a group of businesses | Yes — no apprentices, and not liable to pay more than $7,500 in a financial year in remuneration |
| A one-person company paying its own director | A company that employs someone is an employer — check with icare | “If your company employs you personally, then you are a worker of your own company, and need to register.” |
| The first apprentice | Ends the exemption immediately, whatever the wages bill | Ends the exemption immediately — the exemption requires having no apprentices |
The one-person company is the case worth stopping on. A great deal of published advice tells a solo tradie that workers compensation cannot cover them. That is true of a sole trader in New South Wales — icare says plainly that a sole trader, proprietor or partner “can't cover yourself with Workers Compensation insurance”. It is not true of somebody who runs the same one-person business through a company, because the company is then the employer and the tradie is its worker.
icare's own worked example makes the shape of it clear: two tilers in a partnership who hire an apprentice must take out workers compensation to cover the apprentice, and the policy does not cover the two of them.
Sources: icare NSW — Who needs a policy? and WorkSafe Victoria — Do I need to register for WorkCover insurance?, both read 3 September 2026. Only these two schemes are covered; every state runs its own, and the thresholds are not interchangeable.
3 · Public liability, where it is actually required
We are going to be short here on purpose, because we could only verify one statutory requirement at a regulator on the day and we are not going to pad it out with a general claim.
Queensland electrical contractors. The Electrical Safety Office states that licensed electrical contractors must meet specific insurance requirements, “including having a minimum of $5 million public liability insurance, with a $50,000 consumer protection component” — and adds that unlicensed and DIY electrical work “does not provide this assurance or protection.”
Victorian licensed plumbers. The Building and Plumbing Commission states that a licensed plumber “must hold insurance that protects you in case of any defective plumbing work”. A registered plumber, working under supervision, is a different category and the BPC does not state the same requirement for it.
Beyond those two, ask. A certificate of currency takes a tradie thirty seconds to forward, it names the insurer, the sum insured and the expiry date, and a business that carries the cover will not mind being asked. What we will not do is tell you it is legally required across Australia, because we have not read that anywhere.
Sources: Electrical Safety Office (QLD) and Building and Plumbing Commission (VIC), both read 3 September 2026.
What to actually ask for, and when
- Before the deposit — the home warranty or indemnity certificate. WA says do not pay anything until it is in place. NSW says cover must exist before any payment including a deposit. SA says work cannot start until you and the council both hold a copy. That is three states saying the same thing in different words.
- Check the certificate's details, the day it arrives. The builder's name and licence number, the insurer, the date issued, a description of the work insured, and any limitations. A wrong contract value or a wrong address is easy to fix now and very hard to fix at claim time.
- Ask who else will be on site. Workers compensation is the business's obligation, not yours, but the answer tells you whether the person quoting is bringing employees, apprentices or subcontractors — and each of those changes who is responsible for what.
- Ask for a certificate of currency for public liability. Not because we can tell you it is compulsory, but because it is the one document that shows the cover exists today rather than existed once.
The licence comes first, and it is not a formality
Every one of these schemes hangs off licensing somewhere. Victoria's insurance simply does not cover work by an unregistered builder over $10,000. Queensland's electrical protections do not exist behind unlicensed work. The cheapest thing on this page is checking the licence number, and it is also the step that makes the rest of it real.
The state-by-state how-to is here: how to check a tradie's licence yourself. The thresholds themselves are on the state pages: NSW, Victoria, WA and SA.
This page explains what government insurance schemes and regulators publish about who must hold what. It is general information, not legal advice and not insurance advice, and it is not a statement of what will happen on any particular job or claim. Yamate is software for tradespeople. We are not an insurer, not a broker and not a regulator; we do not issue, assess, endorse or certify any licence or policy, and we have no role in any claim. No regulator or insurer has reviewed this page. Every figure above was read at a government or scheme source on 3 September 2026 and is linked beside the claim, with that source's own date shown where it publishes one. Where a figure was not on the page we read, the table says so instead of guessing. Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia only — Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory are not covered, and no threshold here applies outside the state named beside it. Schemes, limits and thresholds change, so check the date on this page against theirs.