When a certificate must name your business activity
In short
- Most certificate requests just need the right classes of cover and the right limit. Demolition is a confirmed exception: the certificate has to state the business activity as demolition.
- A perfectly genuine, currently in-force public liability certificate can still fail this requirement if the business activity field describes something else.
- This is a wording problem to fix with whoever arranges the cover, not a coverage gap to fix by buying something new.
Most of the time, a certificate of currency is checked against a class of cover and a limit. For a NSW demolition licence application, there is a third thing to check that most people never think to look for: whether the certificate names the business activity as demolition.
This is not a general rule for certificates. It is specific to how a demolition licence application is assessed, and it is worth understanding precisely because it is easy to satisfy without ever finding out it was wrong.
What the requirement actually says
The application for a demolition licence requires a public liability insurance certificate that states the business activity is demolition. That is a description on the certificate itself, sitting alongside the insured name, the classes of cover and the period — it is the field that says what the business does.
A certificate can show public and products liability cover, an adequate limit and a current period, and still not satisfy this requirement if that description field says something else — a general trade description, a different activity, or nothing specific at all.
Why this happens
Certificates are generated from what the insurer or broker has on file about the business, and the business activity description on a policy is often set once, early on, and never revisited as the business takes on new work. A business that added demolition to its scope after the original policy was arranged can hold genuine, current public liability cover with a description that has not caught up.
Because the mismatch is invisible on a casual read — the certificate looks complete — it tends to surface only when the licence application is actually assessed, at which point it costs time rather than money to fix.
How to fix it
This is an update to the policy record, not a new policy. Contact whoever arranges the cover, explain that a certificate is needed for a demolition licence application and that it must state the business activity as demolition, and ask for the description to be corrected and a new certificate issued against it.
It is worth confirming the exact wording before submitting, since the requirement is specific about what the certificate has to say rather than only about what cover exists behind it.
Questions
- My certificate says "building and construction" as the activity. Is that close enough?
- Based on the confirmed requirement, the certificate needs to state demolition specifically. A broader description is worth raising with whoever arranges the cover before submitting the application, rather than assuming it will be accepted.
- Does this only matter for the initial application, or for renewal too?
- The requirement sits with the application process, and a licence renewal is its own application. A description that was corrected once does not need re-checking unless the policy or the entity has changed since.
- Does any other trade licence have a business-activity wording requirement like this?
- Demolition is the case confirmed against a primary source at the time of writing. Do not assume the same wording rule applies to a different licence without checking that licence’s own application requirements.
Sources
- SafeWork NSW — unrestricted demolition licence — States the application requires a public liability insurance certificate with the business activity listed as demolition.