Licences that require public liability insurance in NSW
In short
- Verifying this across NSW trade and high-risk work licensing found the opposite of what most people assume: a public liability condition on the licence itself is the exception, not the rule.
- Demolition is the confirmed case — the application requires a public liability certificate naming demolition as the business activity.
- Asbestos removal, its closest neighbour, requires the opposite: a workers compensation certificate, with no public liability requirement listed.
It is a reasonable thing to assume that a licence covering higher-risk work would routinely require public liability insurance to hold it. Checked against the actual licensing pages, that assumption does not hold up. Across NSW building, trade and high-risk work licences, an explicit public liability condition on the licence itself is rare.
This page records what was actually confirmed, rather than what seems likely, and says nothing about occupations where the position has not been checked against a primary source.
The confirmed case: demolition
A demolition licence application in NSW requires a public liability insurance certificate, and the certificate has to state that the business activity is demolition. That second part matters as much as the first — a certificate that shows public liability cover but describes the business activity in general or unrelated terms does not satisfy the requirement.
This is worth reading closely because it is a certificate-content requirement, not just a policy requirement. Holding the cover is not the same as holding a certificate that says the right thing on it.
The confirmed contrast: asbestos removal
An asbestos removal licence application, by contrast, requires a workers compensation certificate where the applicant has employees and is not an exempt employer. Public liability does not appear as a requirement on that application at all.
Both are SafeWork NSW high-risk licences involving similarly serious work. The conditions attached to each answer a different underlying question — who is exposed and how — rather than following a single rule for high-risk work generally.
Property agents: a licence condition set in legislation
Outside the SafeWork trade licences, property agents carry a public-liability-adjacent condition of a different and stronger kind. Section 22 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 makes it a condition of every licence that the holder be insured under a policy of professional indemnity insurance — set out in the Act itself, with the detailed requirements in the regulations made under it.
That is professional indemnity rather than public liability, and the distinction matters: it responds to a financial loss caused by advice or handling of a transaction, not to physical injury or property damage. A property agent checking their obligations should not assume the demolition-style public liability condition applies to them; the condition they carry is a different class of cover entirely.
What this means for a licence not listed here
If an occupation is not named on this page, that is not evidence either way — it means the licence-condition question for that occupation has either not been verified against a primary source yet, or the licence carries no condition of this kind and the answer sits with the general no-condition regime instead.
The occupation’s own page on this site records what was actually checked, and states plainly where a fact remains unverified rather than filling the gap with an assumption.
Questions
- Does holding a demolition licence mean I never need to check my certificate again?
- No. The condition applies at the point the licence is issued or renewed, and cover that lapses or changes in between can leave the licence holder out of step with the condition even though the certificate on file was correct when submitted.
- I hold a demolition licence but my certificate just says "public liability" with no business description. Is that a problem?
- Based on the confirmed requirement, yes — the certificate needs to state the business activity as demolition specifically. A certificate silent on that point is worth raising with whoever arranges the cover before it is relied on for a licence application or renewal.
- Are there other licences with a public liability condition that just have not been checked yet?
- Possibly. This page reflects what has been verified against a primary regulator source at the time of writing, not an exhaustive survey of every NSW licence class. Treat an occupation’s absence from this list as unverified, not as a confirmed no.
Sources
- SafeWork NSW — unrestricted demolition licence — States the application requires a public liability insurance certificate with the business activity listed as demolition.
- SafeWork NSW — Class A asbestos removal licence — States the application requires a workers compensation certificate where the applicant has employees and is not exempt. No public liability requirement is listed.
- NSW Government — professional indemnity insurance information sheet (property agents) — Confirms that under section 22 of the Property and Stock Agents Act 2002 it is a condition of every licence that the holder be insured under a policy of professional indemnity insurance.