Architects: public liability requirements in Queensland

Verified for Queensland

• Licence liability condition: No — and Queensland is the genuine outlier here, so it is worth stating plainly. Insurance, insured, indemnity and the phrase professional indemnity all return zero across the complete Architects Act 2002, and zero again across the complete Architects Regulation 2019. Two zero results across an entire Act and its entire Regulation. Where New South Wales, Tasmania and the Northern Territory each make professional indemnity cover a condition of architect registration, Queensland makes it no part of the scheme at all. The Act does allow conditions to be imposed on an architect's registration, but those sit in the conduct and discipline machinery and are exercised after a complaint — and since insurance appears nowhere in the Act, no such condition could be drawn from it. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
• Licence evidence required: None, at registration or renewal, and no lapse-triggered suspension. There is no insurance requirement in the Queensland scheme for evidence to attach to. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24
• Licensing body: The Board of Architects of Queensland registers architects under the Architects Act 2002. QLD · effective 2026-08-25 Queensland Government · 2026-08-24

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

• What the limit figure on a certificate means
• Cover for the principal for your work
• When a certificate falls short of the contract

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources

• NSW Architects Registration Board — NSW Architects Registration Board — professional indemnity insurance
• Victoria Government — Victoria — consolidated legislation
• Queensland Government — Queensland — consolidated legislation
• Western Australia Government — Western Australia — consolidated legislation
• South Australia Government — South Australia — consolidated legislation
• Tasmania Government — Tasmania — consolidated legislation
• Australian Capital Territory Government — Australian Capital Territory — consolidated legislation
• Northern Territory Government — Northern Territory — consolidated legislation