Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Building designers: public liability requirements in Victoria

Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.

Data as at

Verified for Victoria

  • Licence liability condition: Yes — professional indemnity, with the amount set two ways depending on how the policy treats defence costs. The Ministerial Order made under section 135 of the Building Act 1993 requires a limit of indemnity of not less than $1.5 million for any one claim and in the aggregate where defence costs are included in the limit, or, where they are not, not less than $1 million for any one claim and in the aggregate plus not less than $500,000 for any one claim and in the aggregate for defence costs. At least one automatic reinstatement is required, and a cladding-related exclusion is permitted. Two cross-recognitions are worth knowing: a practitioner in this category who is a registered architect holding architects-scheme cover is treated as covered, as is one covered under an approved co-operative policy meeting the current architects requirements. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: The same rhythm as every other registered practitioner class: coverage is the financial probity test at registration, and then written proof to the Authority on or before each anniversary of registration that cover will run to the next anniversary, with an examination fee. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Building designer is a registered category of building practitioner in Victoria under Part 11 of the Building Act 1993, in three classes: building design (architectural), building design (interior) and building design (services). The category was previously called draftsperson and was renamed, which is why older instruments and older advice still use that word. Architects are expressly excluded from the definition of building practitioner and are registered under their own Act. VIC · effective 2026-08-25 Victoria 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 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