Solar installers: public liability requirements in New South Wales

Verified for New South Wales

• Licence liability condition: No insurance condition on the electrical contractor licence itself. What applies instead is the general residential building rule: home building compensation cover is required for each home building project over $20,000 including GST, which catches larger residential solar jobs and not smaller ones. So the answer depends on the size of the job, not on being a solar installer. NSW · effective 2015-03-01 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
• Licence evidence required: Where home building compensation cover applies, it must be taken out BEFORE requesting or accepting any money — including a deposit — and before doing any residential building work under the contract. Taking a deposit first is itself the breach. NSW · effective 2015-03-01 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13
• Licensing body: Two layers, and only one of them is a licence. The LICENCE: only the holder of a building or electrical contractor licence can contract in NSW to install solar panels on the roof of a residential property or other premises — and electrical work is NSW "specialist work", licensed regardless of the value of the job, with no $5,000 threshold. The ACCREDITATION: accreditation through the industry scheme (formerly Clean Energy Council, now Solar Accreditation Australia) is required for a system to qualify for federal rebates. That is industry accreditation, not a government licence, and conflating the two is the most common mistake in this trade. NSW · effective 2012-01-01 Building Commission NSW · 2026-08-13

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

• Building Commission NSW — Building Commission NSW — building and trade licences
• Energy Safe Victoria — Energy Safe Victoria — electrical contractor registration
• Electrical Safety Office, WorkSafe Queensland — Electrical Safety Office — electrical contractor licences
• Consumer Protection WA — Consumer Protection, Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety (WA)
• South Australia Government — South Australia — consolidated legislation
• Consumer, Building and Occupational Services Tasmania — CBOS Tasmania — occupational licensing
• Australian Capital Territory Government — Australian Capital Territory — consolidated legislation
• Northern Territory Government — Northern Territory — consolidated legislation