Solar installers: workers compensation requirements in Victoria

Verified for Victoria

• Licence liability condition: Yes. A Registered Electrical Contractor in Victoria must hold public liability cover with a minimum of $5,000,000 for personal injury or damage to property in conjunction with the electrical contracting work, and must hold it whenever carrying out OR OFFERING TO carry out electrical contracting work. Quoting for a job without cover in place is caught, not just doing it. VIC · effective 2009-01-01 Energy Safe Victoria · 2026-08-24
• Licence evidence required: Proof of insurance to Energy Safe Victoria whenever requested, and the obligation is continuous: an REC must not carry out electrical contracting work unless both registration and insurance are current. There is no grace period built into the wording. VIC · effective 2009-01-01 Energy Safe Victoria · 2026-08-24
• Licensing body: Two things, only one of which is a licence. The LICENCE: an unrestricted (Class A) electrical licence registered with Energy Safe Victoria, and REC registration to contract for the work. The ACCREDITATION: Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme accreditation, needed for grid-connected systems to qualify for the federal scheme, now operated by Solar Accreditation Australia after it took over from the Clean Energy Council. Accreditation is not a government licence and cannot substitute for one. VIC · effective 2009-01-01 Energy Safe Victoria · 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

• 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