Public & Products Liability Insurance is designed to protect your business when things go unexpectedly wrong—whether it’s a slip-up on-site or a product that causes damage after it leaves your hands.

It covers your legal liability if:

• A member of the public is injured due to your business activities (e.g. someone trips over your tools)
• Your product causes damage or harm after sale or installation
• You’re hit with legal costs or compensation claims as a result

This type of insurance is essential for businesses that interact with customers, operate in public spaces, or manufacture, sell, or install products.

📊 Common Cover Limits: 

These limits refer to the maximum amount your insurer will pay for a claim (or series of claims) during the policy period:

• $5 million – Generally office based risks
• $10 million – Often suitable for sole traders or low-risk businesses
• $20 million – Typically required for contracts with shopping centres, councils, or government bodies

Some insurers even offer higher limits (like $50M), but these are less common and usually for large-scale operations.

💸 What’s an Excess?

An excess is the amount you agree to pay out of pocket when you make a claim. 

 ⛔Contractual liability refers to the responsibility a business takes on under the terms of a contract—often going beyond what the law would normally require. It usually means agreeing to be liable for certain losses, damages, or injuries, even if you weren’t directly at fault.

When you sign a contract, you might agree to take on extra responsibilities or broader liability than the law would normally require. For example, you might agree to cover all damages on a job site, even if someone else caused the issue. That’s called assuming liability by contract.

Insurers typically exclude this kind of risk because:

• It increases your exposure beyond what’s legally required
• It’s harder to assess and price, since it depends on the terms of each contract
• It could make the insurer liable for losses they didn’t intend to cover

So unless your policy specifically includes contractual liability, you might be on the hook for those extra obligations yourself.