Do I need public liability insurance if I work from home or online?

This guide is general information only and doesn't take your specific circumstances into account. For advice tailored to your business, speak to a licensed broker.

The short answer

Often not, at least not as your first priority. Public liability insurance covers you when your work physically injures someone or damages their property. If nobody from the public ever comes near what you do, that risk is small, and home-based or online businesses usually need to sort out more important cover first.

But "often not" isn't "never." The right starting point is your actual risk profile, not a blanket rule. Here's how to work out where you sit.

What public liability actually covers

Public liability responds to third-party physical injury or property damage caused by your business. A client trips over a cable at your premises. You're on-site and knock over something expensive. A member of the public is hurt by your equipment.

The key word is physical, and the key phrase is third party. If your business doesn't create situations where an outsider could be physically hurt or have their property damaged by you, your public liability exposure is genuinely low.

When you probably don't need it

You're likely low-risk for public liability if:

• You work entirely from a screen (writing, design, coding, consulting, bookkeeping, admin) with no clients visiting you
• You never attend client sites or public spaces for work
• You don't ship or handle physical products
• Nobody comes to your home for anything business-related

If that's you, buying public liability "just in case" is usually money spent on the wrong risk. Your real exposures are almost certainly elsewhere (more on that below).

When you still need it, even working from home

Home-based and online don't automatically mean no public exposure. You may still need public liability if:

• Clients or customers visit your home for meetings, treatments, lessons or pickups. The moment someone is on your property for business, the trip-and-fall risk is real.
• You leave home to do the work. You're online, and you visit client sites, run market stalls, attend events or work in public spaces.
• You sell or send physical products. A product that injures someone or damages their property can trigger a claim wherever it ends up. This is products liability, which in Australia is usually built into the same "public and products liability" policy.
• A client or contract requires it. Many contracts, landlords, marketplaces and licensing bodies mandate public liability regardless of how "online" you are. If a contract requires it, the law's position is irrelevant; you need it to win the work.

If any of these apply, "I work from home" doesn't get you out of it.

If you sell physical products online

This one deserves its own flag, because it catches a lot of home-based sellers by surprise. If you sell, make, import or dropship physical products through your own site, Etsy, eBay, Amazon or social media, a faulty or unsafe product that injures someone or damages their property can lead to a claim, even if you never met the customer or left your home.

That risk is products liability. In Australia, it's almost always built into the same policy as public liability, sold together as "public and products liability," so you're generally not buying a separate cover. You're making sure the policy you get includes the products side.

A few things worth knowing:

• Importing or rebranding doesn't shift the risk to the manufacturer. If you're the one selling it to the Australian customer, especially under your own brand or as the importer, the claim can land on you, not an overseas factory.
• Marketplaces often require it. Some platforms and stockists won't list you without product liability, the same way a contract can require public liability.
• "It's just a small side hustle" isn't a defence. The size of your business doesn't cap the size of a potential injury claim.

If physical products are any part of what you sell, make sure public liability is on your list and that it includes products liability.

The covers that usually matter more for online businesses

This is the part most "do I need public liability" searches miss. If you work online, the risks most likely to actually hurt you are usually these:

Professional indemnity. If you give advice or provide a professional service for a fee (consultants, designers, coaches, bookkeepers, IT contractors, marketers), your biggest exposure is a client claiming your work caused them financial loss. Public liability won't cover that. Professional indemnity is the cover built for it. For most advice-based online businesses, this is the first thing to sort out. Our guide to public liability vs professional indemnity explains the difference in more detail.

Cyber insurance. If you hold client data, take payments, or run your business through email and cloud tools (so, nearly everyone online), a breach, ransomware attack or funds-transfer scam is a live risk. Cyber cover responds to the costs of an incident. Working from home often means weaker security than an office, not stronger.

Business contents and equipment. Your home contents policy usually won't cover business equipment properly. If your laptop, camera or tools are how you earn, check whether they're actually covered.

Don't forget your home and contents insurer

This is the step almost everyone misses. If you work from home, you generally need to tell your personal home and contents insurer, and not doing so can be worse than being uninsured.

If you're an employee working on a laptop (clerical work, video calls, no visitors), most Australian insurers treat this as normal residential use. The main catch is sub-limits: home contents policies often cap "home office equipment" at around $5,000 to $10,000, which may not cover high-value gear you own or that your employer provided.

If you run a business, side hustle or sole trader operation (registered ABN, stock at home, clients or suppliers visiting), this changes things significantly. Standard residential policies frequently exclude commercial or business activities:

• Premiums may change. Insurers may price for extra foot traffic, on-site inventory or higher-value assets.
• Personal liability is usually excluded for business activity. If a client slips on your front porch during a business visit, your home policy's liability section almost certainly won't respond. That's exactly what a business public liability policy is for.
• Stock and tools are often excluded. Commercial stock (e-commerce inventory, for example) and tools of trade beyond basic office equipment are rarely covered.

Failing to declare home-based business activity can alter your premium or, more seriously, lead to a claim being denied when you need it most. A short call or email to your home insurer is the cheapest risk management you'll do all year.

A quick way to tell where you sit

Ask yourself one question: can a member of the public be physically hurt, or have their property damaged, because of my work?

• Yes: public liability belongs on your list.
• I sell or make physical products: make sure your public liability policy includes products liability.
• No, but I advise or create work for clients for a fee: professional indemnity is your priority, and public liability is optional.
• No, and I mostly handle data, payments or client information: cyber is likely your bigger risk.

Most people get one clear answer and one "maybe." That's normal, and it's why a generic checklist doesn't work and a risk profile does.

The bottom line

Working from home or online genuinely lowers your public liability risk in most cases, but it doesn't remove it, and it often raises other risks that matter more. The mistake isn't buying public liability; it's buying it instead of the cover you actually need.

If you give advice for a fee, professional indemnity is likely your foundation. If you're not sure which covers apply to your setup, speak to a Pocket broker and we'll map it to your actual business rather than a checklist.

Call: 1300 475 092 | Email: hello@withpocket.com.au

With Pocket is a business name of Insurance Services Holdings Pty Ltd (ABN 36 612 629 295, AFSL 491165). Member of NIBA and part of the Steadfast Group. This guide is general information only and doesn't take your specific circumstances into account. For advice tailored to your business, speak to a licensed broker.