Tool insurance for tradies: covering the gear that earns your living

For a tradie, tools are not equipment — they are the business. No drills, no income. Which makes it strange that tools are both the most commonly stolen business asset in Australia and the one most often insured by assumption: "the ute's insured, so the tools in it must be". They are not. Tool cover is its own thing, with its own rules, and the exclusions are exactly where the thefts happen.

Where tradies think tools are covered — and aren't

• Comprehensive car insurance. Covers the ute, not the contents. Personal effects sub-limits are small — often a few hundred dollars — and routinely exclude tools of trade altogether.
• Home and contents. A standard home policy may cover some tools while they are at home, but business-use exclusions and away-from-home limits mean the ute and the job site are largely out of scope.
• Public liability. Liability cover pays for damage you do to other people and their property — nothing you own.

The cover that actually responds is tool of trade / general property insurance — sold standalone or, more commonly, as a section of a tradie business insurance package alongside public liability. If the vehicles themselves need cover as a small fleet, that is a separate policy.

What tool insurance covers

General property cover follows the gear wherever it goes: in the vehicle, on site, at home, in the lock-up. A decent policy covers theft, accidental damage and loss, Australia-wide. The details that separate a good policy from a cheap one:

• Replacement basis. New-for-old versus indemnity (depreciated) value — a five-year-old drill kit on indemnity terms pays out a fraction of what replacing it costs.
• Per-item limits. Policies carry an unspecified-item limit (often $1,000–$2,500). Anything worth more — laser levels, specialist gear — usually needs listing individually.
• The excess. A $500 excess on a $1,500 claim changes the maths on insuring cheaper tools at all.

The exclusions that sink claims

Theft from vehicles

The single most common tool claim — and the most conditional. Most policies require the vehicle to be locked with forcible and violent entry: a jemmied door pays, an unlocked canopy does not. Some policies exclude or restrict overnight theft from vehicles parked on the street, or cap it well below the day-time limit.

Unattended and unsecured sites

Tools left on an open site overnight are commonly excluded unless locked in a building or site container. "Unattended" wording matters too — gear left out in the open during smoko is a grey zone worth understanding before, not after.

The proof problem

After a theft, the insurer asks the reasonable question: what exactly was taken, and what was it worth? Receipts, serial numbers and photos are the answer — and they are usually nowhere. Bought over years, from Bunnings, tool shops and Marketplace, half in cash; the receipts long gone or faded in the glovebox of the ute that was just broken into.

1. Photograph everything now. Lay the kit out, shoot it once, and photograph serial numbers on the expensive items.
2. File it against your business in Insuro. Create a business entity, attach the tool policy, and keep the tool list, photos and receipts with it — off the ute, off one phone, somewhere the whole claim pack lives together.
3. Forward new receipts as you buy. Email receipts for new gear straight to your private @insuro.com.au address so the list stays current without a spreadsheet.
4. Let the renewal reminder trigger a stocktake. When the policy comes up each year, check the sum insured against what is actually in the van — tool kits grow, and a sum insured set three years ago quietly becomes underinsurance.

The bottom line

Tool insurance is cheap relative to what a cleaned-out van costs in gear and lost work — but only if the policy matches how you actually store your tools, and only if you can prove what you owned. Get general property cover with realistic limits, read the locked-vehicle and overnight clauses like they matter (they do), and keep the receipts and photos somewhere a thief cannot take with the same crowbar.