FAQ · Insurance & who carries the risk
Can bad insulation void my home insurance, and who carries the risk?
Yes. We carry public liability and WorkCover, so the risk on the job sits with us, not you. The catch is on your own side: a non-compliant install around downlights or wiring can be a problem with your home insurance.
It’s a fair question, and most people only think to ask it after something’s gone wrong on someone else’s roof. Here’s the straight version: what our cover means for you, what could put your own insurance at risk, and how a properly photographed job keeps you covered on both counts.
Our cover means the job’s risk is ours, not yours.
We carry public liability insurance and WorkCover for our installers. In plain English: public liability covers damage or injury to you, your home or a third party caused by our work, and WorkCover covers our installers if one of them is hurt on the job. So if a boot ever went through the gyprock, or an installer copped an injury up in your roof, that’s on our insurers and on us, never on you. You book the job; we turn up insured; the worry about who pays if something goes wrong is ours to carry.
This matters more than people realise, because insulation is one of the truly dangerous trades. You’re climbing through a roof cavity that can sit well over 60°C in summer, balancing between ceiling joists, and working close to live wiring. It’s exactly that danger that killed four young installers, aged just 16 to 25, during the 2009–10 Home Insulation Program (the “pink batts” scheme). If an uninsured crew has an accident on your property, you can be dragged into it. So the simplest test of whether you’re dealing with a real business is this: ask to see their certificate of currency. A proper insulator has one ready.
“Ask any insulator to show you their public liability and WorkCover. If they hum and haw, that tells you who’ll be carrying the risk when something goes wrong on your roof — and it won’t be them.”Peter Johnson, Comfort Zone Insulation Team
The catch: your side
A bad install can put your own home insurance at risk.
Here’s the part the cheap mobs don’t tell you. The insulation sitting in your roof is not the danger. A non-compliant install is. Pack insulation hard against a hot downlight, a transformer or a flue with no clearance, or let someone disturb wiring as a roof shortcut, and you’ve created a fire risk that never needed to exist. If a fire ever started there and an assessor found the work wasn’t done to code, an insurer can argue the loss was preventable.
That’s not scaremongering. It’s exactly what happened on a national scale. Insulation packed onto hot fittings caused 94 house fires during the pink-batts scheme. The fix is simple and it’s the installer’s job: keep the required clearance around every downlight, fan and flue, and never let anyone fiddle with your wiring to save themselves time. That’s a licensed electrician’s work, not an insulator’s. The Australian Government’s yourhome guide notes insulation must be kept clear of heat-producing fittings like recessed downlights.
How we cover you on both counts
The photos are your proof the hidden work was done right.
Almost all of the work we do is in a roof you’ll never climb up to inspect. If you can’t see it, you can’t prove it was done right, and that’s a real problem if you ever need to make an insurance claim. So every job is photographed to the same system, including the shrouds and clearances around the downlights, fans and flues, and the photos are checked before you’re invoiced. The job is done by a Comfort Zone franchise owner-operator, held to a quality standard.
If an insurer or an electrician ever asks whether the insulation was kept clear of the hot fittings, you’ve got a dated set of photos showing it was. Compare that to a cheap subbie crew who leave no proof at all: if their work ever caused a problem, you’d have nothing to show your insurer except a hole in the ceiling and a phone number that’s gone quiet. The before-and-after photos aren’t a sales gimmick. They’re the record that the part of the job you can’t see was done to code.
Two notes from our terms
- You keep your own home and contents insurance. Our cover is for the job, not a replacement for yours.
- Nobody should use our ladder or our gear, and we won't use yours. It keeps who's liable for an accident crystal clear.
The full plain-English version is in our terms & conditions , including what we’re liable for and what sits with you, like pre-existing roof leaks and non-compliant downlights we find on the day.
More on insurance and risk
Are you insured, and who carries the risk on the job?+
Yes. We carry public liability insurance and WorkCover for our installers, so the risk of someone getting hurt or something getting damaged on the job sits with us, not with you. That matters more than people realise: insulation work means climbing through a hot roof cavity, stepping between ceiling joists and working close to live wiring, and it's one of the truly dangerous parts of this trade — four young installers died doing it during the 2009-10 pink-batts scheme. If a fly-by-night crew without cover has an accident on your roof, you can end up dragged into it. With us, you book the job, we turn up insured, and the worry about who pays if something goes wrong is ours. Ask any insulator to show you their certificate of currency, a real business will have one ready.
Can bad insulation void my home insurance?+
It can. The risk isn't the insulation sitting in your roof; it's a non-compliant install. Pack insulation hard against a hot downlight, a transformer or a flue with no clearance, or disturb wiring it shouldn't touch, and you've created a fire risk that didn't need to exist. If a fire ever started there and an assessor found the work wasn't done to code, your insurer can argue the loss was preventable. That's not scaremongering; it's exactly why insulation packed onto hot fittings caused 94 house fires during the pink-batts scheme. The fix is simple: keep the required clearance around every downlight, fan and flue, and don't let anyone fiddle with your wiring as a roof shortcut. It's part of our system to shroud those fittings to the clearance the codes require, and to photograph those exact spots so it's on record the job was done right.
What do public liability and WorkCover actually cover me for?+
Two different things. Public liability covers damage or injury to you, your property or a third party caused by our work. If a boot goes through the gyprock or something's knocked off the bench, that's what it's there for. WorkCover covers our installers if one of them is hurt on the job, so an injured worker is the insurer's problem and our problem, never yours. The reason this matters is that without cover, a homeowner can find themselves exposed when an uninsured contractor has an accident on their property. We're an established Queensland family manufacturer, not a ute-and-ladder crew, so the cover is actually in place. One note from our terms: you keep your own home and contents insurance, and you shouldn't let anyone, us included, use your ladder or your gear, because that muddies who's liable.
How does a properly photographed job protect my insurance?+
Most of the work we do is in a roof you'll never climb up to inspect, so if you can't see it, you can't prove it was done right, and that's a problem if you ever need to make a claim. That's why every job is photographed to the same system, including the clearances around downlights, fans and flues, and the photos are checked before you're invoiced. The job is done by a Comfort Zone franchise owner-operator trained to one standard and held to a quality standard. If an insurer or an electrician ever asks whether the insulation was kept clear of the hot fittings, you've got a dated set of photos showing it was. Compare that to a cheap crew who leave no proof: if their work caused a problem, you'd have nothing to show your insurer except a hole in the ceiling. The photos aren't a sales gimmick, they're the record that the part of the job you can't see was done to code.
Did we put your mind at ease? A quick review means a lot.
A quick honest review genuinely helps a small family business, and helps the next person decide. Thank you.
Want to see our certificate of currency before you book? Just ask. Call Peter on 0414 586 315 and we’ll send it through. A real business has nothing to hide.
Peter Johnson
Owner / installer · Comfort Zone Insulation Team® · Since 1986